Advice needed please

WHU

I have an idea for a story and I just wanted to get your opinion on a couple of points that my later cause me problems.

1; I'm thinking of using a couple of lines from a famous song as an opening (and part 2; ) and am worried about the legality side of it.

2; It's all in one setting, imagine 12 angry men or phone booth pops into mind where the story begins and ends in the room/location. I was thinking of writing with no chapters and maybe using lines from the song (and quite possibly others) as kind of breaks for the story.
Has anyone read or wrote anything like this before?

pickarooney

WHU wrote: »

I have an idea for a story and I just wanted to get your opinion on a couple of points that my later cause me problems.

1; I'm thinking of using a couple of lines from a famous song as an opening (and part 2; ) and am worried about the legality side of it.

2; It's all in one setting, imagine 12 angry men or phone booth pops into mind where the story begins and ends in the room/location. I was thinking of writing with no chapters and maybe using lines from the song (and quite possibly others) as kind of breaks for the story.
Has anyone read or wrote anything like this before?

1. I've wondered about that myself. I suppose it depends on whether or not you intend to publish it for money

2. Yes. It was called a play

WHU

pickarooney wrote: »

2. Yes. It was called a play

I didn't think of it like that.

Saying that it is not intended to come across as a play. When you think of phonebooth, I've only seen the film, there's a small build up before. The MC picks up the phone and is trapped there untill the end. I can't recall it too well but I'm sure the story never left him, until the story concludes and he can finally leave the booth.

As for the song lyrics and the hope of one day publishing I take it, it's a no no then.

pickarooney

WHU wrote: »

I didn't think of it like that.

Saying that it is not intended to come across as a play. When you think of phonebooth, I've only seen the film, there's a small build up before. The MC picks up the phone and is trapped there untill the end. I can't recall it too well but I'm sure the story never left him, until the story concludes and he can finally leave the booth.

Is that the Colin Farrell film? I've kind of forgotten the story but I do rememeber now it was all shot more or less in one square metre. It was pretty much a play with fancy camera angles I though, but none the less enjoyable for it.

As for the song lyrics and the hope of one day publishing I take it, it's a no no then.

To be on the safe side, on the off-chance the issue ever came up, I used traditional, copyright-free lyrics.

WHU

pickarooney wrote: »

Is that the Colin Farrell film? I've kind of forgotten the story but I do rememeber now it was all shot more or less in one square metre. It was pretty much a play with fancy camera angles I though, but none the less enjoyable for it.

Thats the one, I enjoy films like that. They has to be that much more to them, to keep your interest. So as a book could it be written without chapters as we traditionally know them or could they be replaced with a break in the writting, this is where I had intended to use song lyrics.


To be on the safe side, on the off-chance the issue ever came up, I used traditional, copyright-free lyrics.

Where would you find these?

i-digress

I remember Zadie Smith saying in an interview that she had to pay to use a couple of lines from a hip-hop song in On Beauty. A couple of grand I think. Prices vary, as far as I'm aware, depending on the popularity of the song and/or artist.

pickarooney

WHU wrote: »

Thats the one, I enjoy films like that. They has to be that much more to them, to keep your interest. So as a book could it be written without chapters as we traditionally know them or could they be replaced with a break in the writting, this is where I had intended to use song lyrics.

The problem as I see it is that there are a limited number of people/items in the room that you can describe so a huge portion of the book would end up being dialogue... unless you go down the route of either providing backstories or describing the thoughts of the characters.
Obviously, I have no real idea of how your story would work with nothing to go on, but I have a hard time imagining how lyrics would help - unless it's a musical in book form, which is a novel idea!

WHU wrote: »

Where would you find these?

Google?

WHU

pickarooney wrote: »

The problem as I see it is that there are a limited number of people/items in the room that you can describe so a huge portion of the book would end up being dialogue... unless you go down the route of either providing backstories or describing the thoughts of the characters.
Obviously, I have no real idea of how your story would work with nothing to go on, but I have a hard time imagining how lyrics would help - unless it's a musical in book form, which is a novel idea!

The idea I'm thinking of is set in a night club, I just found out that unless you are willing to pay (big bucks) don't use lyrics but you can quote song names.

pickarooney

You could always right your own. God knows the lyrics of songs that play in night clubs don't require much imagination.

WHU

pickarooney wrote: »

You could always right your own. God knows the lyrics of songs that play in night clubs don't require much imagination.

Very good, I laughed so hard I just nearly spat coffee all over the keyboard.

dcmu

Have you thought of using quotes from poems? A lot of old poetry, such as works by Shakespeare and Wordsworth, are now public domain. This basically means you can fire away.

I don't know how you feel about using Shakespeare in a story set in a nightclub, but it could work well:

For instance, if you were to begin the action with the lines

[SIZE=-1]That thou hast her, it is not all my grief,[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]And yet it may be said I loved her dearly;[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]That she hath thee, is of my wailing chief,
[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]A loss in love that touches me more nearly.[/SIZE]

from Sonnet 42, you could go on to write the scene whereby the object of the protagonist's affections, goes off with another bloke. And so on.

WHU

Thanks for the suggestion dcmu. Unfortunately I know very little poetry and may find it hard to intergrate it with the story, saying that I will give it some thought.

iguana

Any lines from a song under copyright generally have to be paid for by whoever publishes the work. If this is a story that you are writing with the hope of getting published just write it as you want to and submit it to whatever agent/publisher you are hoping to work with. If they like the book they will sort out getting permission to use the quotes and pay for it, though obviously that payment would influence what they pay you. It's possible that some portion of the book royalties would also go to the lyric's writer, especially if the lyrics are integral to the story.

But it isn't really anything for you to worry about. Anything that is in the public domain has to be available for other use at an appropriate fee, if your book was good enough the publisher should be able to work out a deal to use the lyrics.

However if you intend the story to be used in a competition where the story would be published and someone would make a profit, or if it's a short story for a magazine, etc, it could prove too problematic and your story could easily be ignored.