I'm an ABBA fan and a sucker for cute parodies--awww, how could I *not* vote fives here?

Ingeborg, I knew you'd appreciate this one. ;-)

I've decided to give this 5s despite the fact that you did not use the opportunity to go with variations in the chorus, a little slack cos you're still a first-month-here poster, right? :-)

Not that it's mandatory, cos of course it aint, but after a while here many of us seems to begin to see that as one of the/a writer's quality challenges (or what to call it).

Know 1 can hear you dream, thanks for the votes and the tip. I normally tend to agree, although why do more work than the original lyricist?

I think that's the point - if it's work, then don't do it.

K1 is right though - it's an unspoken thing

I disagree. If it makes the parody funnier, I try to do different things with each chorus. It keeps people reading. And...the point is that I am more talented than the original lyricist, right?

you mean you AGREE, pumpkin - read my words more closely - I'm saying it shouldn't BE work, so it's an opportunity to write extra stuff, unless Tim sees it as work, which seemed to be Tim's point...

so watcha gonna do? fight me? * rolling up sleeves* ....where's the mudbath?

Arwen, I kind of came to that conclusion too. I've been pondering this myself whilst you folks have been posting. It seems that if we are better than the original lyricists we must be doing something wrong, cause they made TONS of money on these songs.

Stuart, I was jesting about it being work, I was however wondering about continuing the writing, especially if it detracts or negates some of the humor in the earlier sections of the parody.

no, I know you didn't mean it to come out that way, but my point is that since we are ONLY providing words to THEIR music, and trying to entertain just on funny lyrics alone, the thinking is (or seems to be commonly held) that we should put MORE effort into it as it's our responsibility to entertain the reader who's kindly visited our work.

ie. because we only have funny lines as our tools, we should minimise repetition as much as possible because there's nothing more boring than reading the same gags twice (as you must have experienced too)

Um...no. Yes? I don't know.

excuse me Arwen! I was talking to Tim! - IF YOU DON'T MIND!!

kiddo!

Looks like Arwen and Stuart pretty much added what needed to be added to my point. :-)

Tim: You're not the first newbie here to go through a quantity phase, if that's what you're doing but it begins to look that way, and we can all relate cos it's great to get good feedback on doing something you love to do, but more isn't necessarily better for yourself in the long run. I've been here long enough now to see some people come around, post 50 - 100 parodies in a short while and then more or less disappear just about the time they started to get a recognisable yet surprisive style going. Probably burn-out syndrome if you want my guess.

True writing is very much about the process, and enjoying it yourself, rather than the finished result (as long as you're not a pro making a living from it). I was about to go into that gotta-finish-this-one-today trap myself but slowed down in time and now I sketch much more than I actually post and I've set a posting goal of 1 per week or, since I because of work have days off, 4-5 per month. Currently I average a little bit above that but very seldom do I do more than 1 song from scratch to posting in just a few days, and almost never on the same day.

At first I found it a bit frustrating to have some half-sketched ideas laying around, but now that I have a couple of hundred like that I actually enjoy it, and it's very good for my creative process. No more "Damn, If I could only get these last two lines to work", if I get stuck I just drop the frustration back in the drawer and move on to another sketch. Me and my muse have much more fun that way and I think I can safely say that it shows in my parodies.

Well, that was my 47 eurocents about avoiding burnout, If you don't apprechiate it you can always write 10 parodies about "f*ck*ing Swedes*! :-)

Good job, Tim, 5's. I admit that I'm in a dry-spell now...combine my sudden lack of new parody ideas with increased responsibilities at work as year-end approaches (software business, fixing bugs for customers, shipping patches, etc), the general holiday busy-ness, and my having been cast by The Concord Players as Inspector Rough in "Angel Street" (requiring me to learn a massive quantity of lines), all combine to render me parody-less at the present time. I will fulfill my Song Of The Month and ABC voting responsibilities, but not much more than that over the next couple of months...but...I'll be BAHCK ! ;-)

Oh that is IT, Mr. McArthur!!!!!!!!!!!! We are totally in a fight.