You’ve worked hard to polish the lyrics of your song, and that shows on the page, as well as a vocal performance. To present your lyrics in the best light for a reader, put them in the proper format. This is especially true when submitting to song critiques, song contests, liner notes, online blogs, etc.

General Guidelines:

1. Break your lyric lines so that structure (AAA, AABA, ABCABC, VCVC, V preC C V preC C, VCVCBC, etc.) is revealed.

Try to keep sections in groups of 4 or 6, or 2 or 3 lines. Separate each section with one space. For example, a 6-line verse might have a 3 line pre-chorus, and there would be one space between them. I prefer to indent and use one space between new, non-repeating sections because it’s a cleaner look; some people label each section.  I like to leave intros and tags inline with the…