How to Write a Musical: Book, Lyrics and Song Spotting

Writing a musical is writing a play in which some of the most important scenes are songs. The story has to be built so that, at certain moments, speech is no longer enough and the characters have to sing. Find those moments, give each song a job, and arrange the songs so the show builds across two acts, and you have a skeleton before anyone writes a melody.

Book, score and lyrics

A musical has three written components, and they are often written by different people.

The book is the spoken scenes, the structure and the story. The book writer decides what happens, in what order, and where the songs go. A good book is often invisible because it hands off so cleanly to the songs.
The score is the music: melodies, harmony, underscoring, transitions and orchestration (which is usually a separate job again).
The lyrics are the words that are sung.

Some writers do two or all three. Even then, treat them as separate jobs, because each has its own craft rules.

Song spotting: where characters must sing

Spotting is the process of deciding where the songs go. The classic rule of thumb is that characters sing when emotion exceeds what speech can carry. A character who is mildly annoyed talks. A character who has just realized they have wasted ten years waiting for someone sings.

Good places to look for songs:

A character states, or discovers, what they want.
A decision is made that cannot be undone.
Two characters with opposing wants collide.
A relationship turns: falling in love, a betrayal, a reconciliation.
A group or community expresses who they are.
A character reaches the breaking point and something has to give.

Bad places for songs: exposition a single line could cover, and moments where nothing changes.

A song changes something

The most useful test of a spotted song: the character should leave the song different from how they entered it. They decide something, admit something, lose something or learn something. If a song could be cut and the next scene would still make sense without adjustment, it is probably decoration.

Write a one-line purpose for every spot before you write lyrics: "Mara admits she is afraid of leaving, and decides to go anyway."

Song types

Musicals tend to use a handful of recurring song functions. These are conventions, not rules, and many shows bend them.

Opening number. Establishes the world, the tone and often the community.
I want song. Usually early in Act One. The protagonist sings what they long for. The audience then watches to see whether they get it.
Charm song. A lighter number that makes the audience fall for a character or a relationship. Often comic, often small in scale.
Conflict or argument song. Two or more characters sing against each other, frequently with overlapping lines.
Act One finale. A big turning point that leaves things unresolved and sends the audience into the interval wanting more.
Eleven o'clock number. A showstopping song late in Act Two, often where the protagonist faces the truth or makes the final choice.
Finale. Resolves the story and frequently brings back earlier musical material.

Scene-to-song transitions

The handoff from speech to song is where many new musicals feel awkward. A few techniques:

Build the pressure in dialogue first. The scene should push the character to the point where speaking stops working.
Use underscoring under the last lines of dialogue so the music is already present when the singing starts.
Start the lyric mid-thought. The first sung line can continue the sentence a character was speaking.
Get out cleanly. After the button (the final note or gesture), the next spoken line should acknowledge the change the song made.

Reprises

A reprise brings back an earlier song, usually shorter and with changed lyrics, to show how a character or situation has changed. The most effective reprises recontextualize: the hopeful I want song returns after the character has gotten what they wanted and found it empty. Plan reprises during spotting, because the original needs a melody and lyric shape that can carry a second meaning.

Running order and pacing across two acts

Once songs are spotted, lay them out in order and look at the pattern. A two-act structure is common, with Act One often the longer of the two. Things to check:

Variety of tempo and size. Three ballads in a row will sag. A solo, a duet, an ensemble number and a comic song in sequence give the ear variety.
Space between songs. Some scenes need room to breathe without music. Others benefit from songs close together.
Escalation. Stakes should rise toward the Act One finale, dip a little at the top of Act Two, and climb to the eleven o'clock number.

Musical structure maps well onto the beat-based planning screenwriters use. If you have used beat sheets for screenwriters, many of the same turning points line up with song spots. A visual view of the arc helps too, and story diagrams and plot structures are useful for seeing where your peaks fall.

A sample song spot sheet

Here is a spot sheet for an invented musical, "The Lighthouse at Carrow," about Mara, a keeper's daughter who must decide whether to leave her island when the lighthouse is automated.

"Carrow Wakes" (opening, ensemble). Establishes the island community and its routines, ending on the news that the light will be automated.
"Beyond the Breakwater" (I want, Mara). Mara longs to see the mainland but has never admitted it.
"Fish Stew Again" (charm, Mara and her father Tomas). Their teasing shows the warmth she would be leaving.
"The Engineer" (comic, ensemble). The islanders size up Ellis, the engineer sent to install the machine.
"Somebody Has to Stay" (conflict, Tomas and Mara). Tomas reveals he will never leave. Mara realizes he expects her to stay too.
"The Last Watch" (Act One finale, company). The final night of the manual light. Mara secretly accepts Ellis's offer of passage.
"Mainland" (Act Two opener, Mara). The city is overwhelming and nothing like she imagined.
"Beyond the Breakwater" reprise (Mara). Same melody, now sung looking back at the island.
"What the Light Was For" (eleven o'clock number, Tomas). Alone in the automated tower, Tomas admits the light was how he kept his grief busy.
"Carrow Wakes" reprise (finale, company). Mara returns by choice, not obligation, and the island's routine has changed.

Lyric craft

Lyrics are heard once, at performance speed, over an orchestra. They are not poetry on a page, and the craft reflects that.

True rhymes and slant rhymes

A true rhyme matches the vowel and final consonant sounds (light, night). A slant rhyme comes close (light, side). Musical theatre has traditionally favored true rhymes, especially in comic songs; pop-influenced scores use more slant. Pick a standard for the show and keep it.

Stress on strong beats

The natural stress of each word should fall on the strong beats of the music. If a melody puts the accent on the second syllable of "island," the singer either distorts the word or fights the tune. Speak every line out loud at the intended rhythm before you settle on it.

Singability

Long held notes want open vowels (ah, oh, ay). Consonant clusters ("its strengths") are hard to sing fast.

Clarity on first hearing

The audience cannot reread. Put the important word at the end of the line, where it gets weight. Keep syntax simple.

A short original lyric excerpt

Here is the opening of Mara's I want song from the spot sheet above.

BEYOND THE BREAKWATER (Mara)

Every morning, wind on the stair,
Wick to be trimmed and the brass to repair,
Gulls on the rail and the tide on the stone,
I could do all of it here on my own.

But beyond the breakwater, past the last buoy,
There's a town with a name I have never said aloud,
And I wonder if the girl who would walk there
Would be someone I'd know in a crowd.

The first verse is routine, with tight true rhymes (stair, repair; stone, own) and a steady rhythm to match. The second verse drops the couplets for a single rhyme (aloud, crowd) and stretches its lines as Mara admits what she wants, so the form follows the feeling. In revision, you would test whether "buoy" and "aloud" sit comfortably on the melody the composer writes.

Working with a composer and recording demos

If you are not writing the music, start the collaboration at the spotting stage, not after the lyrics are finished. Share each song's one-line purpose and the character's state going in and coming out. Some teams write lyrics first, some music first; agree on the process early.

Record rough demos as soon as a song exists, even on a phone with a piano. Hearing it between the scenes around it reveals problems no reading will: a lyric lost at tempo, a song that runs long, a transition that drags.

If your musical is based on a novel or film, the adaptation questions are similar to those in other formats; see adapting a novel into a comic, screenplay or game.

Doing this in Aevon

Aevon's Musical Studio keeps the book and lyrics together in one project, so the scenes and the songs they lead into sit side by side. The song list holds each number, and the running order lets you arrange and rearrange the show as your spotting changes.

Demo audio can be attached to songs, so a rough piano demo lives next to the lyric it belongs to. The asset library holds reference images, audio, documents and more for the whole project. Story diagrams are available in every project type for mapping the arc and your song peaks visually, and the Ideas and Notes panel stays open across sections for rhyme lists and loose lines.

For a book writer, lyricist and composer working together, roles (owner, editor, viewer) and change approval let the owner review edits before they land. You can start writing in the Musical Studio for free on the web or the desktop apps.