Semen Can Whiten Your Teeth - Fact Or Fiction?

Can semen really whiten your teeth? Is semen good for teeth? Information about whether ejaculated human sperm can help make your teeth whiter.

Before we can make any assumptions on whether does semen whiten the teeth, the following facts should be known about ejaculate human semen before judging or coming to any conclusions.

The human semen contains a variety of ingredients, which mainly include sperm (containing DNA), citric acid, fructose, ascorbic acid, water, magnesium, enzymes, nitrogen, chlorine, potassium, creatine vitamin B12, cholesterol, phosphate, bicarbonate buffers, zinc and calcium. These are all essential for reproduction and have their own individual roles to play in the whole reproductive process, among them; calcium and zinc are held by some to be useful for the teeth, but there are no scientific proof to support that they help when it comes to whitening the teeth.

Semen Can Whiten Your Teeth - Fact Or Fiction?

Furthermore, a comparison study between the ingredients inside a tooth whitening product and semen will give us a deeper knowledge about the effectiveness of the latter as a tooth whitener.

Hydrogen peroxides, hydrated silica, polyvinylpyrrolidone, potassium nitrate, calprox, baking soda, fluoride, strontium chloride and sodium tripolyphosphate are the main ingredients which are commonly found in different teeth whiteners on the market. The bleaching chemicals and ingredients mentioned above are not found in semen, though potassium and phosphates are present there, non of them are in the proper combination with other elements which can aid in whitening the teeth. Therefore it can safely be assumed that a teeth whitening toothpaste is a much better option, rather than depending on semen to do it.

However, semen ingestion is known to lower stress and raise the women's mood due to its sugar based enzymes, and a recent study also shows that selenium, an ingredient found in semen may also serve in protection against cancer, but as far as whitening of the teeth is concerned, semen does not seem to be promising at all. It would be advisable to go for a laser clinical tooth whitening session or purchase a professional at home teeth whitening kit if you want to be through about it. Any of these will give you better results, greater assurance and a whiter, brighter smile than semen.

Semen Can Whiten Your Teeth - Fact Or Fiction?
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Gypsy-Roma - Facts and Fiction

Gypsies are known as a vagabond race, traveling from one place to another. Most fiction portrays them as having loose morals - thieves, lustful, and dishonest. But that is a generalization that truly only applies to a few, not the entire race. Gypsy women are actually very faithful to one man at a time. Of course some gypsies are thieves and tricksters, but you can find those in any culture.

Origin

The technical term for a gypsy is Roma. Originally the Roma came from India, which can be traced back through their language and culture. They were likely called "gypsy" first by Europeans that thought they came from Egypt. Now Romani can be found all over the world, but the majority in central and eastern Europe.

Gypsy-Roma - Facts and Fiction

Culture

Their culture, trades, and language are passed down from one person to the next. Most do not read or write. Caravans are formed of related families. Each band is led by a kris, a tribunal leader who passes judgment based of their religious beliefs and customs.

A common feature of gypsies in fiction is their magic: fortune-telling, curses, and the like. The specific beliefs and cultures vary from group to group, as they have spread far and wide without a collective location. Most modern Roma have absorbed local religion and culture, so a modern gypsy curse would be unlikely. The traditional beliefs were centered on their Goddess Kali. Her symbol was a triangle. They believed in the power of curses, healing rituals, good luck charms, reincarnation, and purity taboos.

Transportation

The gypsy wagon is traditionally called a vardo. For a great site with pictures and floor plans of a modern vardo, visit http://www.enslin.com/rae/gypsy/wagon01.htm. The wagons are horse-drawn. Some modern day gypsies have switched to trucks and trailers.

Marriage

In the past, Romani typically married between the ages of 9 and 14. Marriage to an outsider was strongly discouraged. The ceremony consisted of joining hands in front of a chief or elder and promising to remain true to each other, or in other tribes simply jumping over a broomstick together in the presence of family.

Occupations

Romania are well-known for their musicians, dancers, and fortune-tellers. Drabardi is the term for a fortune-teller, though they only read fortunes for non-Roma. Other traditional occupations are metalworking, horse trading, and animal training and doctoring. As these skills aren't as needed in modern day, many Roma live in poverty.

Folklore

Gypsy tales, like most traditional fairy tales, are adult-oriented rather than childish. As the rest of their culture, these stories were shared orally. Francis Hindes Groom was a folklorist who immersed himself in Roma/Gypsy life. His book, Gypsy Folk Tales, consists of the stories he gathered during his experience. You can view it online at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/roma/gft/index.htm.

Fiction

Mulengro, by Charles de Lint, focuses on a modern day Rom living in Canada. It's a dark fantasy and delves deeply into Roma culture. Otherland, by Tad Williams, has gypsies in the form of nomads who disregard the borders of an advanced virtual reality cyberspace. Lloyd Alexander's Gypsy Rizka is about a half-gypsy girl awaiting the return of her Gypsy father. Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy has a gyptian race who travel on boats instead of wagons.

Gypsy-Roma - Facts and Fiction
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Mary W. Jensen is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Creative Writing.

She is an editor for the Writing.com Fantasy newsletter, and the cofounder of an offline writing group. Mary is writing a fantasy novel, Emergence of the Fey

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Is Greek Yogurt Good Or Bad For You? Busting the Confusion

My girlfriend had a great question for me the other day. She likes to train hard and practices healthy eating like a lot of women these days. But she had a great question. She is smarter than the average person when it comes to nutrition. That comes from the benefit of growing up in a sporting environment (and maybe listening to me rant on about different topics too!), so I am certain that she is not the only one confused by the food myths about nutrition that are out there today.

This question revolved around whether Greek yogurt is healthy for us considering it is higher in fat than other yogurt varieties. It was a great question. Now it is time to bust some myths.

Greek yogurt is a great source of nutrition because it has minimal human interference. This means that it does not have any artificial sweeteners, flavours, colours or any numbers or words that are too hard to pronounce.

Is Greek Yogurt Good Or Bad For You? Busting the Confusion

That is always the giveaway that a food choice is not a good choice. If it has an ingredients list as long as your arm then it has been removed of any good that it initially had.

Greek yogurt is higher in fat than most other varieties of yogurt because it has not been poisoned with artificial sweeteners that are used to add taste once the fat has been taken out of something.

The danger of artificial sweeteners is they remove your body's ability to detect when you are full. This means that you are more prone to keep on eating and eating, meaning your waist line gets even bigger.

Foods that have natural fat have a tendency to fill you up so you don't need to eat as much. This is the same for foods that are high in protein.

Next time you are in the cold section of your supermarket I challenge you to compare the labels of Greek yoghurt (not fat free or low fat or course) with that of any yoghurt variety. While you are there, compare the same two yogurts with a low or fat free yoghurt and you will see how many more processed chemicals and rubbish is contained in them.

Don't be a victim of marketing that states that low fat foods and fat free foods are better for you. They are making your waist line bigger.

Don't believe all of the rubbish that you read in magazines or newspapers or from "Personal Trainers" and some nutritionist who have their heads stuck in the sand and are recycling the same out of date information that they were taught in college years ago. Take the word of a real world fat loss expert who has been to the dark side and returned. Meaning of course, that I don't eat fat free or low fat foods anymore because I realise how bad they are to my fat loss mission. I hope that you will join me.

Is Greek Yogurt Good Or Bad For You? Busting the Confusion
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Powerful Punctuation - Misuse and Over Use of Exclamation Points in Professional Fiction Writing

Ah, punctuation!

One of the most frequently misused forms of punctuation is the exclamation point or the exclamation mark. As an editor, I have frequently told authors with whom I work that I am going to remove the exclamation point from their keyboard. Don't get me wrong here, the exclamation point has its place in writing, but it is frequently overused or misused. When the exclamation point is misused or over used, it lowers its power.

The exclamation point is most frequently used in dialog, and it is usually used to denote a strong command:

Powerful Punctuation - Misuse and Over Use of Exclamation Points in Professional Fiction Writing

"Stop!"

An exclamation point almost always comes at the end of a sentence, but occasionally, it can come in the middle when using dialog that has text tags behind it, such as:

He said, "Stop!" before he reached out to grab the file from her hand.

An exclamation point can also be used to indicate shouting.

He yelled, "I'm so angry!"

This makes a stronger impact than without the exclamation point, and clearly indicates that the person was shouting, emphasizing the point.

Exclamation points are also used to denote a surprise or a shock or something that is in some way astonishing or amazing, even when the person is not shouting.

He said quietly, a shocked expression on his face, "I can't believe he actually jumped out of the airplane!"

When used this way, exclamation points are a very important part of punctuation. However, there are two consistently misused instances of exclamation point abuse regularly seen on the internet that should be avoided in professional fiction writing:

Multiple Exclamation Points and the Exclamation / Question Combo

Let's look at multiple exclamation points first:

The window on his car was broken. "I can't believe this happened!!!!"

Many writers believe that multiple exclamation points will indicate that the comment preceding the exclamation point was very important, very loud, or had a lot of emotion behind it.

Unfortunately, this is a sign of an amateur writer, and a big tip off to editors in the publishing field that the author is inexperienced. We see multiple exclamation points all the time in blogs and personal writings, and I even use them on my own blogs, but multiple exclamation points are not acceptable in professional writing.

A good fiction writer can convey the additional emotion or loudness of the exclamation in their writing along with ONE exclamation point, and multiple exclamation points are simply not acceptable.

That sentence above could be rewritten to say:

He was completely shocked and dismayed to discover the window on his car was broken. He screamed, "I can't believe this happened!"

Not only have you drawn a better word picture of the scene to your reader this way, but you no longer need the multiple exclamation points. Of course, you may come up with even better descriptive than the example here, but it makes the point.

The other problem exclamation point usage is the question/exclamation combo.

"What?!" he asked. "I can't believe this. How could this happen?!"

This is a NO-NO for professional fiction writing. If you need to let the reader know the person is yelling or astonished, then do it in the dialog tags and descriptive text, and then only use the question mark in the actual dialog.

"What?" he screamed. His voice rang out in clear shock and disbelief. "I can't believe this. How could this happen?"

In a novel, the only time you should use an exclamation point is in dialog, unless it is written in such a way that the novel has a narrator speaking to the reader or the novel is written in first person, present tense (sometimes past tense works too), memoir style, and this is not the traditional, common writing style and a very hard one to sell to a publisher, not impossible, but hard. Placing an exclamation point in the text of a fiction novel that is not dialog is one example of something known as 'author intrusion', where the author is trying to lead the reader to what they should be able to clearly see by the words and description.

In a professional articles or writing other than fiction, you simply should not use an exclamation point, ever!

Well, okay, that's not entirely true. When the writing is technical, professional, newsprint, non fiction, you should not use an exclamation point. However, when writing with a more casual style, such as web content or opinion pieces, an occasional exclamation point to emphasize a specific point in the writing is acceptable, but you want to limit their use, never use more than one exclamation point in the same paragraph, and never use the question mark / exclamation point combo.

When an exclamation point is overused, the meaning of the exclamation point, what its purpose is, gets lost. Save you exclamation points for casual writing or dialog and only when you really need it to make a point, and the power of the exclamation point in writing will not be lost.

Powerful Punctuation - Misuse and Over Use of Exclamation Points in Professional Fiction Writing
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How Long is a Book? Determine Your Novel's Genre, Subgenre, and Best Word Count

How long should your book be? How long a book should be depends on the genre and the intentions of the writer. If you want to self-publish, it doesn't matter how long your book is or isn't because you have total control. But if you're seeking a traditional New York publisher, here are some guidelines for how long a book should be.

Please note: These are generalized guidelines for genre fiction only. There are always exceptions to the "rules." Be sure to do your own research based on your unique needs and goals. These lists of sub-genres are substantial but not entirely inclusive. There are always many ways to combine genres.

How long is a fantasy novel?

How Long is a Book? Determine Your Novel's Genre, Subgenre, and Best Word Count

A fantasy novel contains approximately 80,000 to 100,000 words.

Sub-genres of fantasy novels include: alternate history, Bangsian fantasy, comic fantasy, contemporary fantasy (urban fantasy), dark fantasy, fairytale fantasy, heroic fantasy, high fantasy, historical fantasy (Celtic fantasy, steampunk, wuxia, medieval fantasy, prehistoric fantasy), juvenile fantasy, low fantasy, fantasy of manners (mythic fiction), romantic fantasy, science fantasy (sword and planet, dying earth), superhero fantasy, sword and sorcery, and more.

How long is a romance novel?

A stand-alone (single title) romance novel contains between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Category romance (such as those imprints published by Harlequin) are generally short. Each imprint has a specific word count. If you want to write for Harlequin, identify your imprint first.

Sub-genres of romance novels include: adventure romance, African-American romance, category romance (aka "series"), chick-lit, contemporary romance, dark fantasy, erotic romance, erotica, fantasy, futuristic romance, GLBT romance, gothic romance, historical romance, inspirational romance, interracial romance, mainstream, military romance, multi-cultural romance, mystery/thriller, paranormal romance, Regency romance, science fiction, single-title romance, suspense, sweet romance, time-travel romance, traditional romance, urban fantasy, women's fiction, World War II romance, young adult, and more.

How long is a historical fiction novel?

Historical fiction novels are generally between 85,000 to 100,000 words, though some are longer.

Subgenres of historical fiction novels include: alternate history, historical fantasy, historical romance, sagas, sword and sandal, historical whodunit, sub-genres pertaining to era (as in Renaissance, medieval, Civil War, WWII, etc.), and more.

How long is a mystery novel?

Mystery novels vary in length between 75,000 and 100,000 words. If the mystery has elements of thrillers, the book may be longer. If the mystery is a "cozy" or part of a series, it may be shorter.

Sub-genres of mystery novels include: amateur sleuth mystery, courtroom drama, cozy mystery, crime, fantasy, hardboiled mystery, historical mystery, medical mystery, police procedural, private detective, serial killer mystery, science fiction, supernatural, suspense, technical thriller, thriller, true crime, Western, whodunit, and more.

How long is a thriller novel?

A thriller novel can be between 90,000 and 100,000 words or more.

Sub-genres of thrillers include: action thrillers, conspiracy thrillers, crime thrillers, disaster thrillers, drama, eco-thrillers, erotic thrillers, legal thrillers, spy thrillers, techno thrillers, and more.

How long is a horror novel?

Horror genre novels can include between 80,000 and 100,000 words.

Subgenres of horror include: body horror, cross genre (slipstream), dark, detective, erotic, extreme, ghost, gothic, Lovecraft, noir, occult, psychological, quiet, supernatural, surreal, suspense, weird, and more.

How long is a young adult novel?

Young adult (or YA) novels can between 40,000 and 75,000 words, depending on the targeted age group.

Young adult novels generally have the same sub-genres as adult novels. Edgy YA tackles controversial or tough issues.

How long is a Western novel?

Western novels can be between 45,000 and 75,000 words.

Western sub-genres include: coming-of-age, buffalo runners, celebrity, detective, fantasy, Gothic, horses, Indians, inspirational, land rush, law and lawmen, mining, Mormons, mountain men, mysterious rider, railroads, romance, science fiction, series, sweet and savage, the West still lives, town marshal, wagons West, and more.

How Long is a Book? Determine Your Novel's Genre, Subgenre, and Best Word Count
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Writing the Flashback in Fiction

Flashbacks are tools for the fiction writer to add depth and interest to a story, as they can be a part of any piece of writing in any genre and type. Flashbacks are important for the drama in the story, because they bring the reader into the life of the characters on an emotional level and let him enter the characters' thoughts, feelings, and expectations.

The main obligation of the flashback is to take the readers back in time when that time or place in the past matters greatly to the storyline and to the present and the future of the characters. By the same token, the flashback has to aid the reader's grasp of the story. The reader's grasp usually matches the writer's understanding of his characters and their situations. If a writer has not fully fleshed out his characters in his mind, the flashbacks may run the risk of being irrelevant to the story.

Let's say, in a very short story, a character named Mike eats a quart of ice-cream in one sitting and remembers, in flashback, his mother serving him ice-cream. Then Mike goes to his job with the CIA and discovers his best friend is a mole. After a few incidents, he proves who the mole is to his bosses. Here, the ice-cream incident and the flashback that come with it have nothing to do with the discovery of the mole, so it shouldn't be included in Mike's discovery-of-the-mole story, even if the writer may imagine it helps to bring out the soft side of this character.

Writing the Flashback in Fiction

One way to bring flashbacks to a story is to give them in total in the beginning as a prologue, an introduction, or an introductory chapter. The advantages of the total flashbacks are:

o Total flashbacks allow the telling of the story without stopping the action.
o They give the story a chronological order.
o During the storytelling, the critical backstory data serves to give depth to the story.
o Writing the total flashback is easy on the writer. After he is done with the backstory in flashback, telling the real story becomes uncomplicated.

The disadvantage of the total flashback in the beginning of a story is that it can bore the reader with the long past, instead of pulling him into the story's action and the story's present time.

Another way to insert flashbacks in a story is to give them in several large chunks inside the story. The film industry can use cut-aways for this; however, in writing straight fiction, large chunks work better only in slow-moving stories. If the writer is telling a fast-paced story in any genre, he needs to avoid the large chunks of flashbacks.

In addition, this type of flashback is best used by signaling its beginning and end in some way or possibly putting the flashback in italics. As to the dialogue in a large chunk of flashback, it can be summarized, if possible.

A third way of inserting the flashbacks in the story is to insert small pieces of flashback, possibly in one or two sentences wherever they are needed. The advantages of this technique are:

o The writer has flexibility in telling the story, as to how to tell it and how much he will let the reader know.
o The writer can weave in critical information and background material at any time he wishes.
o He can use it to increase suspense or to attract the reader's curiosity
o He can create layered characters during the writing of the real story.

On the negative side, if not handled well by the writer, this technique may cause the reader to confuse the past with the present.

A few points to pay attention to while creating flashbacks are:

o The contents of the flashback should not be more exciting than the real story.
o A flashback works better if it follows a strong scene.
o The writer should orient the reader at the start of the flashback in time and space. If the transition of the flashback is not adequately written, past and present may become a jumble in the reader's mind.
o During the revision process, it may be necessary to leave out the least important incidents in the flashbacks and trim down the existing ones.
o As to usage, the writer may want to make use of the verb tenses to signal a flashback's beginning and ending. If the story is told in the present tense, the entire flashback can be in the past tense. If the story is told in past tense, the flashback may begin with past perfect to signal the change, then the flashback may continue with the past tense again, in order not to overuse the weighty past perfect. Then the ending of the flashback can be maneuvered into past perfect again before continuing the story with the past tense.

Some caveats concerning flashbacks are:

o The writer should not make the contents of the flashback more interesting or longer than the real story.
o The writer should not introduce the flashback as the first real scene in the story. This doesn't always work.
o Flashbacks within flashbacks run the risk of confusing the story and the reader who is reading it, unless the writer is as highly experienced as John Updike.
o Too many and too long flashbacks tend to turn a story into an epic. If that is not the intention and there is a limit to word count, the writer must be careful with long flashbacks.
o It works better to use flashbacks sparingly and with discretion since they do tend to slow the pacing. An experienced writer will not use flashbacks past the three-quarters of the real story.

Writing the Flashback in Fiction
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Song Lyrics in Fiction - What Writers Need to Know

Authors sometimes find it really tempting to use song lyrics in a novel or story. The words of the song are just so powerful and so right that... well, they need to be there.

If you're considering using song lyrics in your work of fiction, you may want to come up with a back-up plan. Here are some things you should know:

you or your publisher may be able to get rights to use the lyrics--or maybe not it's probably going to cost you (typically a small fee per copy you make, but that can add up) your publisher may decide the lyrics aren't worth the time/effort/money required to use them.

Song Lyrics in Fiction - What Writers Need to Know

What about 'fair use'?

Fair Use principles weren't put in place to cover fiction.

You could claim fair use if you were writing, say, a nonfiction piece looking at U.S. cultural shifts over the last fifty years through the lens of Top-10 lyrics. To write such a work, you'd clearly need to reference some lyrics. But if you tried to get permission and pay for every single song, those barriers would jeopardize your ability to produce the work. Fair use would allow you to quote a few lines from each song to help make your point as you presented your analysis.

Putting lyrics into your fiction is something else altogether.

You'll read a lot of pages online that talk about lyric printing as 'fair use', etc., but that's a stretch of the fair use doctrine and completely unreliable when it comes to novels and other works of fiction.

What's the worst that could happen?

I'm not a lawyer. Personally, I think the worst that would probably happen is that someone would see you used the lyrics and sue to make you pay. You'd have to pay the usage fees, plus maybe some punitive damages and court fees. All that could add up to a great deal more than it would have cost to get the rights in the first place.

I further think rights-holders' attorneys' time would be better spent going after web sites that publish lyrics and musical arrangements in their entirety.

If you have a bestseller on your hands and make millions, though, you're going to be putting yourself into a whole other class of rights violators.

Shouldn't the artist or songwriter be pleased I love their work enough to include it?

Don't take it personally; it's business. Artists, unless they wrote their own songs or bought the rights, don't really have a claim to the lyrics. The songwriter does unless he or she sold them all. But the person you need to worry about most in this equation is typically a music publishing company. That company probably paid money for the rights to control publication of those lyrics you want. They're highly unlikely to get warm fuzzies because you want to use lyrics under their control. Even if they do, they have to pay people (such as the songwriter) for that usage.

Bottom line: Lyrics are intellectual property. They're worth money.

But isn't this like free advertising for them?

In a way... maybe... if your story causes a bunch of people to rush out and buy the sheet music. But that's not likely. At best, it might cause readers to buy the song. That's covered under altogether different rights--performance and recording rights, etc. Someone, somewhere might be pleased. Depending on how things are set up, a little of that money might even trickle to the music publishing company. That prospect, however, is not likely to cause that company to let you use the lyrics for free.

So how much does it cost?

Basically, to use the song, you'll need to enter into a contract with the rights-holder. That company will tell you how much it wants for the usage you've described. A lot of factors go into the cost, including the portion of the song that you're intending to use. If you're only using a line or two, you may be looking at only a few cents per copy you make. Or it could be a lot higher. There generally are different fee schedules for hard-copy vice online use. You won't really be able to gauge the potential cost until you ask.

If all you want is a few lines from a single song, it's probably affordable. If you want to start each of thirty chapters with a line from a song, your cost and hassle will multiply. You're going to have to pay for each of those lines. Getting permission may entail going to not one, but several, different companies.

How do I get started?

Basically, you start the process by writing to the entity that manages the rights.

If you're an author in search of a traditional publisher, it won't do you much good to ask early. If, however, you plan to disseminate copies of the work while you're on your way to publication, the safest thing to do is to request permission from the rights-holder. Often, the company is willing to let you use the lyrics in this way for free. For example, I've been able to get permission to use sets of lyrics in online writing workshops for free because I wasn't making any money from the work and because only a few hundred people would visit the location where it was posted.

If you don't intend to share the work with others prior to publication, it's best to wait until you're a little closer to publication to request permission. In considering your request for rights, the company is going to want to know how many copies will be published and what format, as well as other things you can't tell them. You and your publisher can decide how to handle the request--if your publisher's even willing to deal with the issue at all. Some small publishers just don't have the resources to deal with the usage requests and the required follow-up. Your publisher may just tell you to scrap the lyrics.

If you're going the self-publishing route (hard-copy or e-book), then you should be in a position to give the rights-holder the details it wants.

How do I request permission?

Generally, you write to the music publisher. Try Googling the song name and the term "sheet music". There are lots of places that sell sheet music online for a few dollars, and you can download it right away. I often find the answers I need for this at sheetmusicplus.

Check the details for the song to make sure you've got the right one. Sometimes the same song will end up in different arrangements, published by different companies. And sometimes multiple songs will share a title.

The sheet music will reveal the publisher and its address information and, in some cases, will even tell where to go for additional permissions. If it doesn't, the publishing company's webpage probably will.

If you're unable to determine the music publisher, you might find some hints by checking the songs in the databases of the entities that handle performance rights: ASCAP; BMI; and SESAC.

Once you get the music publisher's contact information, you can write to the company (some even have online forms) and tell what you want to do and what lyrics you want to use. Make sure you tell them what you want is a *print license*. Most of the publishing houses have guidelines on their sites for what they expect in a license request. After that, they'll probably write you back and/or send you a proposal contract with their terms. It's probably going to include a lot of details that make no sense to you, unless you're a lawyer; if you're not, you might want to talk to one about that contract so you understand what it is you're signing.

By the way, there are companies online who make all this easier, if you're willing to pay them to do it for you. They'll track down the info., handle the paperwork, etc., but most authors I've talked to don't think those companies are worth what you'd pay.

What are my alternatives?

Ditch the poetry.

Write your own poem.

Find a poet or songwriter who's fighting to make a name for himself; he might be willing to let you use his material for free, if you give him proper credit.

If it's really, really got to be that song, then consider just giving its title (surrounded by double quote marks) and don't use the lyrics. Because there are only so many words that can be used, song titles can't be copyrighted except under really stringent conditions in which they can be treated as entities unto themselves -- like if the song title comprises a whole line from the song or if it's a made-up word that the writer himself created or something like that. Usually, it's not so much copyright as trademark protection that comes into play there. But that's a really rare situation and so for general use, song titles are thought of as fair game--sort of like book titles. Still, the safest thing is to double-check (either through checking on the web or contacting the lyrics' rights-holder) to make sure your song name isn't one of the few exceptions.

If you're just posting your writing on the web, without charging for it, then you have another option. Include the song name and a link to the song at a music-sharing site. I personally like IMEEM because it's reported to have contracts with the big recording labels so that all the appropriate people get paid when the songs are played. Plus the player has a link that your reader can follow to buy the song, so this really is a way for you to give free advertising to the song you love.

Imeem is free and ultra-easy to use. The page for a song gives you code that you can just drop onto your blog or webpage to play the music. Some of those are limited to a 30-second play, but that's usually enough to convey the essence of the music, remind the reader of the song, etc., and if the reader wants to hear the whole thing, he can always follow the link to Imeem.

A word of caution: I've only looked into IMEEM for noncommercial usage. I assume they mave different rules when it comes to works for which you're actually charging. If your readers have to pay to access your work, you'll need to contact IMEEM to find out whether your usage falls within their license terms.

Where can I get more information?

Check out the links at the bottom of this article.

Song Lyrics in Fiction - What Writers Need to Know
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Dora McAlpin moonlights as Rascal E. Riter ( [http://www.rascaleriter.com] ), ferreting out the stuff writers really need to know.

She is author of three ongoing fiction series: Armageddon Lost; Broken Sparrows; and The Promises Series.

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