Hi, it's Ms. Magda. I'm the teen librarian at the Bordeaux Branch Library, and I have a confession to make. I am not originally from Nashville. I am actually Appalachian, and that's a place where when people say love songs, they usually mean murder ballads. But the cool thing about those songs is they tell an entire story inside of a song. Instead of just a snapshot of a life or a talking-ass singular feeling or an emotion, they have all of the elements of traditional storytelling inside the song. So if balance contain all the elements of stories, what are those elements? I mean, it's been a minute since you've seen your English teachers. So let's take a second to remember. Let's see. There's characters, and there's plot, there's setting, and there's conflict. But what do these things actually mean? Characters are the people in your story. So do you remember that song Beyoncé's era Placeable? So the characters in that song would be Beyoncé, Queen B, and then her cheating boyfriend. A little sad, no cheating. Oh, and if we wanted to count like the supporting cast, we could also count the girl he cheated with. So there she is. And then maybe like the guy that Beyoncé is also thinking about. Okay, so that covers our characters. But what about the plot? What exactly is happening in the story? So Beyoncé is kicking out her boyfriend because she caught him cheating with the other woman. So the action is Bey is selling him and being really unhappy and he is begging to come back. So where is all this taking place? That's the setting. Where is it taking place? So this whole argument is taking place on Beyoncé's front one. There's our grass, and there's the boyfriend standing between his box of stoof. Can't let me try it today. On the left and the beautiful car that she just bought him. Don't judge me for my fabulous drawings. Okay guys, because this is not about the drawings. This is about the music and the stories. So speaking of stories, what is our conflict? What is the problem that we need to resolve? Well, B needs to get that boyfriend off her lawn. So she says, get lost buddy. I am woman power and I'm pointing you away and he's going to go around and spoiler alert said he goes away. And she also tells him, look, you are not irreplaceable. There are plenty of other people that will treat me a whole lot better. So our ballots, they can a story songs take all of these elements to characters, the plot, the setting, and the conflict. And they fit them inside a traditional story structure. Have you ever noticed how your favorite songs usually have a pattern to them? It probably sounds like this. The verse, the chorus, another verse, another chorus, and then a bridge, and another chorus just to tie it all up in a nice bill. What did these things mean? And what do they do? So the verses, these two pieces here, give you the story a bit like piece by piece. So they're building on one another, right? Boom, boom, boom. And then the choruses give you the point of the story. This is what we highlight. Look, in Beyoncé's song, she tells him, I'm going to be fine because there are better people out there. And that's the point she wants to get across. It also can be like the lesson to be learned. The bridge is the thing that takes a left turn, melodically, rhythmically, lyrically, and or emotionally from the rest of the song. So it kind of brings it all together. And oftentimes, it can also give us a little bit more information or a different perspective than what the rest of the song is saying. So now it's your turn. I want you to write a ballad, your very own, starting with the story, characters, plot, setting, conflict. And then put it inside the traditional song structure, the verse chorus, verse chorus, bridge chorus. If you need more inspiration, I got a few more songs for you, other than Queen B. And please note that some of these actually don't follow the traditional song structure. And that's okay because the point is the poetry. I mean, the story and the music, right? So also remember that the writing counts for your summer reading challenge minutes. And you can log those points over on our website, over on our website at library.nashville.org. So I'm Miss Magda from the Bordeaux Branch Library. Don't forget to check out the rest of the NPL universe. And I'll see you next week.