Ballad Writing Tips

• often have verses of four lines
• usually have a rhyming pattern: either abac or aabb or acbc (usually the easiest to rhyme)
• repetition often found in ballads
  • entire stanzas can be repeated like a song's chorus
  • lines can be repeated but each time a certain word is changed
  • a question and answer format can be built into a ballad: one stanza asks a questions and the next stanza answers the question
• Ballads contain a lot of dialogue.
• Action is often described in the first person
• Two characters in the ballad can speak to each other on alternating lines
• Sequences of "threes" often occur: three kisses, three tasks, three events, for example