I'd love to hear your working methods on compiling potential rhymes. I'm not so interested in why you feel someone else's method isn't very good, or the "right way", I'm more interested in how you do it. Do you use a rhyming dictionary? Do you prefer to use the pool of rhymes that come to you naturally? Do you have a mental only alphabetical approach?
For me... I always go for the natural approach initially. Sort of like the limerick game I used to play with me ol' Scot Grandpa Fred. What comes to mind first, let it happen. Relax and let the muse speak. Sometimes there's a lot there. This is the purge stage where I don't slow down for any sort of reference material. This is the "tap the old memory banks and personal experience library" phase. Au naturel. But I don't stop here...
Then... if and when I get stuck, I go to a rhyming dictionary. The online RhymeZone. http://www.rhymezone.com/
It's not bad in that it does include words that aren't necessarily spelled the same as the source word but still rhyme. A lot won't do this. For "wart" I get escort and court among lots of other entries.
Then, after I've compiled a list of potential rhymes based on how they fit into the current context of the song, I see what sort of line might pop out at me from the potential rhymes. Sometimes the perfect line just jumps out. Going back and forth between the written verse with a blank spot, and the list of possible and pertinent rhymes, I'll let my mind do its thing again, au naturel.
Purge, refine, purge, refine. Back and forth between research and inspiration. Which brings me to... my latest reference book find. I absolutely LOVE this rhyming dictionary.
Sue Young's the New Comprehensive American Rhyming Dictionary
http://www.amazon.com/New-Comprehensive-American-Rhyming-Dictionary/dp/0380713926
Sue Young is a linguist who set out to write an American pronunciation rhymer. This is not thrown together. And it's not stuffy. It includes slang, curse, etc. A rapper's treasure chest. And it is comprehensive.
It is among the recommended books in Jimmy Webb's Tunesmith. I finally got around to ordering it after a few years of thinking about and it came yesterday. WOW. What a unique rhyming dictionary. You don't look up words, you look up sounds. Ascertain the stressed vowel sound of a word, and go fishing.
In Sue Young's world of rhyming, genitalia rhymes with never fail ya. This is a seriously excellent resource for those that find reference books of this sort to their liking. Anyway...
HOW DO YOU DO IT?
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