How to come up with rhymes

Try not to leave it at merely good enough.

If you have trouble rhyming a word, here are some suggestions, best tried in the order listed.

Method 1: Leave it as it is

If you have trouble coming up with a rhyme, ask yourself if you really need to. For example, knowing that coming up with a rhyme for conspiracy is impossible, I get by that word by putting it that a literally heartless character still being here talking to us is a conspiracy. Of course, it still has to be a suitable word for what you have made the song. Leaving radio unchanged in a parody that is supposed to have a pre-industrial setting is never appropriate.

Method 2: Narrow it down

It is necessary to pick the subjects for parodies before picking which songs to use. Failing to do so results in just trying to come up with exact rhymes for words. When a tricky word needs a rhyme, I am guided by staying within the limits of the kind of vocabulary related to Pirates of the Caribbean.

You should still keep your options somewhat open, however. Often, poor rhyming is a result of trying to force a subject into a song that does not suit it. If you take the subject to a different song, or approach the same song with a different subject, you may fare better.

Method 3: Just write what fits

When nothing that sounds much like the original word is possible, I get by with keeping the number of syllables as close as possible. Provided the surrounding words were easier to rhyme, the parody will still sound not much different from the original words. But that only works if the song is not a rapid fire of polysyllabic words.

Method 4: Skip the song

This is a last resort and you should think carefully before choosing it, but it is a plan that can never truly fail, and it is very important to remember that you can always pass on a song if it suggests more trouble than inspiration.

Referring back to songs that are rapid fires of polysyllabic words - one of the worst kinds to parody, but thankfully rare. 21st Century Breakdown is full of songs like that, but I cannot think of any outside this album off the top of my head.

How many songs do you know that use the word lobotomy? I only know the one off said album. What about inferno, peacemaker, or eulogy? Different song every time, but always the same answer. Yes, 21st Century Breakdown uses countless impossible to rhyme words, but as long as you leave it alone, you will probably never have to worry about most of them.