I know - you looove the song and it says EXACTLY what you want to say about what Alex is feeling or about what is happening between Pendrell and Mulder at that moment. You want to include the lyrics to share this moment with the reader.

I have a better idea. Instead of quoting some "love song" that 75% of your readers never heard of, why don't you just do the work and WRITE the scene in your own words?

I've never heard of most of the songs by Depeche Mode or Nine Inch Nails, and I am NOT going to go out and listen to their stuff just because you quoted the entire darned song in your latest story. (Partly because the moment I saw line after line of song lyrics, I deleted the story unread.)

Whatever emotional impact you were trying to build in your story by including this, to you, very evocative and important set of someone else's words fails with me and everyone else who doesn't have the song memorized. Even some people I've surveyed who claim to LIKE song lyric stories admit that it's annoying to have them in a story when they as the reader aren't familiar with that particular song.

One brilliant archivist has recently provided readers with an option when searching their archive. It weeds OUT every story with song lyrics in it. Does this give you an idea of how unpopular these are with readers?

Okay, I take it back. Naturally I will defend to the death (or, at least extreme discomfort) your right to write song lyrics stories.

However, it's also true that my personal opinion is that it's sheer laziness and that you'd do better to give us your own words about what's happening in your story at that moment. (If you simply MUST include the lyrics to the song that inspired the story, put them at the end where those who like that kind of thing can find them. That way, those who don't like them won't see the lyrics until they've finished your story and sent you a lovely feedback note.)

Because I'm compulsively honest, I feel I should mention that I've used song lyrics in stories. My very first XF story was framed by a few lines of a Phil Collins song, Tonight. At the instigation of a friend, I includes some incomprehensible lyrics from Good Morning, Starshine in a shower scene in another story. But I haven't tried to use them to get me out of writing anything.…