Writing a musical is exhausting. It's a good exhaustion, though, like when you do bicep curls until you're physically unable to continue. With enough of that good exhaustion, you musical becomes bulbous and hard (stay with me) and people will look at it in awe, feeling intimidated or turned on (sorry).
Some people have taken the time to create resources to help you write a musical. I have read, watched and listened to some of them, and I will share them below. Some things I have read or watched aren't that good or that useful, but I might still include them because they exist at all, and that can trump their limited utility.
I'll update this from time to time. I'd also like to acknowledge a US and UK bias to these. Sorry about it.
Books
- How Musicals Work: And How To Write Your Own
- A great read that only feels a little bit dated. It seems Woolford is clearly a lyricist first, but the book covers pretty much everything.
- What I've learnt from it: don't get ahead of yourself.
- Do Story: How to Tell Your Story So the World Listens.
- Not specific to musical theatre, nor a book I'd actually recommend reading, but I bought it and read it so now it's on this list. It talks about the key elements of an engaging story and it's pretty short, at least, so if you happen to find it in a library, it might be worth a skim.
Websites
I'll avoid "reviewing" these and just list them.
Organisations
- Mercury Musical Developments
- German Musical Academy
- National (🇺🇸) Alliance for Musical Theatre
- MusicalWriters.com
- New Musicals Inc.
YouTube channels
Subreddits
Get ready for a long list.
Others
Here I'll also include some sites that aren't specifically about writing musicals, but whose content I have nevertheless consumed while wirking.