How do you write lyrics for a duet?

Question

How do you write lyrics for a duet? How do you write lyrics for a song sang by two persons with some lines belonging to only one person?

Answer 1

I'm assuming you mean the formatting --how to write it so it appears on the page in a way that makes sense.

There's no one standard convention, but one I've seen that is easy to understand is to do the different singers in two vertical columns. From top to bottom, things sung at the same time are at the same horizontal level. If the singers are singing the same thing, center those lyrics between the two individual columns.

Jack                          Jill
I went up
                              You went up
              We went up
               the hill
Such a tall hill              That was the start of it
                 The hill