RHYTHM IN PROSE - WHAT IS IT? MUSIC TO OUR EARS?

Why is it that we love to read some books more than others? What is it that makes the words flow and gives us that gloriously satisfied feeling as we are reading?

It is rhythm.

It's the poetry in prose that comes from the way the words are arranged so that even if we are reading silently, inside we feel there could be no other way of putting them together.

So it almost feels like poetry. In fact it is a type of poetry. And I've noticed that very often the best writers are first and foremost poets, even if they don't know it.

When we sing or listen to someone singing, there is a kind of a beat, a rhythm that rounds off each phrase of the music. Well, it's the same with writing. Each group of words must have that poetic beat where not one single word feels out of place or jarrs the rhythm of the sentence.

But how to achieve it?

Just as we sing that song, so should we read our prose out loud. Our own voice will tell us that there is one word that stands out - that cries out to be deleted because it is disturbing that delicious rhythm we automatically crave.  Very often it will need two or three superfluous words to be cut. And we shouldn't be afraid of cutting them because very often they don't add any meaning to the sentence, and you know immediately that it is right.

Just lately I've begun to realise that Less is More. That cutting those superfluous words allows those that remain to mould themselves into that elusive rhythm that good writers seem to achieve without even trying.

I think we all have some natural poetry in us. Or rather, we are capable of honing our prose so that the poetry is all that is left and becomes music to our ears.

I keep trying to do this. And my new novel "DEAD GIRLS DON'T DANCE"  by Sheila Mary Taylor (my new writing name which is merely my maiden name), which is nearing completion and will be published in 2012, is giving me the perfect opportunity to try out this theory.

So I have to remind myself every day: Read my prose out loud. Cut those obtrusive words that are interfering with the rhythm. Give the poetry in the prose a chance to shine through. Make my readers want to read my books.    

I hope I have already achieved this in my up-dated re-write of "FLY WITH A MIRACLE", the true story of my son Andrew's heroic battle against teenage cancer that was published some years ago. It will be published next month by Night Publishing, with the new title of "COUNTED".

In my next blog I will be telling you more about "COUNTED", with a photo of the cover, and a sneak preview of the chilling prologue.   





 

Pinpoint - By Sheila Mary Taylor

       WATCH THIS SPACE . . .

                         

Pinpoint, published by Night Publishing, is coming out next week . . .

             A criminal lawyer, a murderer and a policeman -

            caught up in a tangled web of love, loss, fear and intrigue

A criminal lawyer confronts the creeping possibility that a murderer she is defending could be her twin brother, wrenched from her life twenty-six years ago

A Psychological Thriller

  

Pinpoint went through a rough passage to get to this stage.  Started off winning a competition run by the illustrious agent Darley Anderson, for the first chapter of a novel depicting a woman in jeopardy. The prize was a bottle of French bubbly, which was consumed with dreams of best-seller success, even though I’d only written the first chapter. Then came the crunch, when the next 10,000 words were rejected as not fulfilling the criterion laid down in the competition.

But hell, that’s because when you’re writing a novel, anything can happen.  And that’s what makes writing so exciting. You create two or three dynamic characters.  You watch with awe as they take over the scenario.  You go with the flow. You surprise yourself when suddenly you are going down a different road. A road you’re convinced is the only one these amazing characters can follow. And if you are surprised every day at what they do, this means the reader is going to be surprised too.

So Pinpoint ended up not being about a woman in jeopardy, but about a defence solicitor, Julia Grant, confronted by the frightening thread of a suspicion that maybe, just maybe, her new client, the vicious murderer Sam Smith might be ─ just might be ─ her long-lost beloved twin brother. 

Imagine how frightening that must be!

We follow Julia in her quest to find out just who Smith is. Why he is persecuting her. How she can get her hands on the quarter of a million pounds he is demanding in exchange for not harming her six-year-old daughter Nicky and keeping his mouth shut about something in Julia’s past he claims would shock the legal world and end her career as a successful criminal lawyer.

We follow her controversial love affair with DI Paul Moxon, the detective intent on re-capturing the elusive Smith after his daring escape in the middle of Manchester in broad daylight.  

And we bite our nails as Julia struggles to remember what ghastly event in her early childhood caused her amnesia.

Your lucky day for discovering new exciting books

Highly recommended -

All #Kindle #mobile readers, Jessica Degarmo's 'How to meet a guy at the supermarket' recommended by Daily Cheap Reads: http://bit.ly/g3KkU9

Good stuff this.
Sheila

A Good Read you can't afford to miss

For all #Kindle #mobile readers, if you like bounce-off-the-page romance, read Poppet's new book 'Exploits' $0.99: http://amzn.to/ey2xhh

Hurry, and enjoy - sheila

A Must Read Book

For all #Kindle #mobile readers, LA Dale's romantic 'Perhaps Perhaps' recommended by Daily Cheap Reads, and rightly so: http://bit.ly/fq6mQL

Enjoy it! Sheila

Soooz Says Stuff: Snapshots of Success

Soooz Says Stuff: Snapshots of Success

Soooz Says Stuff: Snapshots of Success

Soooz Says Stuff: Snapshots of Success