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.
Good to see the blog active Sheila - hope you're well. Always enjoy your writing so hope to see much more of it. Lorraine xxx
ReplyDeleteI found this post very interesting. I agree completely that writing needs to have a rhythm. The best writers can hear this rhythm in their work automatically, and notice at once where a sentence has gone wrong. I don't know if it can be learned, any more than a sense of rhythm in dancing can be learned – maybe with plenty of practice. Nearly everything else in the writer's art/craft can be acquired with patience and effort but perhaps this sense of rhythm needs to be inbuilt?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sheila, for a thought-provoking post.
So agree with this. It's why we should read our work aloud - then we can really hear the music (or lack of) in it.
ReplyDeleteLovely idea, Miss Sheila, and very correct. Reading a manuscript aloud is often the best way to hear if it works and if the rhythm is there. Something I've learned in my English classes is parallel sentence structure, and I like to think that it adds to your discussion on rhythm. Basically, when there is a good parallel sentence structure, there is an internal rhythm and the sentence flows better. Also, making sure that all tenses match (also along the lines of the parallel thing) helps achieve that.
ReplyDeleteSo, if we say, "I came, I saw, I conquered," that's a great illustration of that concept. The three parts of the sentence make it parallel and the tenses line up. If someone said, "I'm walking, riding my bike, and then go to the beach," It's not quite right due to the tenses.