Month: April 2022

Finding the Rhythm of a Scene

finding the rhythm of a scene

Rhythm in writing may be the hardest technique to master because it’s the hardest to teach. Some writers may say that it’s a concept to ignore, and they could be correct. But I find myself considering the rhythm of how a scene is unfolding, usually when it’s a pivotal one. So if you think finding the rhythm of a scene will help your story, read on.

Before You Write, Read

The first step in mastering rhythm in writing is to read. The more you read, the more you pick up on, even without noticing it consciously, how a particular author or genre lays out scenes. That absorption of rhythm will be your guide as you work on your own stories. It does with me. As I craft on a scene, my gut tightens when I sense it’s not working, like a drummer hitting the wrong beat. I’ve learned to pay attention to that tightening and then devote time pulling the scene apart to figure out exactly where and why it’s gone off the rails.

If you trust your intuition, which is based on your experience, then you can develop a rhythm of your own.

Different Scenes, Different Rhythms

What is the point of your scene? The answer will have a great impact on its rhythm.

When I wrote the climax to my mystery short story, “A Rose from the Ashes”, I knew God had given me something special and didn’t want to ruin it. My main character Rae is discovering who tried to murder her mother twenty years ago and who her father is. I didn’t want the scene to wallow in sentimentality, but also didn’t want to avoid the big emotions. So I had to balance it, find a rhythm. I solved this problem by adding humor to the scene, lightly, inserting it when I felt the deep emotions might overwhelm the story. This alternation between humor and serious emotions established a rhythm for the scene.

In the climax of my YA novel, A Shadow on the Snow, Rae confronts a stalker, both with words and action. Because this is a tense, suspenseful scene, I wrote a lot of one-line paragraphs. That makes for quicker reading, mimicking the rapid way Rae has to process the quickly-changing situation. Slowing the rhythm with a lot of description would work against the mood I hoped to create.

But in the middle of Shadow, Rae has a heart-to-heart talk with her father that forms the theme and crux of their relationship. Here the pace can be slower because it’s an intense, uninterrupted conversation and I wanted the reader to have time to digest what’s being said, like Rae is. The dialogue is the star of this scene, so the rhythm here is to minimize dialogue and action tags, only adding those that keep the conversation moving and the reader grounded in the scene.

Here’s my previous post on using rhythm in your writing.

Do you think finding rhythm of a scene is important? Why or why not?

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What Music Has Inspired Your Writing?

what music has inspired your writing?

Last week, my prompt was about songs that could be turned into novels. This week I’m broadening my question. What music has inspired your writing? Have you listened to a piece, whether a song or instrumental piece, and imagined a scene to go with it? It’s almost impossible for me to listen to any kind of music and not concoct a scene to accompany it. Here are a few musical pieces that have inspired me lately.

“The Ecstasy of Gold” by Ennio Morricone. This instrumental piece is part of the soundtrack for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It helped me craft a climax for the book that I’m planning to be the next to last book in my Rae Riley mystery series. I hadn’t seen the movie, which allowed me to imagine anything I wanted.

“On Earth as It Is in Heaven” by Ennio Morricone. This is a piece from another movie, The Mission. I haven’t seen the movie, but the piece has given my ideas for the ending scenes in my series. I haven’t been able to find an English translation for the words, but it really doesn’t matter because the voices act like other instruments.

“Lone Raven” by Lone Raven. This one is a little different in that I’d already written a short story, “A Rose from the Ashes,” and felt this music perfectly captured the mood of my climax.

Your turn. What music has inspired your writing?

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Using Music to Show Character

using music to show character

As an author who loves music, it would be lovely if I could include a soundtrack with my books and stories. Do publishers ever do that with audiobooks? I would put songs or tunes that had inspired characters or scenes. Or my publisher could hire someone to write original music. Since those dreams will have to stay dreams, I have to include music in my stories the best way I can. Using music to show character is a fresher, more novel way for readers to get to know my characters than physical description and dialogue.

A Main Character Who’s Also a Musician

My teen detective Rae Riley is, first and foremost, an amateur photographer. It’s the way she sees the world. But, like a lot of creative people, she enjoys other arts. She played drums in her high school marching band and jazz band. Making her a drummer gives her personality another layer. She’s playing an instrument that leans more toward males, so some might see her choice as unusual or offbeat (ha!).

When I was in band, certain personalities tended to pick certain instruments. The Type A, straight arrows played flute and trumpet. The clarinet was the everyman or woman of the band. The more quirky kids picked trombone, saxophone, or percussion. My character’s choice of instrument can say a lot about who he or she is.

If you need to draw disparate characters together, making them all musicians gives them a common interest and a plausible reason for people who might not normally associate with each other to interact. Rae joins three young police officers in jam sessions because they play outlaw country music for fun and didn’t have a drummer. (Yes, it’s supposed to be funny that cops like outlaw country.)

Favorite Music Reveals Character Traits

The fact that these millennial cops are playing music from the 70’s says something about their personalities. Houston, who sings lead and plays lead guitar, explains how he can’t stand current country music. His love for outlaw country can mean any number of things. Maybe he’s not concerned with following popular trends. Or he doesn’t like how big business takes over an art form; he likes art for art’s sake. Or he just likes to be different, to stand out from the crowd.

When Rae and the cops take a break from jamming, they play songs from their playlists. I can use their choices to say something about their characters. Since Rae doesn’t know the three young men well, she hesitates over her selections because her playlist contains what she considers some pretty obscure songs. So she picks more popular songs. Her choice shows her uncertainty in this new social situation. Out of the four characters. the bass player is the only one to pick instrumental pieces instead of songs. I can use that deviation from the other characters to reveal something about him.

Now it’s your turn. Have you written or read about characters who love music? How did the author use music to show character?

Here’s another post on adding music and poetry to prose.

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What Songs Could Be Novels?

what songs could be novels

I’m sure all of us creative people have listened to a song and thought it had the makings of a great story. Of course many songs tell stories set to music. But I’m writing about songs that would inspire you to expand on the story outlined in the lyrics. What songs could be novels?

Murder Ballads

I have listened to many songs over the years that fall into my writing genre, crime. A lot of them are country or folk songs. I didn’t realize that these types of songs had their own subgenre, murder ballads. I learned this when I read the book accompanying Ken Burns’s PBS documentary on country music. Murder ballads are songs that outline crimes, usually murder, and usually, they don’t have happy endings. I think these ballads came from songs sung in the British Isles. A local Celtic band performs a song “The Cobbler’s Daughter”, a traditional Irish song, about how a girl’s mother is in prison for accidentally killing her boyfriend, who had sneaked into their house.

I also think the “Dying Teen” songs of the fifties and sixties are a kind of offshoot of the murder ballad. Most of the time, crime isn’t involved. These songs deal with teens dying or getting injured, usually a car accident. Songs likes these are “Leader of the Pack”, “Dead Man’s Curve,” and “Last Kiss”. Any of these songs could inspire a longer story.

My Choices

Here are some songs I think could be developed into novels in any number of ways.

“The Long Black Veil” by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin. I first heard this murder ballad sung by Mick Jagger on the Chieftains album The Long Black Veil.

“The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia” by Bobby Russell, sung by Vicki Lawrence. Definitely a murder ballad.

“Lyin’ Eyes” by Don Henley and Glenn Frey, sung by the Eagles. This isn’t a murder ballad but it certainly sets up the situation for one. In a small town, young wife of older husband has young boyfriend. Any one of them could get bumped off if someone used this story as its premise.

“Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul, and Mary based on a poem by Leonard Lipton. I know that either in the 70’s or 80’s a animated version of this song was made. I always hated this song as a kid because I felt so sorry for Puff and thought Jackie Paper was a total jerk. This could be a fun or very touching middle grade novel.

For more for music prompts, click here.

What songs could be a novels?

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Add Music and Poetry to Prose

Author Bettie Boswell

Guest blogging for me today is author Bettie Boswell, advising why and how to add music and poetry to prose. She’s published in many genres, including children’s nonfiction, romance, and her latest effort, releasing in July, is a time-slip novel. Thank you, Bettie, for coming back to visit us!

March was Music in Our Schools Month and now April is National Poetry Month. What’s a writer to do? Write something musical or poetic, of course. When I taught music, students were encouraged to create their own music or rhythmic speech by using the natural rhythms provided by rhythmic word flashcards. The cards helped them to come up with phrases, which flowed into a musical or poetic piece: Peaches, pear, popcorn, plum. Did you catch both the rhythm (short short, long, short, short, long) and the alliteration (same beginning sound) devices in that little phrase? A catchy title for your next suspense novel might use that pattern: Some Saints Sing, Some Souls Scream (or maybe not, but you get the idea.)

I think that title is fantastic. Or you can split it into two fantastic titles for two books in a series. I’m terrible at titles. I should consult you.

Did I hear you say you have no musical or poetic talents?

Whether you realize it or not, as a writer you can make use of music and poetic devices to improve your prose writing. You might even want to be really brave and add the words of a song or poem into your latest work-in-progress. My novel coming out in July will have several poems included as part of the story. You might even feel the call to try writing a Novel-in-Verse, which has become a very popular genre in the last few years. So, what can you do with your two left feet or should I say two broken pencils and warped word processors as you start adding a musical or poetic touch to your words? 

Let’s start with something simple–take a rest. In music a rest is when you don’t sing or play your instrument, you take a break to ready yourself for what will come next. In poetry the rest is white space between stanzas or line breaks between phases to give the reader time to savor the words. In prose, think about making use of white space. Use it between conversations. Break into long monologues with questions or action or reactions so the reader has time to contemplate what will come next and look forward with anticipation, instead of being lulled to sleep.

I never thought about the white space on the page like this. Great advice!

When the action gets tough for your characters, use a little staccato or accents. I. Told. You. To. Stop. Tap. Tap. Tap. The preceding onomatopoeic (sounds like what it is) tapping words also use another poetic device called repetition, which works well in the music and poetry worlds for refrains. I’m sure you can sing the chorus of many songs, even if you don’t know all the verses. If you’re writing for young children, they love that repeated phrase they can say along with the adult who is reading to them. As you write your prose, there may be something that needs heard more than once, or if you’re marketing your book you will need to repeat yourself many times before someone says, “I didn’t realize you wrote a book!”

Poetry, music and prose have many forms.

From a Beethoven symphony to a pop song, music enjoyment comes in multiple forms. New forms of poetry are invented all the time (see the link below.) You don’t have to have perfect rhythm or rhyme abilities to write a haiku, acrostic, or a list poem. Prose writing has forms like picturebooks, nonfiction, romance, suspense, mystery, allegory, and sci-fi, to name a few.  What if one of your characters speaks in poetry or riddles or writes about their pets in haiku? Explore the possibility of spicing up your story with a poem or song lyrics (you don’t even have to write the music notes for your song.) Maybe your hero or heroine has a catch phrase or manner of speaking that involves some poetic elements. You could even preface the character’s words as being bad poetry and get away with murder, that is, if you’re writing a mystery.

The use of poetic and musical tones can help establish a character’s voice. In my novel, Free to Love (July 2022-is the repetition working for you yet) one character records the past and establishes an important part of her personality through writing poetry about pre-Civil-War events that lead her to free someone in slavery and help them escape to the north. Tone or voice is also important in prose and music when it comes to establishing whether your piece will be happy, sad, yearning, or hopeless. 

So, don’t feel hopeless when it comes to your writing. Make it sing. Make it reach into your soul like a poem. Pour your emotions and heart into all that you do. Happy writing!

For more on poetic forms, click here.

So many good tips, Bettie! You’ve made me realize more than ever that prose isn’t so different from music and poetry. To read Bettie’s previous guest blogs, click here.

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on cue
Buy at Mt. Zion Ridge Press before May 1st and 10% will go to relief for Ukranians through Samaritan’s Purse.

When a college sweetheart used Ginny Cline’s dreams for his own glory, he stole her joy of composing music and her trust in men. Years later, encouraged by prayer and a chance to help the local museum, she dares to share her talents again. Unfortunately a financial backer forces her to place her music and trust into the hands of another man.

Theater professor Scott Hallmark’s summer camp benefactor coerces him into becoming the director of Ginny’s musical. The last thing he needs is another woman who uses him to get what they want, especially an amateur who has no idea what they are doing.

As Ginny’s interest in Scott grows, her confusion arises over Honey, a member of Scott’s praise band. Mix in a couple of dogs and quirky cast members for fun and frustration as the couple work together to discover that forgiveness and trust produce perfect harmony.

Note-I hope you can read On Cue soon since the prequel Free to Love will be available July 1, 2022.

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Bettie Boswell has always loved to read and create stories. That interest helped her create musicals for both church and school and eventually she decided to write and illustrate stories to share with the world. Her first experience with Christian romance started when she spent a summer with her grandmother during her early teen years and read a Grace Livingston Hill novel. Now she reads a Christian novel every week and sometimes more than one. Her writing interests extend from children’s to adult fiction and non-fiction. Her first romance novel, On Cue, debuted November 2020. The prequel to that novel, called Free to Love will be available from Mt. Zion Ridge Press in July 2022.  Here other books and stories are “Fred’s Gift” in From the Lake to the River, Sidetracked, and Skateboarding. Before that she contributed to educational works, magazine articles, and devotional and short story anthologies. She has two grown sons, three grandchildren, and a busy minister husband. Follow her on her website, Bettie Boswell, Author/Illustrator.

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