Fascinating rhythm

Hi friends,

I hope everyone had a restful and satisfying holiday. This year my family and I decided to stay local to spend Thanksgiving at my husband’s aunt’s house with his mother and his cousin, and then our aunt’s stove broke down, so we stayed even more local than we planned! Thanksgiving dinner was deliciously simple and small — just my husband, my son, and me at home — and then we enjoyed dessert at our dear friends’ house to top off a perfect evening.

For the first time, I also got lots of writing done over Thanksgiving break, which was very welcome because I’ve been working toward finishing a novel revision for my agent by December 15. And as of this morning, I’m finished (yay!).

After my last pass through this manuscript, I identified a very big issue I needed to resolve, so I was more than a little nervous to read through it again. But this time I was relieved to find that the story finally seems to be working.

Aside from my usual self-doubt, which I’ve learned to ignore, I could tell it was close because the thing I focused on most as I read and edited was the rhythm of the prose. When I’m not distracted by plot holes or character problems, I start to pay close attention to how sentences are working together, how punctuation affects my reading experience, and how naturally the dialogue comes across.

But as I was working on this pass, I started to notice something deeper: it’s not just the prose itself that has a rhythm, but each scene, chapter, and character have their own rhythms too. And the story as a whole has a rhythm, and when these are all working together, it’s like a satisfying symphony.

It was a really exciting realization because my shiny new novel, which I’m eager to return to drafting, uses multiple POVs, and I’ve been thinking about how to differentiate them more. Thinking of rhythm as an aspect of both voice and character has offered me a possible new way in. Do my characters speak quickly and fluidly or do they take time to choose their words carefully? Do they barrel through life or tiptoe? Does rest rejuvenate them or activity? Do they make decisions easily or weigh every option multiple times? Do their minds process events quickly or methodically?

These are all questions I’ve either asked or will ask myself in one form or another, but when I approach them through the lens of rhythm as character, they inspire me in a new way — one I’m really excited to explore.

Usually most of my attention to rhythm and pacing comes to the fore in revision, and by then, I edit almost entirely by instinct. So now, as I get back to drafting, I’m interested to see how my approach to writing will change as I try to keep rhythm in mind from the beginning, as I tell the story from the perspectives of three different people.

I can’t wait to get started, and I hope you’re looking forward to something that inspires you this week too. If you’ve had any new insights or breakthroughs, feel free to share them in the comments so we can all be inspired along with you.

Yours,

Jen