This blog posts on Mondays. Second Mondays of the month I devote to my writing workshop students and anyone else interested in creative writing. Welcome!
> For the archive of workshop posts click here.
The following examples of musical writing I took from what I had handy at the moment, e.g., a magazine article, a newspaper movie review, however, for the most part, from old favorites on my bookshelves. Notice how the rhythms and sounds provide energy and meaning.
There he is, in all his glory, Brad Pitt, that beautiful, chiseled chunk of celebrity manhood. You want him? Go see “Fight Club.” You want action, muscle, and atmosphere? You want boys bashing boys in bloody, living color? “Fight Club” is your flick, dude.
—Desson Howe, The Washington Post. 10/1999
The first technique Howe uses here is the rise with questions, then a contrasting downward thrust with commands or assertions:
You want him? Go see “Fight Club.”
You want boys bashing boys in bloody, living color? “Fight Club” is your flick, dude.
Howe also uses poetic alliteration— repeating sounds in adjacent or nearby words:
Brad Pitt, that beautiful, chiseled chunk
action, muscle, and atmosphere
boys bashing boys in bloody
“Fight Club” is your flick
Howe also uses poetic repetition:
you want.. you want… you want
Finally, he plugs in a diction drop:
your flick, dude
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I could give many excellent reasons for my dislike of large dinner-parties, soirées, crushes, routes, conversazioni and balls.
—Aldous Huxley, “The Traveller’s-Eye View”
Here Huxley also uses poetic listing, made poetic in part by his use of alliteration (crushes… conversazioni).
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Philadelphia, I was told in New York, was so slow that it was safe for people to fall out windows—they just wafted down like gossamer…
—P. Gibbs, People of Destiny, 1920
Brilliant use of the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in this one. For more about that, see my post on Grokking Scansion.
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Further fun examples:
We knew you were wondering, and the answer is no. Mohair is not the hair of the mo.
—Jonathan Raush, “The Golden Fleece”
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No typos in this one, by the way (not that I could find anyway); this is how Armstrong wrote it:
We don’t think that we could be more relaxed and have better neighbors any place else. So we stay put After all— we have’ a very lovely home. The house may not be the nicest looking front. But when one visit the Interior of the Armstrong’s home they’ see a whole lot of comfort, happiness + the nicest things. Such as that Wall to Wall Bed— a Bath Room with Mirrors Everywhere‘ Since we are Disciples to Laxatives. A Garage with a magic up + down Gate to it. And of course our Birthmark Car‘ a Cadillac’ (Yea). The Kids in our Block just thrill when they see our garage gate up, and our fine Cadillac ooze on out. They just rejoice and say, “Hi—Louis + Lucille— your car is so beautiful coming out of that rise up gate,” which knocks me out.
—Louis Armstrong, In His Own Words
Tony Morrison said, “The function of freedom is to free someone else,” and if you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, tell your story. Risk freeing someone else. Not everyone will be glad that you did. Members of your family and other critics may wish you had kept your secrets. Oh, well, what are you going to do? Get it all down. Let it pour out of you onto the page. Write an incredibly shitty, self-indulgent, whiney, mewling first draft. Then take out as many of the excesses as you can.”
—Anne Lammott, Bird by Bird
I stepped onto the hot tarmac of Tan Son Nhut air base to the ear-splitting howl of jet fighters. These jets had an aura of aggression, with their pointed noses painted as sharks hurtling down the runway, bombs tucked under wings, afterburners aglow. The energy of the war was awesome.
—Jon Swain, River of Time
…hold on with a bull-dog grip and chew and choke as much as possible
— President Lincoln to General U.S. Grant
“When somebody threatens me,” he says, “I usually tell them to pack a picnic and stand in line.”
— Mikey Weinstein quoted in “Marching As to War” by Alan Cooperman, Washington Post
There is about our house a need… We need someone who’s afraid of frogs. We need someone to cry when I get mad, not argue. We need a little one who can kiss without leaving egg or jam or gum. We need a girl.
—George H. Bush, letter to his mother, 1953
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What are your favorite books? I would venture to suggest that those, the books you have already read and most truly enjoyed, are going to be your best teachers. I’m betting that, as you comb through them, abundant examples of musical writing will be easy to find.
What are your favorite books? I would venture to suggest that those, the books you have already read and most truly enjoyed, are going to be your best teachers.
P.S. To really make this sink into your writing mind, I would suggest that you try marking the stressed and unstressed syllables, and also identifying some of the author’s poetic techniques.
Grokking Scansion:
A Teensy (Albeit Painfully Tedious)
Investment for a Megamungous Payoff
in the Power of Your Prose