As I continue to invest days, hours, and years into writing, it’s becoming more exciting, and my confidence is blooming. That’s as it should be for anyone who dedicates themselves to a craft. As an author today, to be even minimally successful, one must write faster and be more prolific.
Think about the master composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He wrote over 600 works of music and died at the age of 35.
Writing and music both have rhythm and pacing. Consider this: You have commas, semicolons, dashes, and many other tools to change the flow—like whole notes, quarter notes, eighth rests, and sixteenth notes in music. Then there are the hundreds of musical designations, like Andante, Allegro, and many others. It’s all about timing and intensity—like yelling or whispering.
For example, take this sentence:
The wind howled outside the window.
Now, listen to it change rhythm:
The wind howled—shrieked—and pounded outside the rattling, storm-tossed window.
Or, a softer version:
The wind whispered, barely brushing the glass.
Notice how the rhythm changes? The choice of punctuation, sentence length, and word flow affects how the story “sings.”
When you put your ear to the written page—you can hear the story singing!
Gratitude to you,
Anthony Barbera