The Music in Writing

The sound of the sea, the curve of a horizon, wind in leaves, the cry of a bird leave manifold impressions in us. And suddenly, without our wishing it at all, one of these memories spills from us and finds expression in musical language. I want to sing my interior landscape with the simple artlessness of a child.  – Claude Debussy

Playing with music helps add rhythm to writing. 

Discover ways to sing and write.

Sing songs for their word and tune combinations.

Look at lyrics for current songs:

http://www.metrolyrics.com/top100.html.

Try writing to a song from the past. Respond to each line and see where it takes you in rhythm and words.

The Dangling Conversation

It's a still life water color,

Of a now late afternoon,

As the sun shines through the curtained lace

And shadows wash the room.

And we sit and drink our coffee

Couched in our indifference,

Like shells upon the shore

You can hear the ocean roar

In the dangling conversation

And the superficial sighs,

The borders of our lives.

And you read your Emily Dickinson,

And I my Robert Frost,

And we note our place with bookmarkers

That measure what we've lost.

Like a poem poorly written

We are verses out of rhythm,

Couplets out of rhyme,

In syncopated time

And the dangled conversation

And the superficial sighs,

Are the borders of our lives.

Yes, we speak of things that matter,

With words that must be said,

"Can analysis be worthwhile?"

"Is the theater really dead?"

And how the room is softly faded

And I only kiss your shadow,

I cannot feel your hand,

You're a stranger now unto me

Lost in the dangling conversation.

And the superficial sighs,

In the borders of our lives.

                       - Paul Simon

During the editing process, sing a tune and see how it assists with the arrangement of sentences in your project.

Let words resound with musicality to add dimension to writing.