Monday, January 15, 2018

Poetry Study To Enhance Your Novels

Let me first say, I am, in no way, saying you need to add poetry to all of your stories. I am also not saying that authors INTENTIONALLY add figurative language to their writing. In fact, you should never simply add figurative language to your writing because you believe it will make the story better. But, there is a lot we can learn from poetry to enhance how our stories sound.

The thing that makes poetry difficult is that a poet has to say a lot in a short amount of space. With limited words, the poet has to convey emotions and imagery, and, in some cases, work within the confines of the specific genre or style of writing (rhyme, rhythm and so forth). I should also add here that this is the reason why I argue that writing category romance is much harder than writing single title. There are the guidelines of the line as well as the constraints of the word count that make telling those stories ever more difficult. (A BIG SHOUT OUT TO HARLEQUIN, TULE AND ENTANGLED AUTHORS).

What we learn from poetry is how the author tells the story. We see how an author shapes words and phrases to convey that image. We can see how the author is conscious of the flow of the writing and how the words cascade off the page in a beautiful flow.

Authors of fiction (and yes, non-fiction too) are often so concerned about the plot of the story, they forget to read it out-loud to hear if there is any poetry to the words.

So, your goal today is to read out-loud. Listen to the words. Listen to the flow. Listen to the images. This might be the reason your writing is being rejected by those editors and agents.

1 comment: