Rhythmic Writing Exercises
Writing exercises in musicality
Have you ever read a poem, story, or article that lacked rhythm? If a piece is lifeless, despite the fact that it uses vivid imagery, clear and expressive language, and a sympathetic voice, there’s a good chance that it’s off-beat in terms of musicality.
A well-written piece in any genre has cadence. This means the sentences vary in length as do the individual words. To achieve musicality in a written work, a writer must be aware of syllables and stresses. The overall result is a written piece that sings and makes the reader’s imagination dance.
Today’s writing exercises encourage you to pay closer attention to the rhythm in your writing. If you can infuse your work with a bit of musicality, you can make your readers want to dance through your pages.
Writing Exercises in Rhythm for Readability
These two writing exercises will help you generate written material that has rhythm. Try these and you’ll find that your work becomes more readable when it has a beat backing it up.
The first exercise is systematic, and asks you to go through a piece of writing intentionally checking it for rhythm. The second approach is a bit looser, and only requires that you listen to your writing and try to determine its musicality by ear. Complete both of these writing exercises or just try one of them.
The Systematic Approach
Select a short piece or an excerpt from something you’ve written or are working on (under 250 words). This could be a couple of paragraphs from your novel in progress, or a short story you wrote for school. It can be an essay, a poem, news or magazine article, even straight copy from your website.
Draw a line down the center of a sheet of paper. Label the right side WORDS and the left side SENTENCES. The words column will show the number of syllables for each word and the sentences column will show the number of syllables for each sentence.
Now, go through the piece and count the syllables. In the left hand column enter a number for each word, representing the syllables. In the right hand column, enter the number of syllables for each sentence. When you’re done, the left hand column should be considerably longer.
Example
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
WORDS | SENTENCES
1 ………………11
1
1
1
1
2
1
2
1
Not a very rhythmic sentence. When working with several sentence, you want to see great variations in the sentence syllables. Within each sentence, the syllabic count of the words should also vary between one and four syllables.
This is a very systematic approach to evaluating the rhythm of your writing.
The Creative Approach
If you’d rather not deal with numbers, then try this:
Read a piece aloud, tapping along as you do so. You can tap your pen against the surface of your desk, or you can get really fancy and pull out an instrument such as a tambourine or bongo drum. You could even improvise with a wooden spoon and a couple of pots and pans. Bang out the syllables as you read the piece aloud, hitting harder on syllables that warrant greater emphasis.
Example
The quick brown fox jumps o-ver the la-zy dog. (Emphasis on bold syllables)
That’s how I read it anyway. By reading your piece aloud in this manner, you’ll notice quickly where it is lacking in terms of rhythm.
How Did These Writing Exercises Work for You?
If you decide to give one or both of these writing exercises a shot, come back and discuss what you learned. Or, try writing a piece from scratch that is rhythmic and melodic. Share an excerpt or share your thoughts in the comments.
If you have any favorite writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments or send them in as a guest post.
Melissa Donovan is a website designer and copywriter. She writes fiction and poetry and is the founder and editor of Writing Forward, a blog packed with creative writing tips and ideas.
Please don’t think I’m nitpicking because I am honestly confused about the directions.
You wrote “label the right side words and the left side sentences.” However, what you show is words and syllables.
Maybe I’m too hungry at the moment and should come back and read it later. But I’m fascinated by the concept because I have been trying to understand and work in/with my rhythm but I had not found a consistent way to visualize it.
Oops, that was supposed to be words and sentences. I’ve fixed it now. The idea is to see if you have a lot of words with the same number of syllables. When working with paragraphs, you’ll be able to easily see whether you are varying your sentence length.
I hope that clears up your questions!
Melissa
Hi Melissa,
Maybe you’ll want to wait just until the holidays are over, or at least until you get more feedback before you slow up on the exercises. I find them quite interesting! I’m really enjoying them myself. I particularly agree with what you’re saying here. I can tell when I’ve written something when I was tired or not focusing on that piece. It lands flat instead of “singing” as you say.
The lessons are very helpful!
Smiles,
Michele
P.S.
Of course, I understand you have to do what you have to do. This is just my two cents
Melissa, I’ve not been visiting very long but I am very glad to have found you and have enjoyed perusing Writing Forward these past several weeks. I loved this lesson. This is one of my pet peeves with a lot of the poetry that is being written of late. It seems that in the modern rush to abandon any sense of form or style we’ve forgotten the “sound” of poetry. I went back to a piece I’ve been working on and tried this approach and have, I hope, improved the rhythm as well as the content. Thanks!
I always find your exercises and the approaches you take interesting. I’ve been a syllable tapper when it comes to writing poetry for so long I can’t remember how it all started. I think perhaps I learnt to tap it out when I was in fourth grade. I’ve done it ever since. It does wonders for those with a musical background to develop the approach with language.
I’d never thought of taking the same approach with all writing. I listen for the natural cadence of language. It is a part of the beauty in words I truly love; a part of why I write. I’ve really enjoyed your approach.
Another point might be to remember the importance of tempo in writing. Variation can create remarkable rhythmic qualities but we can also increase the intensity or emotional impact with tempo, (many short syllable words to speed up, longer words to slow down, and the tense/untensed aspects of the words we choose).
Of course, that’s all getting into far too much detail for one week’s exercise. That’s why I think these weekly exercises are fantastic. It helps build our writer’s toolboxes. Thanks, Melissa.
Hi Melissa,
I just read over all the posts under this category. OMG. I had missed a few. This is such a resource!
If you are getting page views in keeping with your site’s rage of pv, then I think that your not getting comments because…
…readers get caught up in the thoughts/exercise you propose, then bemusedly copy the instructions into NotePad or whatever, and simply go merrily off your page to do the exercise, *or*
…they’re off scrambling to find that old manuscript on the disc somewhere, suddenly on fire with the idea it might be edited into its due gory, *or*
some readers are in the creative person’s slump/depression so when reading these exercises think, That’s such a great idea, if only I had that drive I used to have,” etc., ad infinitum. Naturally they leave the page without making a comment, being in a slump at the time. But they know this resource is here.
I really hope you don’t end this. I know this is a long comment already but I wanted to tell you why several of your exercises are so special to me:
I am the merest amateur and easily get discouraged or run out of steam when in the “just writing” mode. Many, many writing exercises require that mode. What you include that is different and especially helps me are the exercises that don’t require that mind set, the ones that are *quantitative* or have *concrete steps,* such as “Flash Your Fiction” That is brilliant! There is one to do with sensory description. The current exercise is anther rather “quantitative” approach.
This type of exercises gives me a starting point, fresh insight and hope when I am thoroughly hopeless or stuck, etc.
I had to laugh because I think you picked the *flattest* sentence there *is* as your example.
“The quick brown…”
Essie
I’m glad you’ve written about rhythm and musicality in writing. Much of what passes for as writing on the web lacks this essential element. Some writing just don’t have soul, do they. Cadence is good.
I like the second exercise though. Makes you dance. Any excuse to dance is a good thing. And good not only for the editing the post to make it splendid but also to aerate the stuffy brain.
I’m with you one hundred percent. In fact, I don’t need an excuse to dance. Just put on some music and I’m ready to go! I believe musicality is one of the unsung secrets to good writing, which is why I believe all writers should dabble a little (or a lot) in poetry.
I found out this was what I was lacking in my stories. I just couldn’t get the visual right, but I realized it was because I was afraid to put in too much detail. Also, I noticed there was something off about something in the words or sentences, which I couldn’t figure out how to fix. Then, when I read this, I just stared and went “Oh” because this is exactly what was wrong with it. I’ve also become much more aware of my mistakes that make what I’m trying to say sound odd. It’s really helped! My work has improved so much after reading this!
Hi Emily, I think it’s common for writers to neglect rhythm and musicality in their work. I do find that reading aloud and listening to (a lot of) music helps instill a natural sense of rhythm. Good luck to you!
Tuberose
by Nahiyan Bin Asadullah
I love you
my lovely.
Whenever I see you
I feel happy.
Whenever I take your fragrance
I feel happy.
Truly you have a smell of celebration
and your smell organizes a blissful occasion.
Whenever I take your fragrance
I feel that’s my wedding day.
It’s a feeling beyond expression
I start living with imagination.
When I see you, touch you
feel you; I remember my Love.
My Love is not a she or he
But He created the beauty of eternity.
From Him is love, He is love
Only He is worth remembering.
My Poem is for you
My Love.
I love You
I really do.
You are seeing me
aren’t you?
Look at me my Love
I love your creation.
Tuberose,
I love this flower, through that I see you and know your glory.
The feeling that I get
it’s my wedding day, verily it’s just a feeling.
For wedding is from you
You created spouses for your slaves.
Just the way you created this tuberose
for us, so that we may know you.
No matter what I feel
it is indeed for you.
Verily my worship, life, and Death are for You.
I am writing this poem only to please You.
My sole intention is nothing but to praise You.
And I know your true slaves will praise You way better than I do.
Thank you for sharing your poem with us, Nahiyan.
You are most welcome Melissa, feedback will be much appreciated
thank you.
Hi Nahlyan, Thanks again for sharing your work. This isn’t a critique board or group, but you are welcome to visit my services page if you’d like to learn more about the professional services that I offer to writers: http://www.writingforward.com/services.