Got Rhythm?

I understand all too well what Virginia Woolf meant by the following statement: "Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can't use the wrong words. But on the other hand here am I sitting after half the morning, crammed with ideas and visions, and so on, and can't dislodge them, for lack of the right rhythm."

I especially get the part about "sitting after half the morning, crammed with ideas and visions, and so on, and can't dislodge them, for lack of the right rhythm." Included with characterization, plotting, description, and a firm command of grammar and usage is this equally significant, almost mystic element of rhythm. It's indescribable, for the most part. It has to do with your inner ear, the sound and echo of your word choices, the pacing and flow of your writing as you make those choices and place them and arrange them the right way. 

Word choices--if not the only key to the rhythm of your writing--are certainly one of the master keys. One wrong word choice, no matter how minor, will disrupt, or corrupt, your rhythm. A good translation of the Bible offers countless examples of the importance of rhythm. Read aloud a few of your favorite passages--especially in the Psalms or Lamentations--then change the words around to create a different rhythm. Try the same exercise with some good poetry. The result is discomfiting and disappointing.   

It's not unusual that some of us would spend half a morning or longer groping for the right word or words in a passage and simmer with frustration when it continues to elude us. But when it finally works--when you finally hear the rhythm as it's meant to be, as you could hear it in your head all along--then you realize that what you thought to be time wasted was actually time well-spent.

BJ

Comments

[BJ]

That's a good word for it when it doesn't work: "clanks!"

BJ

[Angie]

I know what she meant, too, BJ, but when I can't find the rhythm, I just let it all hang out and trust that I'll have a chance to fix it in the next pass. But there definitely IS a rhythm, 'cause it can hear it when it clanks as opposed to singing . . .

Maybe it's our musical backgrounds. :-)

Angie