Blogs by Flo Fitzpatrick
Writing Tip - Singing -Keep it OFF the Page
2/15/2011 4:17:05 AM
Singing – Keep it Off the Page
I love to sing. But there are places best suited for singing: concert halls, theatres, infant nurseries (or 'nursery' nurseries; plants love music! – and of course – the shower.
Notice I did not include “in the pages of your work in progress.”
The dreaded “Sing/song” text. Readers can get bored when lulled into writing that keeps the same rhythm, same pacing throughout.
If sentence lengths are the same.
If dialogue isn’t broken up by narrative or tags (He said, she asked, she remarked etc.)
If the narrative contains sentences that all end with a noun or preposition or an adverb, the writer can run the risk of sliding into a sing/song tune.
When you’re editing, ask someone to read aloud. It’s a great tool to use when you want to check for too many tunes singing away. If you have an old voice-activated recorder, you can try that if the sound of your own voice isn’t distracting to discovering problems in your work.
No willing voice-over actors? You can always scan your story to check for same-sentence lengths or pages of dialogue that look like a ping pong match.
Then, break the rhythm and sing a new song!
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