7/14/24
I Got Rhythm
This is number seventy in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
I WROTE A LOT OF POETRY when I was a teen. I even competed in and won speech contests reading my own poetry. That was not technically allowed. The rules said ‘poems by a recognized author.’ When my speech teacher confronted me about it, she asked, “Who recognized it?”
It happened that she had read and studied the poems and then took it upon herself to guide me in their interpretation. She actually told me what the author was trying to get across in the poem and how I should read it in order to bring that meaning out.
“You did,” I answered. “You recognized it when you interpreted it to me.”
She asked no more questions about whether I could legitimately read the poem and I won the next speech contest.
I continued writing poetry well into my thirties. By that time, I was far more wrapped up in my prose and let poetry slide by the wayside. A business advisor once told me “If you aren’t a poet in your teens, you have no soul. If you are still a poet in your thirties, you have no brain.” I still kind of disagree.
I find that writing poetry significantly influenced my writing of prose. When I released my first long series of books, the Model Student series, back in 2012-13, I was quite consumed with the passion of my characters—whether I was describing Tony’s artwork or his racquetball playing. I lost myself in the rhythm of the brushstrokes and the ball in the court.
One reviewer said, “Some of the writing, when describing Tony producing his masterpieces, is absolutely sublime.” Another said that one section had inspired him to write poetry. And I think back on writing that piece and realize I was wrapped up in the poetic rhythm of the story.
When I think of my most successful prose works, I find they share a foundation of poetic rhythm. The words came easily when I was in the flow and could feel the rhythm.
The individual eBooks and the Model Student collection are available on Bookapy. The paperbacks are available from major online retailers.
While contemplating what to write next this summer, I’ve been searching for that rhythm in a story that would capture the reader and allow the words to flow from my pen. And there are so many different rhythms.
I’ve watched a lot of episodes of the major talent search shows on television this spring, as I developed the final chapters of The Strongman (to be released in August). The shows feature singers, dancers, acrobats, comedians, magicians, dog trainers, and ventriloquists—among others. One never knows what one will see. I noticed, however, that the best acts have a rhythm to them, often accompanied by music, whether a musical act or not.
Certainly, there are certain songs that appear repeatedly in the auditions and even in the later performances. Why anyone still auditions to some of them, I don’t know. They have been preceded by a performance so definitive as to make comparison difficult. But still, they excel!
And I think that is what drives the best prose forward as well. No matter how many stories we have read about an underdog loser who finds his or her groove and becomes successful and popular, we still gravitate to the next one and read it to feel the rhythm all over again.
I was thinking about this recently when a quote came across my desk that encapsulated the feeling and the drive of writing to a rhythm. It is from famed author of the early 20th century, Virginia Woolf.
“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. Now this is very profound, what rhythm is, and goes far deeper than words. A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it; and in writing (such is my present belief) one has to recapture this, and set this working (which has nothing apparently to do with words) and then, as it breaks and tumbles in the mind, it makes words to fit it. But no doubt I shall think differently next year.”
- Virginia Woolf, The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume Three, 1923-1928
I could not have expressed it better. I sit at my desk (a lap desk I carry on the road) and look at the chaotic mass of ideas I have for a new story that I can’t dislodge for lack of the right rhythm. Will this story have a bossa nova beat? A waltz? Cha cha cha? Big band swing? An R&B backbeat? When I find that, I know I’ll have a story that will keep me writing.
Thirty years ago, I produced a new age CD for a vocalist who really understood her rhythms. (Land of Ever by Elyra Campbell.) The sound engineer was great and we had many long conversations. He held that no matter what the genre of music, if he cut out everything but the groove (the rhythm section—typically but not exclusively on drums) people liked it. You might hate rap or country or classics, but if all you heard was the groove, you’d enjoy it. He tested the concept with a CD he mastered that did just that. I listened to and enjoyed over an hour of rhythm and was surprised that it cut across every genre of music. (This talented sound engineer is now a Russian Orthodox priest!)
So, I say this is even more important when writing erotica! The greater the passion that is involved, the more important the groove becomes. Relationships develop, flourish, and even decline to a certain rhythm. Let us not forget that even sex is a sometimes complicated dance that is most enjoyed when the partners share the same rhythm.
Here, then, is to finding the rhythm and soul in the writing. The words will follow.
I’m enjoying my little break much like people enjoy a vacation that they will need a rest from before they can return to work. It is exciting and exhilarating, but ultimately, I want to be doing something more. Next week, I’ll start exploring my current story ideas with “All Are Created Equal.”
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
