THE MUSIC IN WRITING by M. M. Gornell
The Music in Writing
Thank you, Marilyn, for hosting me here
on your blog. I don’t write many posts these days, but I wanted to share a
recent incident and where it took me—and info about my latest novel published
this August. Inviting me to post here on your blog is wonderful!
Madeline
(M.M.) Gornell’s mystery novels include—PSWA award winners Uncle Si’s Secret and Lies
of Convenience (also a Hollywood Book Festival Honorable Mention), Death of a Perfect Man, and Reticence of Ravens (a finalist for the
Eric Hoffer 2011 fiction Prize, the da Vinci Eye for cover art, and the
Montaigne Medal for most thought provoking book). Counsel of Ravens (a London Book Festival Honorary Mention and LA
Book Festival Runner-Up) is her first sequel, and was a continuation of Hubert
Champion’s Mojave saga. Rhodes—The
Movie-Maker is her second sequel, and the continuation of Leiv Rhodes’s
saga begun in Rhodes—The Mojave-Stone.
She continues to be inspired by
historic Route 66, and this her second Rhodes novel, reflects that continuing
fascination. Madeline lives with her husband and assorted canines in the Mojave
High Desert near the internationally revered Route 66.
As
Marilyn knows, I live in a little town on Route 66 between Barstow and Las Vegas.
Where I usually grocery shop is in the town of Barstow, California, and often
in the Vons (Safeway). Occasionally, I meet “Roadies” and tour bus visitors in
that store because of its location on Route 66. Many times I’m wearing a Route
66 T-shirt; and recently, people on two separate occasions have stopped me to
talk. (alas, not because they recognize
me as a writer, but because of the T-shirt.) Of course I introduce myself
as a writer and give them a bookmark. The most recent gentleman who stopped me, asked me if my books would “sing to
him?” Boy did he catch me by surprise! He’d touched on a major writing goal of
mine. Following is an edited re-posting of mine on the topic.
I think lyricism
is more complicated than my following explanation—but it’s the best I can do so
far. It’s the juxtaposition of short sentences, long sentences,
paragraph breaks, even scene breaks that carry our minds forward. Sing to
our minds. Pleasant to the ear—reading wise. It’s the
mechanics, (or is it the art?), of intermixing heavy and tedious words or
sentences with the short and snappy. For me, it’s also a kind of a
coaxing music that moves me along in the story. It’s that little
“something” that makes you want to keep reading, keep listening to the
author’s song. Regardless of whether a good or bad story.
And
for me, it’s often very hard to do—but when it’s there in
other’s writings—easy to hear. In the final edits I do make a lot of changes to
try to make my writing “sing.”
Especially since I’m habitually fond of writing long and tedious sentences. Not
sure if “literary lyricism” is a craft-of-writing kind of thing that can be
learned, or a talent you either have or don’t. Sure hope it’s at least
an improvable skill.
Indeed,
this may be something only I “hear.” A concept only important to me. Though,
the gentleman’s question in Vons makes me think I’m not alone in looking for
illusive lyricism. And there are enough hurdles and “things” to think about
already in writing—I certainly don’t want to build artificial new ones.
But bringing music to/in writing and reading is something to think about—especially
for those of you who can tell C from D, and a flat from a sharp!
Here’
my latest offering that hopefully will “sing” to some…
Back book-cover synopsis: Sometimes surprising and
breathtaking happenings occur in the desert.
For example—heavy spring rains bring
back to life a dry windblown-riverbed producing a mass of water powerful enough
to snatch and carry away everything in its path.
Less dramatic, but no less spectacular—lighter spring rains turn
broad expanses of Mojave Desert flatlands into multicolored and picture-perfect
wildflower carpets.
And even the human hand—admittedly, via
time-controlled irrigation boom operations, performs magical dust-to-beauty happenings.
Indeed, with the flip of a well-switch, swatches of desert are brought alive
with what seems like a flood of purple-to-blue flowering alfalfa.
But most amazingly—if you look widely, without
preconception, in the right place, and at the appropriate point in time, you
will find people who were swept up in the flood of human events,
and did the most unexpected and exceptional things.
One such flood of
human events plays out in The Movie-Maker. This tale is not a
murder mystery, though there are in fact several murders—but there is
little-to-no mystery surrounding who the perpetrators are. Neither is
this tale meant to be a literary treatise addressing age-old philosophical
questions or current day conundrums. This tale’s primary goal is fun and
escapism. Nor is The Movie-Maker a police procedural, though
happenings do occur that require police activities. Nor is this tale an
action drama even though dramatic actions do unfold. A romance? Not exactly,
though several love stories—past and present—flavor happenings and decisions.
Rhodes—The Movie-Maker is simply one of many human
event stories playing themselves out in the Mojave Desert along historic
Route 66.
[i] A previous lady in Vons asked me about where I get my
ideas which led to another post on Writers in Residence https://thewritersinresidence.com/2017/09/06/stealing-and-more/.
[ii] Here’s a quickie little back-story—I’m
tone-deaf and monotone when it comes to musical hearing and singing songs. The
short synopsis of a long younger-life story is: in grammar school I was
instructed to just move my lips during mass hymns, and in high school I was
excused from Gee-Club (not a small concession for the time and environment) So,
you get the picture—music is not my forte. But lyricism in writing is something
I can hear. And feel.
Comments
Thanks, Maddie!
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