Music — May 18, 2025
Surfer at Sunset: Asilomar Beach, — Sept. 2019 photo
“If you do not hear music in your words, you have put too much thought into your writing and not enough heart.” – Terry Brooks
Writing fiction is a work of both the head and the heart. It requires delving into unfamiliar subjects and carefully plotting events. But that part is window dressing for the essence of the story — how your characters change from their experiences. And synchronizing everything can be like a chess game.
So how to make sure there’s heart in all of this? It helps to imagine your characters thoroughly. Understand them as deeply as you do family and friends. Tune into their feelings as you would your own. Is a character feeling uneasy? What are the signs? How do they discover the root of their discomfort? Once you know what the answer is, don’t just go ahead and name the emotion. Show it through the character’s actions. Make your reader feel it.
Another way to add depth to your fiction is to write sections of early drafts quickly from the top of your head. Like you are dreaming. Dreams have a way of getting to the heart of the matter. Abandon reason temporarily to make sure the heart has room to beat! You can edit later.
