My Article Published: "Poetic Play: Exploring Space, Line, and Stanza" 🎉

Beautiful photo collage courtesy of Women on Writing.

Super excited that my latest article about writing poetry was published today at Women on Writing. Read on for some tips to spark your writing practice.

Poetic Play: Exploring Space, Line, and Stanza

By Melanie Faith

Poetry presents itself visually, just as people stand in front of a closet each morning and choose a linen suit, a plain white T-shirt, a bright floral skirt, or a favorite pair of soft jeans. Even before reading the title or the first line, poetry takes up room on the page in such a unique way and offers opportunities for communicating spatially. 

Let’s take a look at some exciting ways form, line, and stanza can be used to enhance our writing.

It’s not only the words chosen; it’s the chosen lack of words, too. Say what?! Unlike prose, the majority of poetry includes purposeful use of blank space which gives ideas room to breathe, can offer emphasis, can create a shape, and so much more. Where and how are the words grouped on the page? Where are the pockets of blank space? 

While writing a first draft, poets often instinctively create these blank spaces, such as by beginning or ending a stanza. These spaces can stay throughout all subsequent drafts, or they can be added to or omitted. 

Asking ourselves questions like: If I leave a space here, how does that affect the way this line reads or the emphasis this image or word has for readers? What if I include a blank space between words within the same line? What if I indent the first and fifth lines in each stanza throughout the poem? How will that positively or negatively impact the way readers approach the poem? 

I often experiment most with blank spaces during my third drafts. I will consider where an extra pause of blank space—whether midline, before a certain word or phrase or after, or indentations—might enrich a reader’s experience of the poem. I also give myself room to delete or to reorganize any white space that I try but which I don’t think best serves the poem. 

Keeping a copy of earlier drafts in a single file so that I can scroll back and compare/contrast drafts is a tip that has really worked well in my writing practice. Printing an early draft and a latest draft to compare and contrast off-screen can also work very well when adding, moving around, or deleting white space from a poem.

  

Line by line by line. Poems can benefit from paying close attention to where a poetic line opens or closes. There’s no rule that a poem’s original opening words or phrases in a line or stanza have to stay that way forever. 

Look within your lines to see if there’s a particularly interesting word, image, or phrase that could have more emphasis if opening or closing a line instead. Feel free to dig into the line, move openings and closings of lines around, and also to insert new stanza breaks to see how the poem looks on the page. 

After playing with new openings or closings to lines, it can be helpful to read the poem aloud to see how the new lines and line breaks affect a reader’s movement through the poem. Another fun exercise: have a friend read your poem aloud to you. Are there any places where the reader pauses or any awkward spots? Conversely, where are the spots where the emphasis on certain words or images feels just right? 

Stanza bonanza. Some poems have a single stanza with lines of approximately the same length and meter, called a “stichic.” Many other poems use multiple stanzas. New stanzas can be started to pivot into a new idea or to emphasize a certain theme, phrase, or image. Or starting new stanzas can also innately seem like the best way to move a reader through a poem. 

There’s a variety of approaches for knowing when to open and close stanzas. I recommend keeping a few poetry books or anthologies handy, or perusing websites like The Poetry Society of America or The Poetry Foundation, the latter of which has a searchable database and a daily poem. Studying a few different poets’ approaches to opening and closing stanzas can give you ideas for where you might include stanza breaks and openings in the next draft of your poem. 

In your chosen poems, study how long or short stanzas are. Consider counting how many words per line a poem uses. Count lines in stanzas to see if each stanza has the same amount of lines or if there’s variety. Where and when does the poet break a stanza for a new one or even break a pattern among stanzas? Which stanza break do you like best? How does white space between stanzas add emphasis to key words, phrases, or images within the poem? 

As we craft and edit our poems, keep experimenting with the way your poems look on the page and feel when read aloud until the work presents its best formation to you. 

Try this exercise: Read three to five poems by different poets. Then, take a first draft or a stalled draft and apply two of the line, stanza, or white-space patterns you notice from the other poets’ writing to your own. This might include having three lines per stanza or opening a stanza with a color image or a concrete noun or creating a poem with two stanza breaks. Compare and contrast drafts, and try editing another poem with other poetic patterns you notice from your reading. 

***

Care to learn more? Check out my August poetry course:

Never Again the Same: A Poetry Class

4 week workshop: August 8 - August 29, 2025

Instructor: Melanie Faith

Beautiful photo collage courtesy of Women on Writing.

My Article, "4 Epic Takeaways from Myths, Fairytales, and Folktales to Apply to Your Writing," Published Today! 🎉

Splendid news: I’ve had a craft article published today at Women on Writing. The topic is a very fanciful and fun one: “4 Epic Takeaways from Myths, Fairytales, and Folktales to Apply to Your Writing.”

Ta-da!

“4 Epic Takeaways from Myths, Fairytales, and Folktales to Apply to Your Writing”

by Melanie Faith

Stories based on myths, fairytales, and folktales have interested readers and have seen a remarkable resurgence in popular fiction and bestselling novels in recent years.  Authors like Sarah J. Maas of A Court of Thorns and Roses series fame and Madeline Miller’s Circe are household names.

First, let’s explore some exciting reasons why writers and readers alike find these stories compelling and inspiring.

·         They reignite our childhood imaginations. Most writers and readers fondly remember their favorite mythic characters. We grew up on their adventures, and it felt like we grew up with them, too.  Whether it was Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, The Frog Prince, or other Brothers Grimm fairy-tale protagonists or Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina, The Little Match Girl, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, The Wild Swans, or The Snow Queen, these stories populated library shelves and bookshelves in our rooms that take us back to our earliest days of being read to and reading on our own.

·         They connect us with timeless stories of human emotion. All of those bedtime stories influenced us as creative thinkers and helped us to learn empathy. I remember a Little Golden Book copy of Hansel and Gretel my dad used to read to us for bedtime stories that I begged to hear over and over, even though it also completely freaked me out with its tender, lost brother-and-sister duo, the gingerbread-house-residing scary witch, and that terrifying oven. I also remember well the beautiful, far-less-frightening treasury of children’s folktales with Rapunzel’s long, long tresses descending and dangling from a fortress tower.

·         They represent our heritages. Myths, fairytales, and folktales are popular throughout the world and in every culture. They feel embedded in our DNA almost. They transmit the values and customs appreciated within a culture. Whether these stories are translated into many languages or remain in their language of origin, they often share commonalities in theme, tone, and plot. Human nature explored with drama and humor and warnings and hope against all odds. These stories can sometimes offer well-paced and satisfying closure we seldom get in everyday life.  

·         They give us other worlds to retreat to and to savor in the midst of turbulence and turmoil. They are epic recreations of stress and struggle with protagonists with whom we can identify. They also give us deeper insight into our own times and our place within them. These are some of the many reasons why stories based on Greek and Roman myths as well as entirely new world-building settings continue to flourish.

 

What can we take from fairytales to apply to our own writing? Try these four tips:

·         Every protagonist needs a sufficiently powerful antagonist to contend with. If the antagonist doesn’t unleash enough consequences and trouble, the protagonist won’t need to rise to the occasion to protest and triumph. Make sure your antagonists cause enough conflict in your narrative. This is one of the most common reasons for ho-hum fiction that gets rejected. What is your protagonist’s worst fear? That should inform your antagonist’s next moves.

·         When the chips are down, they are never completely defeated. Make sure the larger implications of the conflict are explored in vivid detail so that your readers can imagine the anxious situation and feel it as they read. Embed a small foreshadowed detail to maintain the hope that eventually will prevail.  

·         Setting is significant. Nothing should happen in a vacuum. Where and when a story takes place are vital elements to good storytelling. Add visual images, references to music and art and books and important popular culture of the time, and landscape or architectural details to flesh out scenes, especially near the beginning of a longer work to create vibrant context. Research settings and eras with an eye towards intriguing tidbits to share in your tale. Readers really want to feel like they, too, are stepping into and roaming around the protagonist’s authentic world.   

·         Protagonists don’t need to say a lot at once to have a big impact. Actions and reactions are just as important, if not more so, than dialogue. Definitely write conversations into your tale, but keep dialogue as direct, pertinent, quickly paced, and resonant as possible. Protagonists don’t have time for long-paragraph speeches and explanations before springing into action. The clock is tick-tick-ticking! Show their determination and concern with their actions, rather than their pronouncements.  

 

The next time you open your draft-in-progress, consider applying these tips to create more vital, vibrant prose. Also, join us for my new upcoming course with further tips about crafting your own riveting protagonists and worlds that will keep readers returning again and again.

Want to learn more? Writing the Mythic: Penning Prose Exploring Myths, Fairytales, and/or Folktales starts on Friday, April 18th. I’d love to have you join us. 😊

Beautiful illustrations courtesy of Women on Writing.

My Article Published: "Finding Your Fiction Draft’s Best Beginning" 🎊

Thrilled that my article, “Finding Your Fiction Draft’s Best Beginning,” was published today at Women on Writing. Read the article below, and take the exercise for a spin.

Also check out this link to my new online class, FROM BETTER TO BEST: Writing Fictional Beginnings that Hook Readers, that begins Friday, January 24th. 😊

Without further ado: ta-da! 🎊

“Finding Your Fiction Draft’s Best Beginning”

By: Melanie Faith

 Here are three things that share a commonality: home renovation, finding a supportive life or business partner, earning a degree. What’s their similarity? 

While you think about it, let’s ponder our attention spans, which have grown quite a bit shorter in recent years. Think about how quickly we move onto the next book, song on streaming, or post on social media if it doesn’t grab our attention and hold it. Add to that the fact that publishers receive thousands of manuscripts a year, all vying for attention, and it’s pretty staggering.  

So, what do our initial three examples have in common? They all require a big time investment (often much longer than anticipated) and tend to test our patience at various steps until we reach our goal. If there are consistent through lines in life, it is that most of our efforts require regrouping, refining, and numerous revisions.

With so much streaming content and instant entertainment available and so few minutes of free time each day, it’s even more important than ever that we writers intrigue our readers from the start or else there’s a world of other options they’ll choose from. Gone are the days of the slow-burn build-up of a few pages. While it takes more time and effort to rewrite opening pages, it’s well worth it to hook our readers.

What should we do to ensure that our beginnings make a positive, have-to-keep-reading-this impact?

 

·         Bring in the Buddies: Have you looked so often at your draft that your brain is tired? Or are you moderately sure your opening is fine, but then again… An external reader can be invaluable, either way. Props if they are another author, but they don’t have to be. Give your first pages/chapter to willing friends or colleagues and ask what one passage they liked best; this is the element that should front-end your next draft.  Feel free to get the opinion of another reader or two, but don’t ask so many readers that you get numerous conflicting opinions, which can be confusing. In my own experience, asking between one and three readers is a sweet spot to get the perfect amount of feedback on whether my current opening works well. If your readers are also writers, make sure to return the favor for them sometime. Another option: send just the first page and have them note what they think is the most interesting or important line. This really zeroes in on whether the current opening lines flop or fly.   

 

·         Heed the Hunch: You know that line that made you smile when you wrote it? That line that sort of shimmered from the page or made you stop and feel surprised?  That little jolt of wow or that little tickle of hmmm is your inner writer letting you know that something impactful has just landed on the page. If that passage is already on your first page, great! Leave it there. But if it’s not, what if you moved it forward? I’ve often moved favorite lines forward and then either cut out the original opening and written transitions to the latter parts of the chapter or merged the original opening into other parts of the manuscript. Either method can work well, depending on the story’s needs and your own preferred editing methods.

 

·         Skip Ahead: Newsflash: your first chapter doesn’t have to be your first chapter. Let me rephrase that: the chapter that’s currently first may actually not be the best final-draft opener. Instead, a second, third, or even later chapter might hold a more compelling way to open your narrative. Feel free to move a scene or a whole chapter forward.

 

Try this exercise! Reread your draft’s current opening page or two and answer these questions (or ask a friend) to see if you might have a better opening that’s currently much later in your draft:

·         Is there action in the opening scene?  

·         Is there immediate conflict for the protagonist to struggles against?

·         Is it clear from the first page or two who is telling this story?

·         Is the protagonist compelling in this first chapter?

If the answer to any of these questions is “not really” or “not as much as there could be,” then it’s likely you have a faster-paced, more absorbing opening scene that you could move forward. Remember that editors, agents, and readers need your opening hook to grab their attention on page one or else they could stop reading. Sharpen the imagery, characterization, dialogue, or setting that will keep those pages turning.

 

Photo courtesy of Eilis Garvey and Unsplash.com.

"3 Significant Ways to Explore Theme in Poetry" 🍂

Super excited that my article about exploring theme in poetry was published today at Women on Writing. Check it out! I’m also taking sign-ups for my fun class that begins on Friday, October 18th—more details below about that and my latest poetry book as well. Read on! 😊

3 Significant Ways to Explore Theme in Poetry

By Melanie Faith

First whirly-twirly leaf of the season. Photographed by yours truly. 😁💗

Poetry is an evocative, word-rich art. It’s compressed language that so often tells a much, much wider, deeper, bigger story about the human journey. Read on for three tips that will make discovering and deepening themes within this art form a motivating voyage for you as a writer and a meaningful experience for your readers as well.  

Write a poem where an object expresses so much more than the sum of its parts. Think for a moment of the top two or three objects that have made a difference in your life. Maybe you still own them, or maybe you’ve lost them in a move or sold them years ago, like a first car. Maybe it’s a Christmas or birthday gift you still have that someone you love gave to you, or maybe it’s something you bought with your first or last paycheck from a job, Or perhaps it’s a commonplace item, like a pencil or pen, that has nonetheless figured prominently in your life in recent years. Describe the particulars of this object.

Poetry thrives on attention to imagery, with attention to detail. Our lives are terribly rushed, even on the “slow” days, and poetry encourages us both to slow down and to notice our world. Poetry also makes us feel gratitude for what we have and where we are in our lives at this very moment. Describing objects can be as short as a three-line haiku or a five-line tanka or as long as a sonnet or even an epic poem of many pages. Word count or style of poem is not nearly as important as being as vivid, visceral, and specific about the object and its meaning to you as possible. Write about the object as if either someone who has seen this fill-in-the-blank commonplace object a million times and even owns one can appreciate it at a whole new level, or as if someone who has never seen your unique object can intuit its worth and see it in their mind’s eye clearly. The object you choose—whether a pair of roller skates, say, or a key to your first car—will remind readers of their own experiences with roller skates or their first car. That magic connection between poet and reader shines through in object poems. 

Write a persona poem. Just like fiction, poetry can be a container for speaking in another character’s voice. Just because a poem is written in first-person POV doesn’t mean it has to be from the lens of your own life experience. Wonderful poems have been written in first-person from the point of view of fictional characters, historical leaders, artists real or imagined, you name it. You can also write a persona poem from the perspective of a non-famous, everyday person. They can be set in ancient history, modern history, present-day, or even a future we’ve not reached yet. Science-fiction or fantasy poetry? Why not?! Persona poems allow the writer to explore character creation, historical or present or future time periods, the timeless struggles and joys of being human, setting, and so much more within a compact poem. 

Many of the poems in my current collection, Does It Look Like Her? are persona poems from the POV of a painter and her young son; I’m neither a painter nor do I have a son. I found, though, while exploring my protagonist’s and her son’s lives, that through these characters I could say resonant things about being an artist, caregiver, and member of a family than I likely would have explored if writing from my own limited timeline. It’s often easier to tap into universal human experience through a character than relying solely on my own lens and experiences. Readers, too, often connect quite deeply with characters—it’s ingrained in us to put ourselves into the place of characters from the first reading we experience as small children who are being read to until we can read on our own.

Write a poem to celebrate a special occasion or to commemorate a milestone, whether yours or someone else’s. Great poems have been written to honor work anniversaries, engagements, marriage anniversaries, wedding receptions, births, retirement, graduations from kindergarten, high school, college and university, grad school, and first and last days of work. The poem can be in honor of a national holiday, an international event, a religious celebration, a place-centered poem such as celebrating the opening or anniversary of the founding of a school or organization or charity. You name it. Options abound! Any person, place, group, or stage of life is well worth exploring poetically, whether you write it for your own satisfaction, share it with a friend or partner, share at an in-person or online venue, or publish with a literary journal with thousands of readers. 

Enjoy the exercise below, and please join me for my October poetry-writing course where we’ll explore even more themes within this thought-provoking genre.

Try this exercise: Start with choosing the type of thematic poem from the three above that most interests you. Make a quick list of three or four topic ideas. Have a friend give you an idea or two as well, to lengthen your list of options. Then pick one of your ideas and write a poem draft in fifteen minutes. I recommend setting a timer—there’s something about writing a first draft with a time limit that tends to get words flowing. You can always set the timer for fifteen more minutes to expand the time for drafting if you want. Use this list to write more poems on other days. Go! 

🍁

Threading the Needle—Writing Thematic Poetry

Instructor: Melanie Faith

Start Date: Friday, October 18, 2024

Duration: 4 Weeks

Class Type: Asynchronous; it can be studied from anywhere in the world, in different time zones.

Location: Private Facebook group and email student provides when registering for the class.

Feedback: Weekly instructor feedback of exercises.


Description: Themes are important in vivid writing. Strong poetry often explores specific themes, from poems to celebrate special occasions and the natural world to poems that celebrate art and other beloved objects. In this class, students will read about 9 forms of poetry in our class texts (one craft book, How to Write Poetry: A Guided Journal of Prompts, and poetry books: Owls and Other Fantasies, The Optimist Shelters in Place, and Does It Look Like Her?, and one optional book: Letters to Joan), and then pick from the weekly themes to pen a poem for personalized instructor feedback on what is working well in their poem and what they might revisit/revise.

Weekly topics include: Nature Poetry, Occasional Poetry, Ekphrastic [Arts] Poetry, Found Poetry, Persona Poems, Narrative Poems, and more! There will also be an optional private class group for classmates to share shop talk and the instructor will provide posts of poetry-writing and literary links to inspire the writing process. Join us for this inspiring poetry course!

View the full listing for the curriculum and testimonials.

🍁

Check out my latest poetry book, Does It Look Like Her? Available now at Amazon or for signed copies, check out my Write Path Productions Etsy page.

I also wrote an amazing craft book called Poetry Power with tons of exercises and inspiration to keep your poetry pens moving; available through my awesome publisher, Vine Leaves Press. Signed copies also available at my Etsy, Write Path Productions.

"3 Exciting Ways Creating Art Enhances Writing" Published 🖼️🎨

 Super excited to share my new article that was published today at Women on Writing! Check it out. 🥳

 

3 Exciting Ways Creating Art Enhances Writing

By Melanie Faith

 

Have you always wanted to try (or get back to) painting, drawing, making videos or music or fiber arts, dancing, sculpting, photographing, making jewelry, making hybrid work, pottery, or another art form but felt like it was out of your reach, you didn’t have enough time or the right skill level? This article is for you! You have great company. Including me. 


As a creative writing teacher and author, I didn’t consider myself a visual artist and I didn’t allow myself the time until recently to explore, dabble, and create the other things I really wanted to make. 


It took me a lot of years to realize one of the reasons. Art class in sixth grade was required for all students. How I loved noodling around with the supplies and chatting to classmates at our art tables, making jokes and attaching feathers and sticks and other items to our mobile projects, getting charcoal smears on our hands as we tried our hands at drawing of a vase of flowers and then our classmates’ profiles. It was just like elementary-school art, only better, because the lessons were more challenging and covered diverse types of art. Then something unfortunate happened. 


Seventh grade art was an invitation-only club. And I didn’t get an invitation to join. I’m pretty sure that’s the point at which I stopped even trying to just make things for the fun of making them. The exclusion of it settled: art-making is for others. 


So for years, I carried cameras and photographed all matter of artsy things without calling myself a photographer or trying to get published. I visited museums and student art shows and doodled in margins of journals but never showed anyone. I never talked about it (like I told oodles of people about my writing), and I never took classes. Sometimes, I grabbed scissors and glue and made collages from old magazines that I put on my door to amuse myself, but I never considered just how happy it made me to create these things, just how contented and relaxed I was in the making process, because I didn’t think I was talented at it.


Eventually, I started to take baby steps. I started to share my photography, first with friends and then submitting to magazines. A few years ago I treated myself to a “real” sketchbook where I could stretch out across the page and make bigger marks. I gave myself more space to make, and it enhanced my writing life.

  

I’d love to encourage you to explore whatever arts appeal to you as well. Don’t wait for permission or until you feel it’s comparable to a famous artist or even to the quality of something you’ve seen a friend do. Begin now. See what you can do. No stakes, no pressure. 


Let’s take a look at how practicing an art—any art—can deepen and inspire your writing process. 


It boosts play and discovery.


I’ve long been a fan of serial cartoons, one-panel comics, and graphic novels. I love the multitude of options for telling a visual story well. As a young kid, I devoured Cathy, Frank and Ernest, Peanuts, Hägar the Horrible, and Garfield in their daily installments in my parents’ newspapers (and made a scrapbook of them one year), and once I started teaching and graphic novels became part of the high-school curriculum, I discovered afresh the amazing story and character possibilities in comics through Persepolis, Maus, and Scott McCloud’s craft book, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. I began doodling a little caricature of my face and my waving hand that I enjoyed adding to cards for friends and my nieces. This year, I finally gave myself a fun new challenge—to write a 3-page comic I called “I Could Have Been Veronica.”


I worked for about a month, from conceiving the story to hand drawing the panels, to revising the story and drafting twice before the third, final, draft. And had the best time! Is it professional? Nope! I’ve got some (okay, many) slanting lines, and I redrew more times than I’d like to admit (here’s looking at you, waving hand that looked gnarled and pair of tap shoes that were a terror to draw in scale), but did that ultimately matter? Not one jot. I spent many pleasant afternoon and evening breaks with my colored pencils, pens, and notebook, adding to the three-pager until it was time to share at my blog. 


It halts perfectionism, the inner editor, and the competition-fair mindset.


The important thing was never that the comic should be perfect or professional quality. The goal was to get lost in the joy of seeing how I would create this three-page comic. To evolve and stretch the limits of what I could draw and say within the tiny frames. To relish the moment of creating for prolonged, short bursts. That is, the goal was not to compare it to anything I’ve read and adored in graphic novels, comic strips, and cartoons, but to make my own something. A pure, untainted, joyous flow of creativity. Making art for the sake of making it. Very satisfying.


It facilitates joy. (Who couldn’t use more of that?!)


It matters less and less that I’m not naturally talented in the visual arts I’ve chosen to enjoy (I will pick up what I need to know through making things, exploring, reading about them) or that I wasn’t seen long ago as a good candidate for art club (that was so 7th grade!). I like to make things now, want to make more in the future, and that’s enough. Whatever I make will encourage my perceptions, challenge and inspire me, and engage the side of myself that likes to reflect and dream. Refreshing.  


Join me for my August Art Making for Authors class, which begins August 2nd. You’ll get a chance to break out some supplies and practice the kind of projects you’ve been wanting to make. You can pick any form of art you fancy for each assignment, and we’re not looking for perfection or comparison—we’re looking to savor the making process.  Learn more and sign up at: clickety-click.

 

"Four Tips for Mixing Music into Your Fiction" 🎶🎹

Super excited that my craft article was published in Women on Writing’s newsletter today. Read on to learn some tips for integrating music into your prose as well as a prompt to give a whirl. 😊🎼

“Four Tips for Mixing Music into Your Fiction”

By: Melanie Faith

 

Music plays in so many milestone moments in our lives: from proms and graduations to weddings, anniversaries or divorces, first dates or last dates, funerals, reunions, and many other ceremonies. Music (or variations of it) may even be playing in an elevator near you on the way to the job interview you’re hoping to ace or to a doctor’s appointment you don’t want.

 

We don’t need to wait until milestone moments to savor sound, however, as songs suffuse everyday life as well. I listen to music numerous times a day, from a streaming speaker, from my laptop, on the radio in the car or in the kitchen, on TV or episodes of shows online, even on records, tapes, or CDs in my players now and again.  The importance of music doesn’t end with youth, but keeps giving back throughout our lives.

 

Music is often an important facet in fiction, too. Let’s delve into some wonderful ways that we writers can weave music into our plots, characters, and more!

 

Layer references to the same or similar song(s) or artist(s) within the same work. The context can be different for each listener/character. Your protagonist might listen to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as a high-school student in 1991 when it was released and have one experience while your protagonist’s twenty-something daughter might listen to the same song in 2024 and have entirely different reflections as she remembers that her dad always played the song while making breakfast during her preschool years.  Music is reminiscent of the era it was made, but it’s also timeless. Music can connect one generation to another, or divide one generation or listener from another.

 

Braid musical and nonmusical events within the same story to shed light on both elements of the story. If your protagonist is a second-chair violinist in the community orchestra, you might include not only the conflicts involved with her determination to move up to first chair this year, but also another element of her private life (from her day job and coworkers to her relationship with her love or her friends or her frenemies) to develop her character both on the stage as she practices and performs as well as offstage in her personal life.  Another idea: even characters who aren’t musicians or singers frequently jam when at a party or alone in a room or a car when a favorite song comes on. What song will get your protagonist’s toes tapping (or busting out the lyrics into a pencil or hairbrush or karaoke microphone, as the case may be)?  

 

Consider a melodic medley. Shake it up with intention. Many listeners enjoy several genres of music. Musical allusions can denote mood and tone as well as conflict within the plot or within your protagonist or antagonist. References to particular album titles or songs may even be used to foreshadow events later in the tale or become titles for chapters. 

 

Use poetic and precise language. Just as songs have rhythm and lyricism, you can pay particular attention to diction choices to develop music descriptions.  Onomatopoeia/sound effects might mimic the high-pitched tweet-tweet of a piccolo or flute, the mournful twang of a mandolin or guitar string, or the zingy ping of a hi-hat cymbal.  Consider using words with softer sounds, such as sibilant /s/ and quiet /m/ and /n/, for descriptions of acoustic performances and words with stronger, louder sounds, like the staccato and punchy /t/, /d/, /b/, /k/, and /z/ for summer rock concerts or heavy metal.

 

Whether your protagonist is a musician, a fan of a particular singer or band, or not, you can use these tips to integrate music—whether center stage, backstage, or as background—into scenes and character development to deepen your writing. You can even weave more than one of the tips within the same scene or chapter. Rock on!

 

Try this exercise:

Take a scene you’ve written recently with your protagonist during a time of strong emotion, such as doubt or great joy. Jot a list of three or four songs that mirror the emotional intensity the character is experiencing. Pick one to drop into the scene in a sentence or two to make it the soundtrack of the scene. What resonance does this reference add to the character, setting, or plot? Add extra dialogue or narration around this reference if the muse so moves you.   

 

 Want to learn more? I’d love to have you in my February class. Clickety-click to learn more and sign up! 🎸

 

In Tune: Writing about Music in Fiction! 🎶

I’m crafting some exciting new projects for 2024, including a delightful 4-week online writing class at WOW! for February.

Introducing: IN TUNE: Writing About Music in Fiction!

If you’re looking to treat yourself to some writing motivation or looking for the perfect holiday or birthday gift for the writer in your life, look no further! This class will rock! 🤩🎸🥁

Course description:

“Fiction is filled with references to music: from high-school dances and music-school students, singers, music teachers and lessons, garage bands and musical instruments to records, rock concerts and folk/indie festivals and coffee-house performances, opera and musical-theatre performances, and so much more. Many of us spend our happiest hours with music in the forefront or background of our lives as soundtrack. There’s a type of music-inspired prose for as many musical genres as you enjoy.

Whether you’re writing a scene or story about a music practice, a novel with a musician or music fan as a protagonist, or just want to know more about how musical fiction works and/or add musical references, vivid characterizations of vocal performance, or music-centered scenes or references to your writing, this course will explore how music culture, sound, setting, POV, and more are portrayed within fiction to enhance and inspire your own rhythmic, compelling prose. Knowing how to read musical notes isn’t required for this class—just the desire and sincere appreciation for both music and literature and to add another tool to your literary toolkit.

Students will choose one novel with a musical plot to read independently, and the instructor will provide excerpts from music novels as well as handouts and a weekly writing assignment to get the muse melodically flowing! Join us for this new course that’s sure to strike a chord.”

To the great joy of writing and music! Sign-ups open now! Clickety-click: IN TUNE: Writing About Music in Fiction!

"Four Reasons Food Can Spice Any Genres You Write" 🍝

Wonderful news! 🥳My article was published by Women on Writing today! Check it out, and then give the writing prompt a whirl. 📝


Four Reasons Food Can Spice Any Genres You Write

By: Melanie Faith

 

Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash.

It’s just about autumn in the US, which is an important weather shift in the seasonal states. Humidity dissolves as leaves turn into a crayon-box bonanza of shades while it remains sunny, bright, and crisp enough for a walk in a cozy, knit sweater and a mug of steamy tea after.  Another signal of the time shift is the shortening of days and the lengthening of my appetite.

 

While I enjoy eating all year ‘round, there’s something special about the chill in the air and the darkening of the evenings that increases my appreciation for sweet and savory flavors. Bring on the ooey-gooey cakes and breads, the creamy mac and cheese, the hearty, saucy spaghetti Bolognese!

 

No matter the season, the rituals of eating; snacking; food buying, storage, and preparation; meal clean-up; and food sharing surround our days and can be integrated into our writing to enrich our work.  Let’s look at four reasons why adding food writing to our repertoire can deepen our writing:

 

Food connects us: Nothing reminds us more of our communities and the cultures we belong to than food.  References to the recipes, meals, and snacks your protagonist grew up eating and still makes can provide shorthand for so many parts of your character’s background and life, including but not limited to her family of origin’s geography, socioeconomic status, and more. Certain foods will instantly be connected in readers’ minds with a particular state, region, cultural heritage, or country, while other foods and beverages are universal to many communities—which will give your readers other insights into how your unique character fits into a larger trend or social sphere or, conversely, how they might rebel against it.  Including meals or restaurant scenes can also demonstrate how your character interacts with others, what she feels comfortable saying or not saying, what she wants to share in public compared to her private thoughts, and so much more.

 

Speaking of which, food can create both bonds and tensions:  If one of your characters loves attending a weekly potluck she organizes and hosts once a month while another character lives for a quiet dinner for one at home to get away from the stresses of his day job and rejuvenates with the radio on while preparing couscous and a salad, you’ve already set up a way to show (rather than tell) extroversion and introversion. You’ve also set up a scenario where their differing styles could create conflict if these characters become friends, coworkers, family, or romantic partners. Characters can react strongly, or they might have inner hopes or misgivings about what is being served, about their dining companions, or about where the dining takes place. 

 

Food is also often connected with larger social issues that deeply impact many people both locally and globally—such as food instability, hunger, and ever-rising grocery prices—that you can shine a light on within your writing in nonfiction, poetry, flash, novels, and many other genres.

Photo by Atie Nabat on Unsplash

 

Favorites and aversions make us each unique. Including small details about what your character loves and loathes eating can strengthen your characterizations. Just like all of us, characters can have detested foods show up in their lives and have to navigate their distaste quietly or verbally, or they can absolutely love quirky regional favorites that their friends and family can’t stand or refuse to try. Conversely, we all love to share our favorites, and sometimes these favorite foods are eagerly adopted by those we love, spreading the joy. Writing that praises, describes, humorously disses, or delights in foods can connect with your audience’s own experiences of likes and dislikes.

 

Try this exercise!  If you write fiction: your antagonist has just invited your protagonist to dinner. Where will they go? What will they talk about? What is being served for dinner? If you write nonfiction, poetry, or other genres: jot a list of five of your favorite or least favorite foods. Pick one of the foods, set a timer for twenty minutes, and describe a time when you were served or served others this particular food. Use as many sensory details as possible to denote the food and reactions to it. Go!

 

 Care to learn more? I have a few spots left in my Food Writing class that begins Friday, October 6, and I’d love to have you and a friend join in the fun. Details at: Food Writing for Fun and Profit.

 

"Abounding Images: An invitation to Imagery Power: Photography for Writers" 🎉📸

So pleased that my article was published today as a Women on Writing Spotlight article. Check out the prompt I share as well:

“Abounding Images: An Invitation to Imagery Power: Photography for Writers”

By Melanie Faith

 

                I found three rolls of brand-new film in a drawer earlier this week that I’d forgotten I’d purchased. It felt a little bit like unwrapping a Christmas gift to myself. Eager to head into the great weather, I took my ‘90s Canon Rebel outside for a few nature shots. The heft of the camera body nestled in my hands just right. Working with a physical, clicky dial to blur the background and focus on the foreground was like stepping back into a favorite pair of blue jeans—comforting and the perfect fit. Need I say that I took the rest of the roll and returned to my desk, smiling?

                I’ve also been taking a lot of photos with my cellphone camera and find it a wonderful photographic experience, too. It is featherweight, and I can take as many pictures as I please. Cellphone cameras have come a very long way in the past ten years. Smart phones are equipped today with much better software and make sharper photographs than any of my first digital cameras. And they’re quite easy to use, and super handy. Rare is the person without a phone as a near-constant companion, which (of course) makes them absolutely the best for capturing inconspicuously as we go about our daily lives. And sharing cellphone photos is so easy it’s a dream.

                Whether you prefer making photos with an old-school film camera that takes film or film cartridges, taking pictures with your cellphone, or a combination of both, there’s something meaningful and meditative about the art of photography. Much like the craft of writing, we begin to see our surroundings, our daily lives, and even ourselves a bit differently, a bit better in some ways, by taking the time to focus on elements we might previously zip past on our way to the rest of our appointments and to-do lists. The fact that no two people see the same images in the same way nor interpret them in the same way enhances our development as artists.

                Making a photograph, like making a poem or a short story or a song or a chapter in a novel or an essay, is deeply personal. We have so many options that it’s exhilarating. We get to choose the subject. We get to choose the angle we take the image from. We get to choose the crop or zoom of the photo. We get to choose if we print the photo to make it a physical object in the world or if we keep it a digital file. We get to choose if we make the photo part of a series on a subject or if the photo is a one-off and stands alone. We get to choose light source and time of day and if we scan or upload the photo to software to alter its hues (hello, black and white!) or shoot in black and white mode or with b & w film.  

                It is in making these choices, often intuitively and in quick succession and very frequently learning and experimenting as we go, that we grow in other art forms as well.

Thinking about making a better photograph certainly continues to influence and encourage my poetry as well as my prose. Photography, much like writing and other art forms, focuses on the importance of the image, the resonance of created expression, and the great fun and challenge when we take the world as we experience it and offer a new creation that very likely will connect with other people who themselves make writing and other art.

                There’s no prerequisite needed, and I’ve had students who made visceral, beautiful, jaw-dropping photos from disposable cameras, phone cameras, underwater cameras, instant cameras, pinhole cameras, film cameras of many makes, and even from photosensitive photographic paper.

The field of photography is wide open to individual interpretation and vision. Begin where you are, with that little “Hmmm, that’s interesting” when you’re out on a morning walk, and see where it takes you. One snap, one click, one moment documented at a time.

 

Try this prompt: Make a photo today of an object someone else uses every day. Aim to show a special quality about this object—whether its shape, its size, its hue, its placement in the home or outside, or some other quality. After taking the photo, either write a few sentences describing this object, why you chose it, and who uses it OR create a character who uses this object and write about that character for fifteen or twenty minutes. What would happen if the character reached for the object and it was missing? Go!

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