Writing and rhythm

Rhythm - in writing - is the pulse that draws us into the story, makes us believe it, and carries us along. Its the heartbeat. It is at once what makes the narrative alive, and what forms its very foundation.

Its components are manifold.

The most obvious is style, the writing’s melody. Even a screenplay, which is not and should not be a literary text, needs it: precision of words, clarity, rhythm of sentences.

But groove also arises from the way the story is built, paced, and told. The musical analogy still works here: the beat, the bars, the chords all make up the groove.

The beat in writing is the story’s intention. The answer to: what is it really about? If this beat isn’t clear, we scatter and stack scenes that go nowhere, or fly off in every direction.

Each scene is a bar that must lead to the next.

Boom-Boom Boom-Boom Boom-Boom

Each scene is inhabited by its characters, their harmonies-alliances or their dissonances-conflicts creating the story’s tension. Gestures and glances, setting, props, styling, and so on are all instruments that enrich it and give it substance.

Boom-Boom Boom-Boom Boom-Boom Boom-Boom

The groove in writing is that irresistible momentum that carries along the viewer as much as the screenwriter re-reading their script, the author revising their manuscript as much as its future reader. 

A story that grooves feels as though it exists outside the mind.

Groove is not always easy to find, but it doesn’t need to be complicated. As in music, it is organic before it is mechanical. We feel it deep in the gut, it’s what drives us onto the dancefloor until dawn.

Déborah Braun / 90pages

Script doctor

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