Music is the Metaphor

Music is a metaphor for many things here at Pen & Paper.  Just as writers use metaphors to reach their audience, I use metaphors to teach mine.

If you asked me today to go sit in a room, all by myself, and write a story – for hours and hours – then my eyes would light up with anticipation.

Why?

Because that sounds like fun to me.  It doesn’t sound like work…or worse.

Attend, while I tell a tale.

For most of my formative years I was heavily involved in music. At first, I just loved to listen to music – mostly classical. Then, as I grew up, I learned that I could make music – both as a musician and a composer.

My dream/goal/desire was to be a professional musician. I practiced daily, took private lessons, and was a part of several orchestras in and outside of high school. I was exposed to great musicians, great music, and great music teachers.  These experiences stoked the flames. My passion for music, already hot, grew hotter still when I was able to play alongside professionals. This was going to be my life.

There was a grand narrative that I had written in my mind. I would go to the university and then triumphantly emerge from my undergraduate studies with a degree in music performance.

In order to gain entrance to the university’s music program, I had to do an audition. It did not go well.  I flubbed it – a case of the nerves. Indeed, there was a lot riding on this audition – all of my dreams/goals/desires. It was a blow to my ego but I was undeterred. I enrolled in all of the music classes that I would have otherwise taken had and I been accepted into the program. I even took a class in music composition – if I couldn’t make the music, then I would write it. The revised plan was to study music, practice, and audition again after the first semester. It was not unusual to audition more than once before being accepted because it was one of the top programs in the nation.

Over the course of the school year, a realization dawned on me.

“I’m not like these people.  At all.  I don’t think like them.  I do not experience the world like them.  They are musicians.  I am not.”

Certainly, I could read music, discuss music theory, and perform music. I could do all of these things, but I did not think musically. There were no melodies or harmonies running through my head. I had no ear for music – not in the way that a true musician does.  It was impossible for me to hear something in my mind and then make that unheard sound a reality.

There was a second audition.  A second failure.   And a hard dose of reality.

There was a huge leap from being one of the top musicians in a large high school to playing at the collegiate level.  A more professional level.

And I was not there.

What was more, I hated sitting in a practice room for hours on end.  Not only was I supposed to practice my own instrument, but I had to learn the piano as well.  Certainly, in high school I had practiced regularly – daily, but only for about an hour or so. These people – these musicians – practiced for hours on end. Every single day. Sitting alone in a cramped practice room with not one, but two, instruments, was awful.

So what happened to that grand narrative that I had written in my mind?

It had to be scrapped and rewritten…from scratch.  Not an easy task.  But it was, and is, my work.  And I revel in it.  It is worth noting, that throughout this site and the courses offered herein, I will ask you to reflect upon your own thoughts about yourself as a writer.  This is your work.

So how did I rewrite this narrative?  I learned, over time, (and with help) that I am a storyteller.  I always have been.

And I learned that music was the background to the narratives that have always been running through my head. We all know that a movie without climactic music swelling at the perfect point is less of a movie. But this music is in the background. It enhances the story, but it is not the story. For me, music was the undercurrent to the stories in my head. It had always been thus, but I did not know it then. I do know it now.

Okay, so what?  What does this have to do with writing?  What does this tale have to do with this course?

You have already learned that the metaphor of music plays an important role in your understanding of what I write and what I teach.  But it also plays an important part in your understanding of Pen & Paper Lessons.  In addition, I will use this same metaphor throughout the course to illustrate important lessons.

One of your first tasks will be to understand what a writer does.  And then you need to ask yourself, “Can I do these things?”  If not, then you need to address these deficits through instruction (and practice).

There are different sections to the course, and each section deals with different facets of writing and the writing process.

Understand that this course involves work.  It is not merely a series of videos where you passively engage with the instructional materials.  Nope.  This is a course in writing – that means words.  Hopefully, you like reading and writing (otherwise, why would you be here now?) and, hopefully, you enjoy reading what I have written.  This course is meant to instruct and entertain.  There is no reason why you can’t enjoy the learning process.

So back to the question at hand.  What does a writer do?

• A writer gets words on the page.  Do you need help getting words on the page?  Do you sit at your keyboard and computer (or pen and paper) and nothing happens?  You should already have an idea how I get words on the page (Hint: look at the course title).
• A writer knows good writing when he or she reads it – including his or her own writing.  Do you need help learning how to judge the worth of your words?  I will provide examples of good writing.
• A writer knows how to structure a story.  Note that I did not say short story, novella, or novel.  Plot structure is the same, no matter the length.
• A writer knows how to tell a story that people want to read.  There are different components to good writing – the best writing.
• A writer understands how to start writing a story.
• A writer knows where to find inspiration.  Maybe you need a little inspiration?
• A writer knows how to edit and revise his or her writing.  How do I edit and revise my writing?  I will show you how I would edit and revise my own writing from different points in my writing career (early writing and contemporary writing). The bulk of the course will be found in this section.  This is the most important part of the course.
• A writer has a broad understanding of history and culture.  This whole course is designed to help with that.  All of the components combined together should help to broaden your literary horizons (but not in an annoying pedantic way).

Learn more about the course and get some words on the page by completing the Getting Started activity.

Materials Needed:

Pen and paper (you can also print a copy of this PDF – see below – and write on the printed page or use your own writing notebook)

or

Computer and keyboard

and

Stopwatch/timer

Directions: Read the following quote and complete the activities that follow:

“Now, when my mother got to be eighty-five years old her memory failed her.  She forgot little threads that hold life’s patches of meaning together.”

Mark Twain, from his speech Morals and Memory

1. Choose which tool you will use to write down your thoughts (pen and paper or computer/keyboard).

2. Set the stopwatch to zero as you prepare to start writing.

3. I want you to think about your own memories and people that give meaning to your life.  Choose one person and one important memory about him or her.  It should be one of “life’s patches of meaning”.  Start the timer and start writing about this memory/patch of meaning.  Stop when you are finished.  Record the time spent writing.

Reflection

So what is the point of this exercise?

Don’t talk about being a writer.  Don’t think about being a writer.  Be a writer.

Write.

Hopefully, you picked up a pen and paper and wrote something.  If you did, then there are additional benefits to this exercise.

First and foremost, you should have a better understanding of how you write – how you get words on the page.  When given the choice between pen and paper or computer and keyboard which did you choose?

You have to know how you get words on the page.  I once read a book about the craft of writing and the author stated that he wrote everything out by hand – pen and paper.  Old school.  Someone wrote a review of the book and stated unequivocally that this was ridiculous nonsense.  In this modern age of computer and keyboard, there was never a reason for anyone to ever use pen and paper to write.

Unless, of course, that is how you get words on the page.  Everyone is different.

You may use pen and paper because that was how you were raised.  You may use pen and paper because the brain works differently when using pen and paper.  And you may use pen and paper because the act of transferring what you’ve written on paper to the computer adds a step to the editing process.

Does this mean that you should always use one tool or the other?  Of course not.  How do I write?

Pen and Paper – hence the name of this course.

Lastly, you should now have a better idea of how many words you can get on the page in however long it took you to finish the writing exercise.   Also, it is worth noting that you should pay close attention to how long you can write before the need arises to take a break.  How long can you sustain your concentration on the page?  This will impact how many words you can write in a day.

What do you have at the end of this lesson?

An understanding of how you write.  How do you best get your thoughts on the page?

An understanding of how much you can write.  If you wrote 75 words in 5 minutes, then you could conceivably write close to 1,000 words in an hour.

Something to use later on in your own writing.  Keep what you have written and save it for later.  Chances are you have written something worth reading.  So use it.  The very best writers have a deep understanding of humanity and a capacity to express this understanding through their writing.