VS
It's time once again for WRITERLY WISDOM where every Wednesday we will sneak a peek into the world of writing and publication. Who doesn't need more information about the virtues of writing in either prose or rhyme? This week author Catherine Johnson helps remind us what we need to look out for when deciding to write in one style or the other. Take it away Catherine...
Prose
vs. Rhyme
by Catherine Johnson
Lots
of people love to rhyme, but how do you do it well?
Do
you dream it in your sleep? Do you make a magic spell?
Well…Did
you read a post by Amy Dixon to make some notes first she’d suggest?
That
way your plot has no big holes and your story is the best.
Learn
your meter, but don’t be a slave, make your words behave
but
let their length misbehave.
And
just as you see above, internal rhyme is fun.
When
you start experimenting your sparkling lines will stun.
“Now
it’s not so easy to bring dialogue into a rhyming story, not a big scale
anyway.
Experiment
with how much dialogue you want before you go rhyming it,” she said.
“What
stories have you read that you cannot imagine being written in prose and vice
versa? Can you imagine Green Eggs and Ham in prose? What about Where the Wild
Things Are being in rhyme? Some stories sound okay both ways. It’s very hard to
turn a rhyming story into prose. Has anyone done that?”
Some
people find it easier to write a poem in rhyme and expand it and add picture
book elements to turn it into a picture book. I’ve tried it recently after
hearing that M.M.Socks writes his picture books that way. It really is great,
especially if you prefer writing poems to picture books.
Reasons
for writing in prose:
1 Soft,
gentle story with cute characters are usually in prose.
2 If
the plot is too long to sound good in rhyme, I.e. The Monstore by Tara Lazar.
3 If
it is too complicated to write in rhyme or you would lose the essence of the
story in rhyme.
4 A
book with very little text plus a repetitive line on each page as in Because I’m
Your Dad by Ahmet Zappa and Dan Santat would be very difficult to rhyme and a
bit pointless. (Love this book btw!)
Reasons
for writing in rhyme:
1 Key
words in the story rhyme easily with other words relevant to the story.
2 The
story is lively and would be fun in rhyme.
3 It
started life as a poem.
So
does this help any lol? I would be happy to help anyone with meter issues etc.
Happy rhyming and prosing folks!
Catherine Johnson is a British Ex-Pat living in Canada with
her unruly brood ;) She likes to take the dog for a walk, write poems at
every opportunity and has just started learning to illustrate. There just might
be a book of zoo poems coming out soon. You can find Catherine on her blog
at: http://catherinemjohnson.wordpress.com
