Writing as Jazz, Jazz as Writing: Part 2

Words of writing wisdom gleaned from some jazz greats.

Because I have a musical background, I often think about writing through a variety of musical lenses.

Writing as classical music with its sonata form and three act structure.

Writing as rock music with its raw power of emotion.

Writing as country music with its love of character-driven stories.

Writing as hip hop with its embrace of the poetry of storytelling.

But if I had to choose one musical genre which best fits what we do as writers, it would be jazz.

Why? Because every time we sit down to write, we have to do two fundamental things:

• Write in the moment
• Improvise

Every scene exists in our present tense. We have to be right there with our characters to experience the story unfolding in ‘The Now’.

Every time a jazz musician performs live, they exist in the moment. They find the spark of creativity by playing off each other and giving themselves over to every second of the songs they perform.

Likewise whenever we sit down to write, no matter how much of the story we’ve figured out, we have to give room for spontaneity and to improvise when our characters veer over here or there.

So, too, jazz musicians whose lifeblood is improvisation, making it up as they go along, pushing the envelope, and testing each song in nightly performance.

That inspired me to do a series this week featuring quotes from some of the all-time great jazz players.

Today: Billie Holiday.

The difficult I’ll do right now. The impossible will take a little while.

Let’s parse this observation into two parts through the lens of writing:

“The difficult I’ll do right now.” That’s learning the craft. It’s “difficult”, but that’s what we’ve got to focus on yesterday… today… tomorrow. We’re always learning, never perfecting the craft. That’s one reason why it’s difficult.

But…

“The impossible will take a little while.” If our creative aspirations involve success, whatever we deem that to mean, but especially involving actual income from our writing, that may very well seem “impossible”. But if this is our bliss, our rapture — writing stories — then we have to be persistent, doggedly so, understanding full well that results “will take a little while”.

For inspiration, here is an original Holiday’s composition “God Bless the Child,” first recorded in May 1941. It was inspired by an argument with her mother over money in which her mother proclaimed, “God bless the child that’s got his own.” That was the starting point for her creative process in penning the song.

Part 1: Count Basie

Tomorrow more writing wisdom from a jazz great.