Writing as Jazz, Jazz as Writing: Part 7
Words of writing wisdom gleaned from some jazz greats.
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: Sarah Vaughan
There are notes between notes, you know.
I love this quote as it pertains to writing, especially for movies and television. A screenplay universe is an externalized reality. It’s what we see (Action) and hear (Dialogue). Unlike novels and short stories, we cannot enter into the minds or thoughts of a character’s inner life, apart from dreams, nightmares, and voice-over narration which typically we only use on rare occasions.
No, what we have to deal with pretty exclusively is Action and Dialogue.
Sometimes a character says what they mean. Sometimes their actions speak quite clearly as to their intention.
But a LOT of the time in a movie or television episode, there are “notes between notes”.
Subtext. A hidden intention. Silence which conveys something definitive or obscure. Characters with conflicting desires, even goals, putting the viewer into a space where we’re dealing with nuance.
That is between the Action and between the Dialogue, there is this other ‘stuff’ going on, oftentimes communicated through what is NOT said and what is NOT done.
When we write a screenplay or teleplay, it pays to be present to a scene’s moment. Pay attention to the “notes between notes”.
Check out the notes between the notes of this Sarah Vaughan performance of the song “Over the Rainbow”. It’s wonderful!
Previous posts in this series:
I hope you’ve enjoyed the series. If you’d like more, I’ve got more. Let me know in RESPONSES.