isn’t as hard as you may think.
As long as you know
what
you want to write about
and why
you want to write about it in verse,
the former slightly easier
than the latter.
Verse is best suited for
stories that are
written in first person,
have a strong character arc,
lots of emotion,
and a lyrical voice.
Verse lets you
zoom in
to details,
to feelings,
to moods
when you’re telling your story,
making
every single word
matter,
or even
every single
l e t t e r.
Verse also lets you
play around with
space
and format
in case you hadn’t figured
that one out yet!
Like when your MC is sad,
you can say
My world came crashing
d
o
w
n
as I watched my plans turn into rubble
and when they’re happy,
you can say that
My spirits
d
e
r
a
o
s
with a single smile from her.
The beauty of verse storytelling
is that no two verse novels are alike
because there are
fewer rules
and more
freedom.
I think they call it
poetic license.
Of course,
I didn’t know any of this
till I wrote my first verse novel.
But looks like I got something right
because it’s going to be…
PUBLISHED!
And I know this is
as cliched as it gets,
but some cliches ring true,
“If I can do it, so can you”.
So, write that verse!
Hope I’ve made you want to.
(Ha! Rhyme!)
Written for the SCBWI Blog where it first appeared on 14th April 2022.