Literary Discourse | Fiction & Prose Poetry | Realizing Narrative through Cascading Metre

𝑺𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒔𝒉 𝑲𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒊 | managing editor @ kotharitimes.com

twitter: @KothariTimes

Concerning the literature I have published thus far, I rarely plan future writing, primarily because my writing style differs from traditional approaches to fiction and novel writing. I realize my narrative as I’m writing it, trusting that the details and integrity of the plot structure will naturally resolve through the development of the narrative. Thus, my writing may be described as a hybrid of objective and unstructured styles. Prose poetry proffers a framework that agreeably fits this style, as the prose must combine rhythmic and unrhythmic techniques, the rhythmic referring to the objective and the unrhythmic referring to the unstructured. Moreover, the rhythmic approach allows me to incorporate musical motifs into the writing, enabling me to compose literature with tempo, which requires regulation through metrered writing, i.e., composing literature through groupings of words and paragraphs, the way a four whole-count of notes are grouped in a musical metre. 

Tempo sets how a musician or writer moves through each metre. A rapid tempo indicates that several notes may be played within a metre, e.g., four half notes and eight quarter notes, while an even tempo indicates that fewer notes may exist within a metre, e.g., four whole notes. Alternatively, tempo dictates the pace at which the notes will be played. Thus, a literary narrative may be realized by combining several metres of related or distinct prose poetry, letting tempo dictate the pace of story development. Metrered writing allows me to develop the narrative one or several groupings at a time, meaning that I don’t have to plan future metres before writing present metres. A traditional prose novel will have several elements of the story predetermined, e.g., the chronological location of the climax and suspenseful scenes or where specific characters will be (re-)introduced or removed from the narrative. A metrered prose novel may be planned or written separately and sequentially through each constituent metre, letting the tempo and rhythm of each metre dictate narrative development.

Amalgamating musical style and literary elements into a cohesive narrative requires significant effort in intentional and detailed writing, as each word, sentence, and paragraph helps shape and enhance the quality of each metre of writing; one may break from metrered writing into traditional prose if one is struggling to move the narrative forward, remembering to channel back into prose poetry when the narrative settles again. One can improve their style by studying literature, music, and artwork and staying mindful of the level of detail poured into those pieces.

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