Thursday Wordplay with Ray Presents: Themed Writing!

Hello! This week, I'd love to introduce something simple, yet broad, to your writing palettes.

Themed Writing!

When I say themed writing, I mean sticking to an aspect of your writing, or a subject, from nose to tail of your work. It could be structurally- themed writing, subject- themed writing, - simple, but broad, see?

Structurally- themed writing could be as simple as the meter in a poem, the number of sentences in each paragraph of prose being the same, or some other aspect of your writing that carries throughout the work (for a stylistic reason). I, personally, love to try and match the cadence of each of my paragraphs when writing short stories by matching either the amount of sentences in each or the length. It often comes out as either a completely choppy, comma- filled story, or a long- winded torrent of words that ceases as abruptly as it starts. Obviously, with editing, these stylistic choices shine through even better, so be sure to edit through after you think you've accomplished your theme. You'd hate to have a random line or paragraph that simply doesn't fit the rest of the work.

Examples of subject-themed writing include a poem that constantly calls back to something through its word choice or by tying back different, unrelated emotions or objects to your original theme. In other forms of writing, it could be that everything mentioned is calling back to a central subject, that every action and event is tied to a singular subject (a person, a place, a curse, etc.).

Below is a personal example of a poem with subject- themed writing. Notice how I stick to a musical topic throughout but combine that with characters from an Ancient Greek Epic, things completely unrelated, yet brought close!

Thursday Wordplay with Ray Presents:

I, Odysseus, With an iPod Shuffle

‘Call me nobody. Let me live,’ I say.

Or would you, O Cyclops, respond better to:

‘Gimme three steps mister’

Lana del Rey said poetry was a warm gun

And I felt the heat on my forehead

‘Kill your darlings,' is a phrase I hear often

But I’m not Medea and if I was, then who’s my Jason?

J. Cole calls himself a ‘MIDDLE CHILD’

But last I checked Kings are first born

And we’re Kings

I of Ithaca

He of Forest Hills

And The Game said ‘take me away in a Bentley or a casket’

But

Bentleys are expensive

And Beechnut is pricey

But words live forever-

‘Heroes get remembered

But legends never die.’

That’s why the music has never stopped

Because I, Odysseus, with an iPod shuffle,

Am still Next