: When it comes to creating cadence, should I depend on my ear or are there principles I can follow? I read an essay by John Mason about the principles of the harmony of prose numbers (or

I read an essay by John Mason about the principles of the harmony of prose numbers (or feet). I am wondering whether it is of any use, considering other books I have read say that treating prose rhythm in terms of metrical feet has been a failure.

If one wants to write in a certain voice, requiring them to select and arrange feet in a certain sequence and couch their words in them, are there principles they can depend on or must they depend solely on their ear? If it is the ear they must depend on, is it merely a judge of rhythm or also a guide?

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@Margaret427

Yes, I'd pretty much go with your ear. I could explain the technicalities of cadence and pacing but it's pretty much like dancing - if you think about too much while your doing do it . . . it's rarely pretty.

Experience in poetry helps. It helps with balance and rhythm.

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@Turnbaugh521

Perhaps the most famous use of cadence is Shakespeare with iambic pentameter. However, he strayed from it often. Was it based simply on ear? I don't think so. It was the mood he was trying to convey.

Poetry is an entity onto itself. Take E.E. Cummins. Marshy-mushy.

In fictional prose, if you're not setting a mood or tone with your cadence quirks, you're probably just being annoting. Let your talent as a writer come out without gimmicks. If cadence adds to your story, go for it.

An example I'll give is from Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series (most righteous if you've never read it). One character has a stutter. He has to sing his speech or he stutters terribly. Anthony has it come out in prose like song lyrics. It's very clever.

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: When it comes to creating cadence, should I depend on my ear or are there principles I can follow? I read an essay by John Mason about the principles of the harmony of prose numbers (or

More posts by @Pierce369

: How does the 3 act structure fit in a Non Linear story? I see that the 3 Act structure can be applied over almost any story, from Hamlet to Mulholland Drive, from The Matrix to Rocky. Story

: How to expose a reader to the rules of a fantastical world? I am currently in the process of re-writing my play Black Tape as a novel. Because of the change in format, more needs to simply

: What writing process should I use to produce the kind of writing I want? I want to achieve the following: To produce a work that is well-organized and full of substance. To produce a work

: How can I make the relevance of a story thread more apparent? The story I'm writing has multiple story threads, which relate to each other subtly at first, while gradually converging over the

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