This Week at "A Good Freelance Writer" – How Learning to Play Drums Can Amp-Up the Power of the Words You Use

Sacramento, CA, March 29, 2017 --(PR.com)-- Narratives you tell are more likely to engage audiences if the words are strung together in a way that causes sentences and paragraphs to make a rhythm deeply satisfying to the brain.

That’s the message from PR & marketing communications maestro Rich Smith in this week’s edition of “A Good Freelance Writer.”

According to Smith, words are a type of percussion instrument.

"There is a beat that sounds out as a word is read or spoken," he writes. "When you string words together they form a rhythmic pattern.

“If you string the right words together the right way, the rhythmic pattern is pleasing to the brain. If you string the wrong words together, or string the right words together but in the wrong way, the resultant rhythmic pattern is unpleasant.”

Smith explains in his article that writers need to develop an ear for how sentences and paragraphs should be constructed in order to maximize reader or listener engagement.

“Engagement is key,” Smith writes. “Engagement is the name of the game these days because your clients – the editors and companies that retain you – want you to give them writing audiences will truly dig.”

Smith’s article goes on to offer tips for how to develop that music-hearing inner ear. This talent is important because getting audiences dancing to a narrative’s tune is what matters most, he asserts.

Smith’s central recommendation is that freelance writers take drum lessons. That way, they will learn to appreciate -- and delight in -- the power of percussive rhythms.

Smith reveals in the article that he himself took drum lessons and credits them with helping him acquire more of the skills necessary to become an effective writer.

“Plus, playing the drums is fun,” he adds. “Drum lessons take time. There are about 40 specific rudiments, or percussive patterns, you have to learn. But it’s totally worth the effort."

“A Good Freelance Writer” is an online space where wordsmiths-for-hire can pick up new tricks to become better at their craft – and, in the process, become more valuable to their clients or employers.

Smith is a public relations and marketing communications specialist who lives near Sacramento, California. He writes press releases, blogs, social-media chatter, website content, landing pages, email campaigns, customer engagement scripts, and more. Accounts he has worked on include the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Tournament of Roses Assn., and Howard Hughes' Summa Corp.