Something that often gets overlooked with writing is rhythm. It’s not just words and sentences. It’s the beats you hit behind those words.

Nail those beats as the tension rises, and you’ll stick the landing with your confession/realisation/cliffhanger/death.

So how do you learn rhythm?

By READING. All. The. Reading.

Go back to moments that had you on the edge of the seat, that made your heart soar, that made you sob. Re-read. STUDY that craft. Understand the tools. Feel those beats.

Writing is the first step and the most important, but it isn’t enough.

You can churn out MS after MS without developing at all if you’re not understanding what function each word has on the page.

Combining those functions in a fluid and engaging way = rhythm.

Basic example?

If you have a paragraph where most sentences start with the same structure (She went...She pushed...She laughed...) it becomes repetitive and your reader will lose focus, which is a death knell for many books.

INSTEAD. Change up your sentence structure.

Rock a continuous verb! (Pushing the cup aside, she laughed). Bring in a slice of setting for your MC to bounce off! (A chill fraught cut through the room). Chuck in a short sentence, another, and then finish with a flourish - a run on sentence of breathless beauty.

RHYTHM.