How The Piano Made Me A Better Writer
By Barbara Linn Probst
The Sound Between the Notes is my second novel, but it’s also my first. I wrote it before I wrote Queen of the Owls, which was published a year ago, almost to the day … and rewrote it … and rewrote it … and rewrote it. The manuscript had even been accepted for publication. But I knew something wasn’t right, even though I didn’t know what that something was. I took a deep breath, listened to my instinct, and pulled it.
Yet here it is, launched on the 6th of April. What changed?
The final version of The Sound Between the Notes reflects a profound shift that had nothing to do with any of the writerly things we work so hard to nail. Goal, motivation, stakes. Inciting incident, conflict, tension, emotional turning points. Voice, pacing, the flow of the language—none of that! To explain what changed, I need to explain what the book is about.
The Sound Between the Notes is the story of a woman’s quest to know where she belongs, framed around music and told through the unique perspective of a musician. Susannah, the protagonist, is a classical pianist. She’s also an adoptee, confused about her place in the world; music has always been the way she’s found connection, identity, and purpose.
In the book’s early drafts, Susannah was angry—at the birth mother who didn’t keep her, the birth father who rejected her when she finally found him, the adoptive mother who insisted on a sanitized “chosen baby” story that dismissed Susannah’s pain, and the husband who couldn’t seem to understand what this new career opportunity means to her.
Susannah’s bitterness was problematic in several ways. Certainly, it made her hard to like and root for, despite her admirable qualities. We won’t care about a character’s anguish or despair unless we care about her, as a human being. If we don’t feel her humanity, it all seems like melodrama.
There was another way that Susannah’s anger was ruining what was otherwise a great story. It took a summer piano institute for me to see what it was.
In addition to being a writer, I’m what they call a “serious amateur pianist.” That means I study, in a serious way, with a teacher who’s a professional musician. As you’ll see when you read the book, there are countless moments at the keyboard that I simply couldn’t have written unless I understood what it’s like to play the piano. In fact, nearly every classical piece mentioned in the book is one I’ve played myself.
Music infuses the writing itself, as early reviewers have noted. Loretta Nyhan, author of Amazon charts best-seller Digging In, writes: “Once I started the book, I couldn’t put it down until I reached the last, gorgeously written note.” Similarly, Randy Susan Meyers, International Bestselling Author of Waisted, echoes the sentiment: “Once you begin this story, suffused with the majesty of music and the reveries of creation, the ‘gotta know’ will carry you all the way to the final note.” The trade review Readers Favorite has this to say in its 5-Star review: “The Sound Between the Notes is so beautiful, so lyrical, so musical that it was hard to put down.” I could go on, but I think the point is clear: music is an essential part of the story—and of the way the story is told.
And yet, weirdly, there was an essential connection I hadn’t made.
The summer before Covid, I attended a week-long piano intensive. There were twelve adult students and three extraordinary piano teachers working with us, in round-robin fashion, for an entire amazing week. I did no writing that week, but focused entirely on the piano.
I can still remember walking down Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan, at the conclusion of day five. It was a summer evening, with a softness and sweetness that’s particular to summer evenings in New York City. I was feeling buoyant and happy and full of music. And then it struck me—wham!
The three piano teachers who were working with us had a boundless, overflowing love of music—and a boundless wish to share that love with us. They were joyous, generous, open— because it’s impossible to play the piano if you’re not full of love and joy. A bitter person, like Susannah-as-she-was-then, could never have brought forth music from the piano in the way I had written.
Once I saw that, it was so obvious. I want to insert a smacks-head emoji here, because the revelation instantly and completely changed my understanding of Susannah.
It meant another rewrite, but this time I knew. And this new knowledge could never have come from a book, workshop, or webinar about how to write. Nor could it have come from the most skilled developmental editor. It could only have come from the music itself.
There’s a lesson here, I think, that can be valuable for all writers. It begins with a question: Is there a form of knowledge about something your story or character needs that has to come from a domain that has nothing to do with writing? If so, what is it, and where can you find it? What is the lateral, non-linear “other place” that might offer the missing element?
I suspect that every story has this. And it may be the very thing that can take a story to a new level—from a well-crafted plot to a work that lives, breathes, makes us feel.
—
Barbara Linn Probst is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, living on an historic dirt road in New York’s Hudson Valley. Her debut novel Queen of the Owls (April 2020) is the powerful story of a woman’s search for wholeness, framed around the art and life of iconic American painter Georgia O’Keeffe. Queen of the Owls was selected as one of the 20 most anticipated books of 2020 by Working Mother, one of the best Spring fiction books by Parade Magazine, and a debut novel “too good to ignore” by Bustle. It was also featured in Pop Sugar, Entertainment Weekly, and Ms. Magazine. It won the bronze medal for popular fiction from the Independent Publishers Association, placed first runner-up in general fiction for the Eric Hoffer Award, and was short-listed for both the First Horizon and the $2500 Grand Prize.
The Sound Between the Notes (April 2021) is Barbara’s second book. Kirkus Reviews has called the book “a sensitive, astute exploration of artistic passion, family, and perseverance.” Dubbed “a breathtaking emotional journey” impossible to put down, The Sound Between the Notes explores timeless questions of identity and belonging through the unique perspective of a musician.
Barbara has a PhD in clinical social work and is a former therapist, researcher, teacher, advocate, and traveler to odd places, as well as a serious amateur pianist.
To learn more about Barbara and her work, please see http://www.barbaralinnprobst.com/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Between-Notes-Novel/dp/1647420121
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011410511548
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbara_linn_probst/
THE SOUND BETWEEN THE NOTES
Susannah’s career as a pianist has been on hold for sixteen years, ever since her son was born. But now, suddenly, she has a second chance. There’s just one problem: somewhere along the way, she lost the power and the magic. She needs to get them back. Now.
As her now-or-never concert draws near, Susannah is catapulted back to memories she’s never been able to purge—and forward, to choices she never thought she’d have to make.
Susannah needs to find out, once and for all: Who am I, and where do I belong?
Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips, On Writing
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
