What Fiction Writers Can Learn From Sting

Singer Songwriter Sting Has Much to Teach Authors of Fiction

Aug 24, 2009

A reading of Broken Music, the memoir written by Gordon Sumner aka Sting reveals many things to inspire creative people working in any discipline.

Sting's memoir, Broken Music is not just a fascinating read. It can also serve as a manual for writers of children's books by showing how hard work, perseverance and emotional integrity help bring about success.

Using Memories Creatively

An unhappy childhood can be an advantage. Sting’s home life left him feeling lonely and alienated from his family. He found solace in music, and used first the piano and later the guitar as an outlet for his feelings. Unlike happier teens, who would have been out socializing, he spent many hours alone. He found a sense of belonging by listening to performers he admired and trying to copy their style and technique.

Learn From the Experts

Sting listened to music he admired again and again, and spent hours taking it apart bar by bar and chord by chord until he understood how the songwriter had constructed it. This gave him a deep understanding of the process of music writing. By trying to write music in the same style he learned technical excellence.

Writers can learn an enormous amount by closely examining passages from their favourite authors, and writing apprentice pieces in their style.

How to Write an Apprentice Piece

Take the passage of writing you admire, and type or write it out. Now rewrite each sentence, changing names, places and situations, but keeping your sentence structure and rhythm identical to the writer’s. You will gain an understanding of the author’s technique and voice.

Finding Your Voice as a Writer

By his own admission, the music Sing wrote for his band was very derivative, but gradually his own unique style emerged. And because he had such a solid technical grounding from analyzing other songwriters and performers, his style could develop until today a piece of music written by Sting is instantly recognizable.

Writers who worry that reading books by other writers, or analyzing them too closely will make their style too derivative of that writer, can learn from Sting that an apprenticeship served to a master gives the student the confidence and skills needed to one day become a master in their own right.

Learn the Craft of Writing

It took Sting many years of practicing before he became a moderate success, and even more to become a world-class performer. He understood that his art was a way of life, and needed to be practiced and studied every day. Writers who expect their first completed manuscript to be published and a runaway success are most likely going to be disappointed. It pays to have patience and to thoroughly learn the writing craft.

Understanding Emotions

‘I found myself drawn to exploring specific moments, certain people and relationships, and particular events which still resonate powerfully for me as I try to understand the child I was, and the man I became,’ writes Sting in Broken Music.

The best way for writers to understand the characters they create is to understand themselves and to ponder the significance of events in their own lives.

Broken Music by Sting is published by The Dial Press (2003) ISBN-13: 978-0385336789, and offers a wealth of material for writers who want to learn how to be truly creative.

The copyright of the article What Fiction Writers Can Learn From Sting in Writing for Children is owned by Helen Brain. Permission to republish What Fiction Writers Can Learn From Sting in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.