5 Disorganized Thoughts on Story

Lessons from Olivia Rodrigo, Jeffrey Wright, Fitzgerald, Rilke, and my orange cat.

No preamble today—just a great, big thank you for reading my work. <3

The Climax Is Like the Bridge of a Song. It Must Raise the Emotional and Philosophical Stakes of the Book

On a recent YouTube bender, I stumbled across an interview with Olivia Rodrigo on her press tour for her sophomore album, Guts. When the interviewer asked her about writing bridges, she said something like (and I’m paraphrasing here), “I love the challenge of writing bridges. You have to raise the stakes of the song. To take it to a new level.”

I love how succinctly Rodrigo phrased this. Quite simply, we long to be transported to another plane when we reach the bridge or (in book terms) the narrative climax. We want a new note, a new level of artistry. We want to have our minds blown and our philosophies questioned.

Because I’m re-reading The Great Gatsby, I immediately thought of that climax. You know, the one where Daisy hits Myrtle in Gatsby’s yellow car and lets her lover take the fall for it. He pays for her lie with his life, and the narrative is elevated into the stratosphere. The irony of those penultimate scenes is undeniable, the perfect “bridge.”

Another great bridge!

I'll bet that she knows Billy Joel
'Cause you played her "Uptown Girl"
You're singing it together
Now I bet you even tell her
How you love her
In between the chorus and the verse (ooh) (I love you)