Writelike Shakespeare: Macbeth's 'Tomorrow' soliloquy

Writing in iambic pentameter can seem daunting at first, but like David Mamet said in the video on the previous page, it's actually a very natural rhythm in English.

So let's warm up with a couple of throwaway exercises.

Note! This page has four exercises to complete. If you need to stop working before you reach the end, click Next to save your work! 

Here's tiny fragment of iambic verse:

Here are some variations:

Here's a snippet with three iambs:

Here's another two-iamb snippet:

Do these examples match?

They do, but there is a slight difference because the snippet has a weak, grammatical word on the first weak beat, whereas the examples have strong words on the first weak beat.

This is not a problem—these words are just unstressed in the iambic rhythm.

But you might notice the rhythm has a little more contrast and definition when the weak beats have similarly weak words:

To finish the warm-up, here's a longer snippet with some off-beat stresses:

These examples try to mimic the off-beat stresses at the end of the first line:

Are you getting the hang of the rhythm? Like Mamet said, it's very close to how we speak naturally—but you might notice that using it deliberately gives your language a slightly more musical quality.

Now let's tackle the big one! 👑