Prose is something we’d all like to get right. It is to writing what set design and costumes are to visuals. So, how to get it right? To tell you everything, it would take a 200 page book. So what I’ll do instead is get you started on some quick and easy tips.
Sentence Length
Consider the following paragraph.
I unscrewed the cap on his calcium drink and poured enough to make him tall, dark and handsome. The counter was spotless. I kept it that way. I didn’t want him developing those lack-of-hygiene-based ailments, like the bony kids posing on the website of ‘change.org.’ Also, few triumphs of cleanliness shined like scrubbed granite – painted black, no less, to do away with intruding grain marks.
Notice the first sentence is long. It is followed by two short sentences. Then again you have a long sentence. It’s a very simple trick, and probably the oldest one in the book — to simply vary sentence length between short, long and medium. Yet it’s extremely effective, without even touching phrasing or vocabulary.
The subject and sound
He believed he’d one day see greener pastures. He had to. For a while now, days had been padding themselves with random impulses. They hardly ever ended in a good night’s sleep. When he originally set out to make good on his talents, he thought he deserved some recognition. Somehow, he’d gone backwards. Meanwhile, his wife had gone to the very edge of her sanity.
In the above stanza, the subject of the first two sentences is ‘him.’ Then it moves to the nature of that him’s days. It sticks to the same subject in the next sentence. Then it circles right back to him again for the following two sentences, before finally finishing on a brand new subject… his wife. Notice how much variation there is in the sentence subject. Now, the other thing — the start of a sentence. Each one begins with a different sound. It almost sounds poetic. Bear in mind that sentence length variety, which I talked about before, also plays into the poetic feel. Regardless, subject and sound variation remain some quick, easy and extremely effective tips to add color to your prose.
Direct vs Abstract Prose
Pay attention to the following:
I couldn’t believe how much fun I’d had in Bangkok city. For one, I’d never seen such an impeccably maintained layout. On top of that, the people ranged from street drummers to mall shoppers, all of them with the will to look alive in common. Part of the shift drew itself inward, just as other parts threw themselves forward. The skies provided a reason to shop at least through the window. Rather cloudy and sunny, they outlined an evergreen vibe even as my inner voices wanted to hide on the highest, most exclusive skyscrapper.
The first three sentences are examples of direct prose. They state qualities without being too subjective. By contrast, the last three sentences fall under abstract prose. These are vague by design. Typically, they reflect qualities that are in the back of one’s mind. As such, they don’t fully materialize but remain in half-baked terms. At times, certain coinages in abstract prose may even seem nonsensical. These coinages often draw from random moods and sensory details – things you smell, see or feel — that just randomly weave themselves into the expression.
Normally, direct prose plus abstract prose is what makes for compelling prose in general.
I’ll conclude this post here. There’s much more to talk about, but the idea is to provide some easy to follow tips to help get you started.
Roy Editing and Critique 