Skip to main content

Using Poetry to Improve Prose, Part 2

 

 
I'm Aline Soules, writer, singer, and librarian.  As I mentioned in my previous blog post, a I choose subjects that move me and I choose my genre according to my subject matter.  My latest chapbook, Evening Sun: A Widow's Journey, emerged from my many years of widowhood and I sought, through poetry, to honor my late husband and speak about the inner journey of widowhood.  I am also working on a novel and I write academic articles and reports as part of my work as a librarian.  Regardless of my writing genre, I benefit the principles of poetry to improve my end result and you can, too.  In part 2 of this blog post, I offer further ideas to polish your work in the areas of sound, time, and submitting.  Use this link to read my earlier blog post on general ideas and grammar, usage, and word play.
Sound
·         Listen to the sounds of your words and how those sounds fit together.  Hard? Soft? A mix?  What do you want?  Choose other words to achieve your desired effect.
·         If your work includes dialogue, how do the sounds change from character to character?  This applies not just to novels and stories, but quotations in non-fiction.  Do those quotes reflect the character of the person who gave you the quote?
·         Check rhythm.  Scan, if necessary.  Scansion of iambs, trochees, etc. will give you a sense of how the rhythm of your prose will come across to the reader.
·         Look at rhyme and "slant" rhyme.  Do you want those repetitive sounds or not?
·         Read out loud, read into your computer or tapes and play it back to yourself, ask a friend to read it to you.  Hearing your own work and where there are "stumbles" helps you to know where you need to improve.
 
Time
·         Give your piece time and try the above check list of ideas again. 
·         Your recording can help with that, too.  Leave your recording for a week or two, then listen to the recording with the text printed in front of you.  Make notes as you listen. 
·         Set a goal to cut "x" number of words from your piece without losing the meaning.  This will tighten your work even further.
·         Have trouble with procrastination?  Write yourself some postcards with dates and deadlines and a stamp.  Then, add a post-it note with the date you want it mailed.  Ask a friend to drop it in the mail for you.  See what you feel when the postcard arrives.
 
Submitting
·         Don't send something out until you're confident it's ready to go.
·         Use the "revolving door" trick.  Have a target list of places.  If you receive a rejection with no comment, send it off to the next place before you get depressed.  If you receive a rejection with a comment, be sure to see if that comment makes sense to you and edit your piece accordingly.  Then send it out again.  After a few rejections, go back and review the entire piece again before you send it out.
 
Aline Soules, Author
 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

On Writing Chase Scenes

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson Author of  The Frugal Editor,  the winning-est  in her award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers This article is excerpted from some editing I did for a writer of experimental fiction when I was on a Greater Los Angeles Writers Society panel writer of any genre can apply these suggestions to the chase, getaway, or high action scene in your script or manuscript before you send it to an agent or publisher or, better still, while you are writing the first draft.  Sometimes even the most fascinating, interesting and irresistible  detail can slow down the forward movement of your story. So as much as writers are told that detail is important, purge as much as you can from your action scenes and put it somewhere else or dribble it into narrative in other places in your manuscript. In the process, ask yourself if your reader really needs to know the color of the protagonist’s eyes. As important as detail is, some is better left to t

Ampersands: Pretty Is as Pretty Does

   By Carolyn Howard-Johnson Author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers   Have you noticed how ampersands turn to gibberish when they are entered into some blog services like Google's blogpsot.com? That is only the beginning of problems ampersands cause for editors, and publishers of all kinds. Many of the difficulties they cause go unnoticed except by the publishing pros we would all like to impress like agents, librarians, bookstore event directors, and the acquisition editors at Knopf!    That's why I added a new section to the second edition of the winningest book in my #HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers,  The Frugal Editor . Because ampersands seem to be so popular these days, it's especially important for editors and authors who publish books to know a little about their history, how to use them, and how gatekeepers and readers of Lynn Truss's famous zero-tolerance a

MARGARET FIELAND INTERVIEW (guest blogger)

When did you first know you were destined to be a writer? LOL, I never realized I was destined to be a writer -- I fell into it. I'd written poetry for years, collecting it in notebooks stacked in my attic when I wrote one I wanted to keep. This led me to several online sites and ultimately to discovering the Muse Online Writers Conference where I hooked up with Linda Barnett Johnson and joined her writers forums. She required everyone to write both fiction and poetry, so, with much trepidation, I started writing fiction. Then I got hooked on it, wrote a chapter book, took the ICL course and actually learned how to write it. Then in 2010, I was seized by a desire to write a sci fi novel, so I spent six weeks or so on world building, mostly, with a bit of plotting thrown in for good measure. Who would you cite as your influences? I'm a way-back sci-fi fan, and Robert A. Heinlein influenced me heavily. I took a lot away from his writing, notably the value of surpris