troublesome prose

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troublesome prose

i'm sitting here looking at a piece of prose i've written that i'm not happy with. there are bits missing, gaps that need to be filled. but i'm not quite sure what they are. i should probably put it away in a drawer and get it out a week from now. but i'm not a very patient person. instead, i have been changing the prose's font, in the hope that a new 'look' will reveal what's missing. i am wondering whether this is some kind of metaphor for life.

markbrown
Anonymous's picture
I always read stuff back to myself out loud, which always makes me realise what I've missed. This works for my style of writing, I'm not sure if it will work for you. I tend to write as I speak, so I'm not sure how well this works for more complicated prose.
chant
Anonymous's picture
thanks for the tip, Mark! can't try it out now, as i'm at work, and have been reduced to printing my piece out and hiding it under a mound of documents, to take sneaky peaks at when no one's around. will try it when i get home.
cleveland w. gibson
Anonymous's picture
If you have troublesome prose it is useful to know what genre. As it stands your creativity might not be as you want it. Ignore this aspect for a second. Go through your work and use the "find" on your menu. Take out all the overused words. I'm thinking about "that", "then", "as", and "well" for starters. A general rule indicates the less overused words in a piece of prose the better the writing. Readin through your prose you will be forced to absolutely change, re-structure the way you write. You will be forced through your own efforts to write better. Nobody can give you creativity but they can give you advice. Hope this helps.
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