• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Focusing on Prose after years of Poetry

Onemaus

Dreamer
Hello to you all,

This is my first time in a writers community. It's great to find so much of what I need online.

To elaborate on the thread title:
I have written poetry for about 15 years now, never published but I never let that discourage me. I have had a theme of writing about gods, mythology, and sex. After operating two blogs in the past few years I have come to realize that I would like to expound upon my ideas. And thus, I started outlining a novel.
I am focusing on the gods and mythology aspects of my poetry and am trying to create a new mythos for my world.

Has anyone here had a similar transition or experience? I find myself in a very different writing space with prose and feel as if the 15 years of poetry didn't help.
 

Lynea

Sage
Hi :) I am not great with mythology, but if you need support or someone to bounce ideas off of, I am willing to help. There are a few members here who base their stories off of mythology. TheCrystallineEntity is often on chat and she's pretty knowledgeable. RedStar is also dabbling in that, too. Y'all should collaborate and stuff.
 
I'd suggest poetry is excellent training for prose.

This was a topic fairly recently and I remember saying that poetry requires a strong discipline and economy with words to convey the textures and multiple meanings for ,which poetry is renown...unless you're writing dirty limericks.

Even then...
 

Ned Marcus

Maester
I didn't move in this direction (although I sometimes write poetry), but I doubt that it didn't help you. There are several areas to work on when writing a novel, but one of them is prose—the quality of the writing itself. I've found that people who write (and read) poetry have a better ear for language that people who don't.

Now you only have to work on developing good concepts, themes, character, and structure.
 
If nothing else, poetry can give you an ear for language—for knowing the right word in the right place, for knowing it sounds right.
Absolutely!

One of my main editing techniques is to read the whole thing out loud to see how the rhythm of the sentences feels. It's excellent for identifying and shaving off extraneous words and syllables that affect the flow.
 
Top