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Prose for Beginners: Part One

Learning to write prose is a challenge, to say the least. Balancing style, setting, characters, and plot for even a page is a feat that takes years to learn, a lifetime to master. Perhaps the most daunting aspect of prose is this: there are no rules. In poetry, you often have limited space and once you've used up that space, you can go back and improve your work as you please. Prose offers you endless space, which means you have to force yourself to revise.

Explaining all of writing prose in just one tutorial would be impossible. What follows, however, is a quick list of helpful advice you might want to adapt to improve your writing style. They are not set in stone, but they are generic enough to hopefully help you out in most situations.

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In order to demonstrate these tips, I will be using a sample bit of writing, just long enough to suit our needs. Read this sentence, and tell me what you think.

I was making the kitchen clean, trying to finish before Mom (the famous Miss Smith) came home, and then it happened.

One simple sentence. Well-written? Hardly. It can be improved in a number of ways, depending on what you are aiming for.

Let's start with the beginning: "I was making the kitchen clean." It features a subject and a verb, right? So it's perfect, according to basic laws of grammar. If only it was that easy: the opening may not be incorrect mechanics-wise, but it's very bulky.

Rule One: Don't Waste Words

If you can make what you're writing slimmer, try and do it. It may make your writing look impressive if it's long, but don't just waste space. It's inefficient, and people don't like reading it. How about this, for a start: "I was cleaning the kitchen." It's easier to read, and it doesn't muck around with words. Just what you should always attempt.

Of course, this isn't an excuse not to use words: some things can't be written shortly without diminishing the impact of the piece. (Most famously, the novel Ulyssesconsidered by many to be the greatest work of the 20th centuryhas a chapter which is written entirely without punctuation, up until the very end.) If you need to write it long, then do itbut otherwise, concise is better.

Of course, that opening is still far from perfect. "I was cleaning the kitchen"it's so bland. If your whole story's going to be like that, you might want to consider revising things a bit. Make it interesting. Use the English language a bit.

Rule Two: Be As Accurate As Possible

How is your character cleaning

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