Some years ago a writer friend told me he enjoyed reading books written by poets, as the way they use language is different from non-poets.
The conversation came t mind recently, and now I can’t put it aside. I keep examining the sections I’ve written of my new novel to see signs of this poetic ‘difference’…
There are certain techniques I use which follow from one writing style and medium to another: I can certainly see how my poetry-writing influences my prose, or vice versa. And, following feedback from my writing group on other work, it seems to be the same in all my prose.
I probably use metaphor and simile more than some writers, and I use a lot of imagery generally. But to me that’s part of the ‘showing, not telling’ ethos – I want readers to visualise things in a certain way, and for that to happen I need to make sure I’ve given them all the clues they need.
It also comes from literature courses when we examined the structure of books which clearly left me with a sense of the ‘right’ way of writing. It’s right for me, anyway – and that’s all any novelist can offer.
But I am now forced to consider how accessible that makes my writing: is it too ‘lyrical’, like DH Lawrence (who also wrote poetry), or too ‘complex’ like Henry James? Is it too wordy?
This is a hold-your-nerve moment.
I have long thought that book one suffers from having a controversial element to its storyline, and that to give it life will be a risk for any agent – and yet I will not change things to make the storyline more agreeable. If that means I self-publish, well, so be it: many people think this is a better option than the traditional model, anyway.
I have to be as bullish about all my writing. I have to believe in it, and write the story I want to tell in the way I want to tell it, and stop trying to second-guess myself. My writing style is part of who I am as a writer, whether people enjoy it or not.
So when I go back to writing again tomorrow, I’m going to keep writing my poetic prose and remember that it’s not just about that page, or that line: it’s about who I am as a writer, and the journey I’ve travelled to get here.
And 50% will change when I revise the work, anyway 🙂
In other news – It’s book 36 of the 100 novels list this week – The Golden Bowl by Henry James. After the painful process of reading The Turn of the Screw, I think I’ll give this one a miss. Having read the comments and some examples of sentences, I feel it’s only sensible!
And finally – I was pleased to see this snippet about Michael Morpurgo’s writing room. It’s so old a snippet it pre-dates me giving up work to write but it popped up as a suggested article and has vindicated my position about writing in comfort with a load of pillows behind my head!
Until next time,
Happy writing,
EJ
🙂
Becoming a writer 
EJ, your friend was correct, but to a certain point. Think about Shakespeare for a moment; he used prose, poetry, and dialogue within his plays. Each of those writing styles were used to emphasize a speech (end of MacBeth), to show witty quick conversations (The Taming of the Shrew), and to give us backgrounds of characters or events (Hamlet). In YOUR writing, use these same techniques to make your works unique. Remember this, as well, Prose can be seen as Poetry in one paragraph; it’s about timing and sentence length. Often times, one will come across a paragraph of prose that can easily be separated into a poetic formation (with or without rhyme). Don’t fret! You are on the right track!
That’s a good way to think of it; obviously I don’t write much in rhyming couplet 🙂 but the rhythms of speech and language do set a tone to the work.
It’s interesting that some poets I know write in paragraphs and then break the work into lines and stanzas; I have done so too but it doesn’t feel ‘natural’ – I would say 95% of my poetry is written in stanza form. Maybe working on this element of my writing would impact on the prose…
🙂
I’ve never heard of anyone writing prose and then separating it into stanzas – very unique form of writing poetry that I may have to try! I can understand the approach when writing Technical documents and find a pattern within the prose that would benefit from bullets rather than a paragraphical list. Something new to ponder!
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