Introduction

This course on Prose has been rewritten three times. Why? Firstly, because the original version was from years ago, when I was just starting out as a writer. It wasn’t great. Secondly, because this topic presented a unique dilemma.

In my experience, understanding Prose has two distinct parts.

• How to actually get your thoughts onto the paper.
• How to make that Prose as strong and beautiful as possible.

Even the most experienced writers—those who have written hundreds of books—aren’t able to get their thoughts onto the page perfectly the first time. Their first version of a story has mediocre Prose at best. And that’s fine! It’s more important to get something on the paper, as you can always improve the Prose later. You can’t rewrite a blank page!

Course Structure

This means, however, that this course has two different parts. And I had to decide with which part to start and how to integrate both.

What did I decide?

• The first few chapters are extremely practical. They are about the absolute basics needed to get your thoughts onto the paper.
• The later chapters are more theoretical (and in-depth). They give tips, tricks, and guidelines to improve that messy Prose.

The idea is not to memorize those chapters. It’s too much information! You won’t be able to keep all those “rules” in your head as you write that first draft anyway.

Instead,

• Just write your first draft however you want. Get those ideas onto the page!
• Let your work sit for a while. (Don’t look at it for a day, a week, a month.)
• Then revise, while keeping those theoretical chapters as a reference. Pick a few rules for “good prose” you want to follow and check your whole text for these.

As you repeat this loop, writing more and more, you will build an intuition for good prose automatically. The “rules” (and when to break them) will be burned into your brain and you can use them subconsciously as you write the first draft.

That’s how I structured the course. That’s how I recommend improving your Prose. I will mention it again when we reach this midway point (after which chapters become about in-depth tricks to apply when revising).

As they say: All writing is rewriting.

When you just start out as a writer, this often sounds pretentious or wrong. Surely, most of the work is, you know, those 80,000 words you initially invented!? How can all writing be rewriting?

As you gain experience, however, you see the truth in this. It’s very important to get the text onto the paper, as quickly and effortlessly as possible, which naturally means you make mistakes and your prose is awful. The other 90% of the work comes from revising and improving that first draft.

If you’re able to accept this—if you’re able to have this mind-set from the get-go—you will become much more prolific and active as a writer.

Two Types of Prose

In general, people distinguish two types of prose: clear window and stained glass window.

The first type (also called Orwellian prose) is practical and efficient. You write down the story as objectively as possible. You don’t add lots of figures of speech, imagery, style, or other flourishes.

The second type (also called purple prose) is the opposite. You obfuscate the true meaning or the facts of your writing, by adding lots of style and subjective language.

With Orwellian prose, the idea is that the author isn’t there. It’s all about the story, not about how it’s told or who tells it. This allows you to use complex ideas (because of the simple, direct language) and leads to shorter prose. The downside is that it’s bland and has no personality.

Purple prose is, obviously, the opposite. The way the story is told is just as important as the actual story. Tone, style and atmosphere come alive. It allows you to do many awesome and unique things … at the risk of making the story muddy and unclear, the sentences much longer and more complicated.

This course focuses on Orwellian prose. It’s the most common type, because of how efficient and accessible it is. Use it when you desire to reach as large an audience as possible.

It is also, to me, the right starting point. Once you have your story down in simple and direct language, you can always “stylize” it later. You can always turn sections into purple prose later, for which I also provide a lot of tips near the end. The other way around is harder.

Let’s get started!