Being a Better Writer: What IS Good Prose? · 6:32pm June 16th
Welcome writers! We’re diving right in today, and asking a question that’s been on my mind quite a bit recently: What is good prose?
I ask this because if there’s one place you won’t find a consensus, it’s on the internet. Sands, I can promise you that regardless of what I post here, multiple individuals will declare it “wrong” and put forth their favorite work as an example of “good prose” while arguing that all else is “bad/poor prose.”
Why do I say that with such certainty? I’ve seen it. Hang around in any book discussion forum online, and inevitably you’ll see someone say “Oh, I can’t stand X author. Their prose is just so awful and crude. Not like Y author!” Indeed, some online communities have built identities around which authors have “poor prose” and which have “good prose,” breaking into tribal groups based on a declaration of “good versus bad” where specific authors are concerned.
Is this wrong? Well … Yes and no. See, it is possible to have poor prose. Bad prose is a real thing. As is good prose.
However, and here comes a very big “But …,” most of the time these online tribes speak of good and bad prose? It isn’t what they think it is.
So hit that jump, and let’s talk about what good prose really is, and where these online clans go sideways.
A great topic for me cause I'm constantly lost about what makes prose good. Kudos