Descriptive prose · 5:03am Jul 20th, 2019
Descriptive prose can take many forms:
She was a hot glass of milk drank by a lactose-intolerant pony just before bed. A hot oven whose door you dared not open.
This prose is highly subject to reader interpretation. But, it does give the reader an awful lot to work with, and does set off some fireworks in the mind. Why does this work? Let's pick this apart, shall we? It makes the reader think, which increases reader agency. When reading that first bit, the reader is forced to stop and consider what lactose-intolerance is, and what a warm glass of milk might do to such a creature. Sleep is a period with no control, no restraint. Would you sleep with such a creature? This sentence represents risk, or at least, that is the author's intention; but, the author suffers an untimely death with each new chapter read.
The second sentence could mean anything. But, it does bring to mind the oven as a sexual metaphor: a bun in the oven. So again, we have prose about risk. Colourful, creative prose. We could say, "She was a dangerously sexy mare," or, we could go off the rails and write prose that engages reader agency.
Don't just write, have fun!
But....but....my banana bread is going to burn....
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That's what she said!