How to Use Poetic Prose to Improve Your Writing

Whether you’re trying to turn an essay into a more free-flowing art form or infuse your short story with poetic language, here are a few writing tips for writing more poetically:

1. 1. Write simply. Poetry does not have the length like a novel does to provide endless space for description, so compressing your use of language is a key factor in writing more poetic prose. Long-winded sentences with difficult vocabulary will convolute your poetic prose and disrupt its rhythm. A poetic writing style may require more brevity than regular prose. Learn to say more with less.
2. 2. Include poetic elements. Poetic devices can come in handy when trying to paint a more vibrant picture. Use metaphors and hyperbole to create a more poetic image with staying power in your reader’s minds. Alliteration (repetition of consonant sounds) and assonance (repetition of vowel sounds) give your prose a poetic quality by adding a rhythm or cadence to the words. Line breaks are also useful, as your prose can take on a poetic style by integrating poetic spaces into its form. Prose with the appearance of poetry sets the reader up for a piece of literature that is going to venture outside regular format conventions.
3. 3. Use concrete words. Make your poetry writing more tangible. Words that can easily be pictured by readers, like colors or objects, work well in getting straight to the point, leaving room for further poetic expression. Abstract words can cause confusion, or muddy the image of the writing, taking the reader out of the rhythm and ignoring possibilities for vividness through sensory details.
4. 4. Communicate theme. Poetic writing is more than picking a topic and jotting down lines—a theme expresses the way a writer feels about the writing as well. Shakespeare’s Macbeth isn’t just about an insecure king and his ambitious wife, it is a play expressing the dangers of ambition when there is a lack of morality behind it. Jonathan Safran Foer’s New York-based Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close explores loss and tragedy, but the book is narrated through the eyes of a young boy who turns his grief into an urgent adventure, portraying his own unique worldview. A theme goes beyond the subject matter—it shows the effects it can have on the lives of those involved, creating a more emotionally poetic experience.
5. 5. Write a whole poem. A way to get into the spirit of writing poetically is to actually write a poem. Experiment with a few different types of poetry—it doesn’t have to be good (or shown to anyone) but practicing how to write a poem can get you into the right mindset of rhythm and word choice. Especially if it’s your first time writing poetry, expanding your experience by venturing outside your own comfort zone by writing poems can help you become a better writer in the long run. It can be a sonnet, a limerick, or have a villanelle rhyme scheme—or it can be a haiku or free verse and not have rhyming at all—but treat it like a creative writing prompt in order to hone your poetic writing skills.
6. 6. Avoid clichés. Nothing takes a reader out of a good sentence like a bad phrase. Overuse of familiar phrases or idioms can cheapen a piece of writing. Use your own poetic language to create unique images for your audience rather than relying on the same old phrases or commonplace things.
7. 7. Take a writing class. If you need extra guidance, a writing course may help. Workshops and groups can help you get into the groove of writing more poetically, and receiving feedback on your work can help boost your knowledge and experience.

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