6 (+1) Writing Tips for Writing Better Prose

Alkira Publishing, Editing & Book Design
Alkira Publishing, Editing & Book Design
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Published 2021-11-17
How to avoid making some of the worst and most common writing mistakes so you can say goodbye to poorly constructed sentences, write active prose and show rather than tell your story. The sentences discussed are written on the screen, so you can see what we're talking about. See this blog post for how to distinguish a present participle from other 'ing' ending words. www.tahlianewland.com/difference-between-present-p…

Link for information and sales outlets for The Elements of Active Prose: Writing Tips to Make Your Prose Shine - aiapublishing.com/product/the-elements-of-active-p…

Video Chapters

00:00 Setting the scene by reading a poorly written passage.
00:52 Introduction.
01:53 The difference in meaning between the words ‘writing’ and ‘prose’.
02:31 What makes good prose.
03:29 Laying out the which-one-is-better game.
03:52 Tip 1. Starting sentences with ‘ing’ ending participles.
07:18 Tip 2. ‘To be’ verbs.
10:18 Tip 3. Starting sentences with ‘As’.
11:24 Tip 4. ‘Empty openers’.
12:15 Tip 5. ‘Would’ and ‘could’.
12:58 Tip 6. ‘Began to’ and ‘started to’.
13:36 Extra tip – About ‘ing’ and ‘ed’ ending verbs.
14:20 Bonus Tip 7. – Using the word ‘looked’ in descriptions & showing and telling.
15:31 What a line editor does. How the original paragraph can be improved.
17:25 Why these points on good prose writing are important.
All Comments (21)
  • @PBCurtis
    Thank you for teaching me about writing better prose, using an active voice instead of a passive voice, and getting rid of empty openers. So helpful with my writing. 😊
  • @apurvamohite524
    This is the first video that actually gave me helpful tips. Thank you so much for making it easy to understand!
  • @abnarain8359
    Particularly appreciate the use of concrete examples to kickoff each tip. Definitely helpful, thank you!
  • @HORSESNDOGS9
    You ladies are amazing! I've recently come to terms with how weak my prose are in general, and it's as if I'm starting from ground zero 😂. But, this video was so well done, easy to follow, and it encouraged me a lot! I've been writing for myself for so many years to get plots and characters fleshed out, so now that I'm working to get things written and published, i started to get discouraged. This is a wonderful video to help pick myself up. Thank you!
  • @briantellstales
    This is one of the most valuable writing advice videos I've seen. Very helpful, thanks!
  • @danielosetromera2090
    Man, never thought I could find writing tips from Dianne Wiest so interesting! Seriously though, that was really great, thank you.
  • @J.dove00
    I'm happy to see a useful videos that brings solutions to my writing style and prose...
  • @growithjoy
    This is the first time I am understanding how to take out -to be words. Thanks so much.
  • @VinnyTheory
    This must be the best video on this on the internet
  • @CNBlaze-qj7fg
    Excellent! It's great to see someone explaining how to "Prose" properly.
  • @delstanley1349
    Starting (😬) a sentence with an "ing" ending word can be used once in about in every 10k words. OK, gotcha! I choose to use my allowance NOW, at 10:29, Tip 3. "Hearing about the coming rain, John turned off the sprinkler." This sounds more "immediate" (to me anyway) than the other two, or perhaps it has more of a sense of urgency for John to take action. The two sentences above sound like John is acting on second-hand information, hear-say, or even a rumo(u)r, and he is acting because of it. Using (oops) the pp in this case "Hearing," it sounds like John is doing the hearing "with his own ears" and turned off the sprinkler because HE had direct knowledge. That's my take on it anyway, it rolls off the tongue better---if that's worth anything. I agree with all the other examples you presented. Loved the video, it's fun! Thanx
  • @calmit23
    Great show not tell ladies thanks this has made more sense to me than a very expensive course I took.
  • @wrensart1335
    Thanks for this! Visual examples really help me understand this.
  • @abbiepancakeeater52
    oh man i'm glad i'm not the only one who can't stand sentences starting with present participles. it makes it so obvious someone's trying to vary their sentence structure, but not really understanding what makes sentences flow nicely. any sentence structures that combine two clauses, really. YEAH the periodic sentence. though i do prefer the 'inferior' sentence in tip 5. i think it sounds nicer and the delay feels more fitting.
  • @LisaMayne
    Thank you 🙏🏼 So many great tips!
  • @DefektiveEnvy
    Loved these tips with comparative examples! My question is: when using ed sentences, “john walked, sarah smiled,” how do you avoid it getting repetitive? I think a lot of novice writers use the present participle to begin sentences to break up the repetition of subject verb sentences.
  • @ZachMadique
    Great video, I definitely overuse "as". Never thought about it before!