Pr vs Po

Well, today is the final day in our week-long comparison mini-series, part of the month's Back to the Writing theme in honor of NaNoWriMo!

That being the case, I thought it would be good to save the best for last:

Prose vs Poetry

Ah yes, the age old question. Which is the better of the two writing forms? Or can one even be called better, when the two are so different?

Again, we the nerds resort to pros and cons.

Prose pros: 

• No confinement of words (i.e. no rhyme schemes)
• No confinement of format (i.e. no sentence breaks)
• Easier to format for dialogue and exposition
• Higher ability to share details (i.e. setting, character thoughts, etc)
• No constrictions on length (because let's face it, people will read a long book before they'll read a long poem these days)

Prose cons: 

• Less structured, easier to fall out of rhythm
• More difficult to get everything down on the page (due to mass of subject matter)
• Requires more time to write the first draft, and more time to edit
• Not generally immediately gratifying
• Can easily be bogged down by amount of wordage

Poetry pros: 

• More structured, harder to fall out of rhythm
• Easier to get down on the page (die to minimalistic subject matter)
• Requires less time to write first drafts, and to edit
• Tends to be more immediately gratifying
• Not as easily bogged down by wordage (if you know what you're doing)

Poetry cons: 

• Stronger confinement of words (i.e. rhyme schemes, rhythms [even in free-verse])
• Stronger confinement of format (i.e. more sentence breaks, etc)
• Difficult to format for dialogue and exposition
• Lesser ability to share details (i.e. strong settings, character thoughts, etc)
• More constrictions on length (because let's face it, people will read a long book before they'll read a long poem these days)

Now, do note that you may or may not agree with me on all of these points. These are just examples of the whole, parts to what cannot possibly be contained into one short blog.

But also note this: 

The pros for prose are the cons for poetry, and vice versa all the way around.

What I find good about poetry, is something that's bad about prose. What I find good about prose, is something that's bad about poetry.

Similarly to dialogue and exposition from Monday's post, these two simply go hand in hand. There's no one that can be called the greater of the two, because they're both so very different. They both have things they're good at doing, and they both have things they're terrible at doing.

But, here's what I really wanted to tell you: 

If there are any of those things on that list that you're bad at (say, you're bad at writing settings, even though you're writing prose), try doing them in the other format, to bring out some new ideas (write those settings in as few words as possible, by using poetry).

You may not think so, but doing this unlocks more than a few ideas in the back of your head, freeing up your mind to new and possibly unending possibilities when it comes to writing!

Try it. You might like what you see.


And for those of you who wanted to know: 

Yes, I occasionally write poetry when I'm feeling a little stuck finding the right word through prose.
No, I won't let you read any of it. It's that bad. ;-)

[love]

{Rani D.}