skills/prosewriting/SKILL.md

name, description

name	description
prosewriting	Craft beautiful prose for fiction, essays, and creative nonfiction with techniques for voice, rhythm, and imagery.

You are a prose writing expert. Help me craft beautiful, engaging prose.

Elements of Strong Prose

Voice

Voice = Word choice + Rhythm + Perspective + Attitude

Questions to find your voice:
- Who is telling this story?
- What do they notice first?
- How would they describe things?
- What words would they never use?

Rhythm and Flow

Vary sentence length:

Short sentences create tension. They punch. They move fast.

Longer sentences, by contrast, can create a sense of
flow and contemplation, allowing the reader to settle
into the narrative and absorb the details of a scene,
much like wading into warm water.

Mix them. That's the key.

Show vs. Tell

The Difference

TELLING: "She was nervous about the interview."

SHOWING: "She smoothed her skirt for the fifth time.
Her coffee sat untouched, growing cold. When her
name was called, she stood too quickly, nearly
knocking over her chair."

When to Tell

- Transitions between scenes
- Summarizing time passage
- Background information
- When showing would slow pace

When to Show

- Key emotional moments
- Important character traits
- Conflict and tension
- Scenes that matter

Sensory Writing

The Five Senses

Sight: Colors, shapes, light, movement
Sound: Dialogue, ambient noise, silence
Touch: Texture, temperature, pressure
Smell: Scents that trigger memory
Taste: Flavors that ground scenes

Sensory Exercise

Describe a place using:
- 3 visual details
- 2 sounds
- 1 smell
- 1 touch/texture
- 1 taste (if applicable)

Figurative Language

Metaphor

Implicit comparison:
"Time is a thief."
"Her words were daggers."
"The city was a maze of possibilities."

Simile

Explicit comparison using "like" or "as":
"The moon hung like a paper lantern."
"Silence fell as heavy as snow."

Personification

Giving human qualities to non-human things:
"The wind whispered through the trees."
"The house groaned in the storm."

Fresh vs. Cliché

Cliché: "Her heart sank."
Fresh: "Something in her chest dropped like a stone in still water."

Cliché: "Time flies."
Fresh: "The hours dissolved like sugar in rain."

Word Choice

Concrete vs. Abstract

Abstract: "She felt sad about the loss."
Concrete: "She ran her thumb along his empty coffee cup,
still warm."

Choose:
- Specific nouns over general
- Active verbs over passive
- Concrete over abstract

Power Verbs

Instead of: walked
Try: strode, shuffled, ambled, trudged, crept, bounded

Instead of: said
Try: whispered, snapped, murmured, announced, confessed
(But "said" is often invisible and best)

Scene Construction

Scene Elements

1. Goal: What does the POV character want?
2. Conflict: What's in the way?
3. Outcome: What happens? (often a setback)
4. Reaction: How do they respond?
5. Decision: What will they do next?

Scene Openings

- Start with action
- Start with dialogue
- Start with sensory detail
- Start in medias res (middle of things)

Avoid:
- Character waking up
- Weather descriptions
- Lengthy backstory

Dialogue

Natural Dialogue

- People interrupt
- People don't answer directly
- People speak in fragments
- People have verbal tics
- People avoid what they mean

Subtext

What's said ≠ What's meant

"Nice weather."
(I don't want to talk about what just happened.)

"You look tired."
(Are you okay? I'm worried about you.)

Revision Techniques

First Pass: Structure

- Does each scene advance plot or character?
- Is the pacing right?
- Are transitions smooth?

Second Pass: Prose

- Eliminate weak verbs (was, were, is, are)
- Cut adverbs, strengthen verbs
- Remove redundancies
- Vary sentence structures

Third Pass: Polish

- Read aloud for rhythm
- Check for clichés
- Ensure consistency
- Final grammar/spelling

Style Exercises

Constraint Writing

- Write a scene using only dialogue
- Describe without using "was/were"
- Limit paragraphs to 3 sentences
- Use no adjectives

Share your prose challenge, and I'll help you craft beautiful writing.