I might be going crazy but I swear I saw someone mention the key elements of effective prose style in a recent thread. Or something like that. Now I can't find it anymore.

I did some google searches and realized there's all this stuff I've never really studied. Actually, I've never really studied anything related to the nuts and bolts of writing. Some of which seems useful to any kind of writing including screenwriting. So I'd love to know more.  

Anyone know any good resources, IE, books or good free websites on the subject? I already found writelab.com, which has a lot of good stuff. Hopefully people know what I'm talking about. I swear it was in the thread about modifiers/ing words. Am I going insane?

William Zinsser. On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction

William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style

Writing tools Roy Peter Clark

Quoted from MarkItZero I might be going crazy but I swear I saw someone mention the key elements of effective prose style in a recent thread. Or something like that. Now I can't find it anymore. I did some google searches and realized there's all this stuff I've never really studied. Actually, I've never really studied anything related to the nuts and bolts of writing. Some of which seems useful to any kind of writing including screenwriting. So I'd love to know more.   Anyone know any good resources, IE, books or good free websites on the subject? I already found writelab.com, which has a lot of good stuff. Hopefully people know what I'm talking about. I swear it was in the thread about modifiers/ing words. Am I going insane?

janet posted something on Facebook?

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films William Zinsser. On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style Writing tools Roy Peter Clark

Thank you! Now I just need to learn basic grammar and I'll be all set.

Quoted from Reef Dreamer janet posted something on Facebook?

No, it was a very short post from someone on the forums. Might have been deleted. Or I'm going insane but the voices tell me otherwise.

Start with Aristotle poetics and go from there.

Quoted from MarkItZero Thank you! Now I just need to learn basic grammar and I'll be all set. No, it was a very short post from someone on the forums. Might have been deleted. Or I'm going insane but the voices tell me otherwise.

I think it was in the:

modifiers/ing words

Thread. I recall post about it there - but just checked and seem to be gone.  

Quoted from Female Gaze Start with Aristotle poetics and go from there.

I'm looking for something that doesn't induce instant narcolepsy.

Quoted from eldave1 I think it was in the: modifiers/ing words Thread. I recall post about it there - but just checked and seem to be gone.

Only two possible explanations: government conspiracy or Kardashians.

Quoted from MarkItZero Only two possible explanations: government conspiracy or Kardashians.

I'd lean more towards Kardashians or at a minimun - Kanye

Quoted from MarkItZero I'm looking for something that doesn't induce instant narcolepsy. Only two possible explanations: government conspiracy or Kardashians.

Hey, you're preaching to the choir here but it does help. It's the basics of all 'Drama'. But I'm assuming you've read that so maybe just start with classic prose and go from there...sorry I'm a theatre girl...I just know what I know  

It Was the Best of Prose, It Was the Worst of Prose

Sin and Syntax

Strunk and White(though it's old and quite a few things have proven to be wrong)

Stephen King's on Writing

Sense and Style by Pinker

Those are off the top of my head. I've read other good ones too.

Prose style instruction suffers from the some of the same problems as screen, namely the turning of rules of thumb into rules. An example is forcing every passive sentence to be converted to active. Taken in isolation, the active sentence is usually better, but in the context of a paragraph, sometimes the passive is the best choice, because sometimes this conversion changes the POV character, or changes the emphasis. Just to name some reasons.

Anyway, I applaud your effort in trying to dig into prose style!

Quoted from Female Gaze Hey, you're preaching to the choir here but it does help. It's the basics of all 'Drama'. But I'm assuming you've read that so maybe just start with classic prose and go from there...sorry I'm a theatre girl...I just know what I know

I was just being silly. Don't think I have read it though. Not sure I could get through it now. I wish I could. Feel like I missed the boat on all that stuff. I should've been an English major. I should've done anything other than just drink a lot in college. Oh well, can't dwell on the past. What's a good way to forget the past... oh, right, beer!

Quoted from leitskev Anyway, I applaud your effort in trying to dig into prose style!

I'm not exactly trying to get into prose writing. I guess I don't really know what I'm looking for lol. Anything that'll help me become a better screenwriter. You guys have given me a lot of cool stuff to check out though. So thanks everyone!

Mark - was it this thread?

http://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?m-1482840484/s-14/highlight-/#num14

Anthony -- Yep, pretty sure that's the one.

I hear you Mark. I can say that several people think my screenwriting improved once I spent time doing prose. No, that doesn't mean novelistic writing.

I think a lot of writers on the cusp of breaking in are writing both screen and prose. I mean you can take a feature length script and then easily write it as a novella and self publish it.

One other thing:

Like Stephen King said: "If you ain't got time to read, you ain't got time to write".


The best writers are voracious readers.

There's a reason some writers sell so well, and are considered the best in their respective fields.

Whichever genre you're working in, it can't hurt to devour the best short stories, novels and whatever else to see how the authors use words to create specific effects.