I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't know prose from a hole in the ground.

How does a person know if she is writing prose, crap and/or something else?

Thanks ahead of time.
 

Prose is anything that isn't poetry. see explications by typing "definition of prose" into google below for more details.

Definitions of prose on the Web:

* ordinary writing as distinguished from verse
* matter of fact, commonplace, or dull expression
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

* Prose is writing distinguished from poetry by its greater variety of rhythm and its closer resemblance to the patterns of everyday speech. The word prose comes from the Latin prosa, meaning straightforward. This describes the type of writing that prose embodies, unadorned with obvious stylistic devices. Prose writing is usually adopted for the description of facts or the discussion of ideas. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prose

* The organization of the written word into paragraph form.
www.christianfantasy.net/glossary.html

* the ordinary language people use in speaking or writing
www.iclasses.org/assets/literature/literary_glossary.cfm

* The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope in Prose. Vol. 1, 1737; vol. II, 1741.
www.bartleby.com/219/0300.html

* text which does not have the rhythmic qualities or poetry and which tends to be less concentrated in language or ideas
www.longman.co.uk/tt_seceng/resources/glosauth.htm

* 1. written or spoken language that is not verse. 2. referring to nonmetrical language, as fluent prose style. Cp. verse.
www.nde.state.ne.us/READ/FRAMEWORK/glossary/general_p-t.html

* straightforward' writing without recourse to the patterned regularity of metred verse. It can encompass speech or description or narrative. (Prose poetry has the ornateness and imagery of poetry but, like prose, has no discernible metre.) Bosola is the character for whom Webster most consistently employs prose.
members.fortunecity.es/fabianvillegas/drama/glossary-p.htm

* Any writing which is not in verse.
www.fisicx.com/quickreference/art/literature_glossary.html

* prose is the ordinary form of written or spoken language. It is the opposite of poetry.
www.trinityhigh.com/curric/english/literat/glossary.htm

* Writing or speaking in the usual or ordinary form. Prose becomes poetic when it takes on rhythm and rhyme. See Poetry
www.armour.k12.sd.us/Mary's%20Classes/literary_terms_glossary.htm

* Written language that does not follow poetic or dramatic forms.
www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/keystage3/respub/mflframework/appendices/glossary_of_terms/p_to_r/

* a consciously shaped writing; a clear line between poetry and prose is difficult to draw; some of the qualities of prose are:
www.english.uga.edu/~msmith/1102_literary_terms.htm
 

I stand corrected, however, and realize now that the given example really means the subject beat up a book by Ernest Hemingway or Louis L'Amour. What a weird little sentence.

[This message has been edited by trousercuit (edited July 30, 2007).]
 

Um, good answer to the question, too. Yeah.
 

From my own experience with writing, prose is something that just comes naturally out of your writing once you find your voice. Your voice is that special thing you find after writing awhile and gaining confidence in your work. The more you write, the more natural the words flow, and the more it becomes yours and yours alone. A lot of people would call that style, and definitely prose is part of style.

The key to finding prose in your own work is to continue to write and gain confidence in it. Don't try to add prose to your writing, it just won't work because it won't be your writing, but something you just made up. Eventually you will find the pacing and rhythm in your writing if you write often and consistently as your confidence grows. Also don't worry whether your writing has prose, or if someone starts to criticize your style as lacking prose. That'll just be one person's thoughts and likely they don't understand prose either. Nobody likes everything, especially when it comes to the written word.
 

I'm not sure if that lowers or raises any view you may have of me but yes I am really Matt(hew) A Lust.

Matt
 

[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited July 30, 2007).]
 

Now I'm seeing a large fish talking like a chipmunk.

(Of course he is speaking in iambic pelargoniums)
 

I do remember a passage in Heinlein's "Time Enough For Love" that was bunched-together poetry---the Kalevala / Hiawatha meter, I forget what it's called.
 

quote:

---

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane.

---

George Orwell Why I Write

Some hard truths in this essay.

If you are interested text file available here.

Edit: fix url

[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited July 31, 2007).]
 

I was educated (and humored -- geez, you're all so witty) by the many posts here.

Thanks you for your responses.