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"Call me Ishmael" ... like an invocation. "Tell us, O Muse" ... And the name itself, "Ishmael," so strange and evocative — of Antiquity, of pagan wilderness and uncertain paths of righteousness, when human experience was all happening for the first time.

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"Call me Ishmael" ... like an invocation. "Tell us, O Muse" ... And the name itself, "Ishmael," so strange and evocative — of Antiquity, of pagan wilderness and uncertain paths of righteousness, when human experience was all happening for the first time.

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Any prose that really moves a reader has some poetic power to it, simple or complex, direct or implied. "Call me Ishmael." Three words, an assertion of preference, nothing more. Yet they are like a door swinging open, beyond which is an enthralling and strange new world.

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Any prose that really moves a reader has some poetic power to it, simple or complex, direct or implied. "Call me Ishmael." Three words, an assertion of preference, nothing more. Yet they are like a door swinging open, beyond which is an enthralling and strange new world.

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But that simple phrasing comes amidst the larger poetic weave of a prose narrative about an individual on a strange journey that will ultimately transform him. The simplicity of "He ate the hamburger" is _part_ of the poetry of the prose.

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But that simple phrasing comes amidst the larger poetic weave of a prose narrative about an individual on a strange journey that will ultimately transform him. The simplicity of "He ate the hamburger" is _part_ of the poetry of the prose.

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When, in the middle of @neilhimself's "American Gods," Shadow stops at a roadside diner and gets a hamburger, we don't need any poetry besides "He ate the hamburger" to vividly appreciate the simple necessity of Shadow's hunger, and even his pleasure at fulfilling that need.

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When, in the middle of @neilhimself's "American Gods," Shadow stops at a roadside diner and gets a hamburger, we don't need any poetry besides "He ate the hamburger" to vividly appreciate the simple necessity of Shadow's hunger, and even his pleasure at fulfilling that need.

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The poetics of prose are often what's NOT said. Are often everything AROUND what's said. This rhythm, of imaginative flights offset by simple statements and assertions, creates a space rich with implication. The reader's job is to fill in that space. You just help them get there.

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The poetics of prose are often what's NOT said. Are often everything AROUND what's said. This rhythm, of imaginative flights offset by simple statements and assertions, creates a space rich with implication. The reader's job is to fill in that space. You just help them get there.

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Robinson's economy of language turns each sentence into levers with which he moves worlds. Those are poetical levers, part of a grand structure of description, assertion, vision, rhythm, revelation and resolution.

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Robinson's economy of language turns each sentence into levers with which he moves worlds. Those are poetical levers, part of a grand structure of description, assertion, vision, rhythm, revelation and resolution.

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"It was getting hotter." Kim Stanley Robinson opens "Ministry for the Future" with that sentence. Understatement of the millennium in a book about global warming, by an author famously economical with words, yet profligate in the telling.

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"It was getting hotter." Kim Stanley Robinson opens "Ministry for the Future" with that sentence. Understatement of the millennium in a book about global warming, by an author famously economical with words, yet profligate in the telling.

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Whether a situation is directly stated, creatively implied or extravagantly described — what matters is that it's about what's being felt. We're looking for that poetry, and wielding it with precision, within the prose, when the time is right.

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Whether a situation is directly stated, creatively implied or extravagantly described — what matters is that it's about what's being felt. We're looking for that poetry, and wielding it with precision, within the prose, when the time is right.

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Poetry-in-prose can get extravagant, and it can be worth the risk. But sometimes plain and clean language is all it takes to hit the reader right over the head, and break their imagination wide open.

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Poetry-in-prose can get extravagant, and it can be worth the risk. But sometimes plain and clean language is all it takes to hit the reader right over the head, and break their imagination wide open.

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Perhaps you should not merely state that the character intends to take a walk in the rain. Perhaps you need to describe them pressing on as the thunderhead approaches, rain-flecked gusts tossing their hair about, the smell of ozone giving them gooseflesh.

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Perhaps you should not merely state that the character intends to take a walk in the rain. Perhaps you need to describe them pressing on as the thunderhead approaches, rain-flecked gusts tossing their hair about, the smell of ozone giving them gooseflesh.

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As an editor, I've found describing what the character _feels_, rather than stating what the character _intends_, can achieve a level of poetry-within-prose that's both clear about the action, and also emotionally significant.

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As an editor, I've found describing what the character _feels_, rather than stating what the character _intends_, can achieve a level of poetry-within-prose that's both clear about the action, and also emotionally significant.

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We can say what a character is going to do. The characters themselves can do the same. But so what? Stating intention can have its own poetic force, but it can also be, and too often is, little more than reading a weather report.

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We can say what a character is going to do. The characters themselves can do the same. But so what? Stating intention can have its own poetic force, but it can also be, and too often is, little more than reading a weather report.

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Recently this has played out for me in terms of the dreaded "show vs. tell," and specifically in the action of characters within the narrative.

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Recently this has played out for me in terms of the dreaded "show vs. tell," and specifically in the action of characters within the narrative.

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I'm finding, in my own voyage as a fiction editor, that the poetry of prose is often what turns a plot cliche into something that moves a reader, and elevates a story beyond its cliches.

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I'm finding, in my own voyage as a fiction editor, that the poetry of prose is often what turns a plot cliche into something that moves a reader, and elevates a story beyond its cliches.

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This matter, of writers needing to reach for the poetics within prose, isn't a "rule." I hate the rules of fiction — though I must grudgingly admit that many such rules do amount to excellent advice that can greatly improve a work of fiction.

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This matter, of writers needing to reach for the poetics within prose, isn't a "rule." I hate the rules of fiction — though I must grudgingly admit that many such rules do amount to excellent advice that can greatly improve a work of fiction.

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THE POETRY WITHIN PROSE: In the course of editing prose fiction, I find myself continually returning to what makes this sort of prose succeed. For me, and for The Fabulist's purposes, it is the inherent poetry of the prose, which emerges from the writer's art and craft.

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THE POETRY WITHIN PROSE: In the course of editing prose fiction, I find myself continually returning to what makes this sort of prose succeed. For me, and for The Fabulist's purposes, it is the inherent poetry of the prose, which emerges from the writer's art and craft.

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OK, so we're going to try and recreate a few key Fabulist Mag threads from Twitter that need to live somewhere else in case the whole thing disappears in a cloud of billionaire bluster because Elon. Bear with us while we move this forward ...

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OK, so we're going to try and recreate a few key Fabulist Mag threads from Twitter that need to live somewhere else in case the whole thing disappears in a cloud of billionaire bluster because Elon. Bear with us while we move this forward ...

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The latest edition of our e-zine, The Pocket Pixelarium, is here! Collecting 12 new fantastical and far-out tales of chlorophilia, body shocks, strange visitations and much more. This is a benefit for our Yarn Spinner, Story Teller and Lore Keeper patrons.
https://www. patreon.com/posts/pocket-vol-2-no-74825376?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator

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The latest edition of our e-zine, The Pocket Pixelarium, is here! Collecting 12 new fantastical and far-out tales of chlorophilia, body shocks, strange visitations and much more. This is a benefit for our Yarn Spinner, Story Teller and Lore Keeper patrons.
https://www. patreon.com/posts/pocket-vol-2-no-74825376?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator

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New Story! If you could go back in time, would you really change just one thing? "Umpteenth," by Ewan Davis. https://fabulistmagazine.com/umpteenth/

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New Story! If you could go back in time, would you really change just one thing? "Umpteenth," by Ewan Davis. https://fabulistmagazine.com/umpteenth/

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Hi! We've made it over to Mastodon. We love fantastical and speculative fiction of all sorts. Here's a direct link to our story feed ... come have a browse ...
https://fabulistmagazine.com/category/words/

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Hi! We've made it over to Mastodon. We love fantastical and speculative fiction of all sorts. Here's a direct link to our story feed ... come have a browse ...
https://fabulistmagazine.com/category/words/