Writing Prompt

Write a couple of sentences using as many prepositions as possible. Then, rewrite, eliminating as many as possible. Check a piece of your in-progress writing for prepositional phrases. See how many you can eliminate. Look for prepositional phrases – or the lack thereof -- in the books you are reading.  How did the writer convey the information without using too many prepositional phrases? Then write from this sentence, I like to break the rules of writing because . . . .

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Open-ended topics such as this lend themselves to releasing your angel. Don't think. Write. If you wander off the subject, don't resist. That's your angel leading you.

Set a timer for ten minutes. Begin writing. Don't think. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar or staying on the topic.

At the end of ten minutes, stop. Or continue. Then let the writing rest a few days. When you read it, look for new insights or themes. You may want to keep the piece as it is, simply for personal growth. Or, you may want to expand, develop, re-write and edit the piece for publication.

Tip of the Month

Reading a manuscript in my office of a novel for a writer with a cup of coffee recently, I found myself smiling as the writing seemed to fall into a rhythm. Da-da-dum, da-da-dum, da-da-dum. What was the problem? Read the first sentence above again. The answer is there. Too many prepositions: in, of, for, with. Too many prepositional phrases.

This explanation from The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers, 2nd Edition, 1991, explains it clearly.

In a prepositional phrase, a preposition and a noun combine to show a relationship.
Samples:
to the limit                    for the duration
with the exception          of the opinion
by the side                    over the objection
in the rain                     on the train

Solution? Reduce the number of such phrases. How to do it? Either go through your manuscript and mark each one with a colored pen for later revision. Or use Control-F (find) on your computer, enter the preposition, and let your computer search for each word individually. Re-read. Re-write.