Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with prose

How can I "scrape" some stats for NY Appellate Division orders?

StickyCarpet — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 19:12:58 -0800

I'm trying to get some stats from New York First Department Appellate Division orders, INAL I don't have Lexus or anything like that, what I'm looking for is:

1) Over some period of time, as long as possible really, how many 1st dept. orders issued, have been unanimous on the cited grounds of all three of: issue of law, issue of fact, and issue of judicial discretion?

2) How many times has an appeal been won in 1st dept. without an attorney?

and ideally 3) The intersection of 1) and 2). All three without counsel?

Yes, that was me, and I just want an idea how probable that was.

Short Story recs for high school speech/forensics

castlebravo — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 08:58:50 -0800

Recommend me some short stories (ideally with some unsettling or creepy elements) that will work for a high school speech competition. I am volunteering (virtually) as a coach for my high school's speech team. I've competed in speech years back, but never coached.

I have a high school senior who is competing in the "Serious Prose" category. This is very broad (pretty much any published literary work) and I'm trying to narrow it down for him to have a few options. Hoping the Hivemind can help me dig up some pieces that could work based on this student's requests + competition requirements.

COMPETITION REQUIREMENTS:

-Published literary prose. Cannot be from a play, film script, or poem. Should be published in a somewhat legit outlet (online literary journal is great; longform Reddit comment probably not)

-"Essentially serious" in tone.

-Can be performed in under 10 minutes (ideally 7 to 8 minutes) or can be edited to be under 10 minutes. Short stories work best, and within that, the "shorter side of a short story" so under 5000 words.

-Strong profanity or graphic sexual content is no good. Mild profanity (the occasional hell or damn) is usually fine. If the R-rated stuff can be cut out while preserving the plot, that works.

STUDENT'S REQUESTS/INTERESTS:

-Male or gender neutral protagonist.
-First person narrative. (flexible on this)
-Not a ton of character switching - a little is okay, but he doesn't want to make up a ton of voices for a big conversation scene.
-He likes horror and psychological horror, but the story doesn't have to be straight up horror.
-Interested in the challenge of portraying a delusional or unreliable narrator. Mentioned a piece about a man who thinks he's stuck in a reality TV show (like the Truman Show but not that), can't remember the title.
-Not something that already exists as an iconic TV or film adaptation ("I don't want the judges to be mentally comparing me to Daniel Day Lewis' version") or is considered famous to the point of overdone (The Telltale Heart)

A protagonist that skews younger would probably work in his favor, but not a requirement.

If this is available somewhere online, that's great, but I do have a small budget to order books if needed.

What can a law library do?

*s — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 09:05:05 -0800

I have been asked to co-chair the county law library committee for my local bar association. Our mission is to come up with programs and services that would help the community during this time of pandemic and mass economic dislocation. One thing we are doing is setting up "pods" that would let self-represented litigants participate in court hearings via zoom, do legal research, and get help with finding legal representation. These will be at the library, but I would like to have pods outside of downtown in community buildings.

I am looking for other creative things the law library can do to help the community. The librarians are awesome and open to ideas and we can likely get funding. Have you seen anything that a law library has done that has improved access and services for people representing themselves or are otherwise needing help navigating the legal system?

Seeking fiction recommendations--what's your favorite?

zeusianfog — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 13:59:52 -0800

I'm looking for books to read! Normally I have an elaborate system of weights and pulleys that helps me decide what I want to read next, but I'm sick of that. I like 99% percent of the books I read and I will read things from any genre. So why not Ask Metafilter? Tell me your favorite fiction book and I'll read it!

Wedding Vows: Seeking Suggestions & Guidance

nightrecordings — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 17:12:15 -0800

We're writing our own wedding vows. We'd love any help finding beautiful poetry and prose to express the strength of our passion and commitment to one another; we'd also appreciate guidance on how to structure our vows. 1. What advice and guidelines would you give for writing one's own vows? How long should they be? What themes should we be careful not to leave out? Examples or links to examples are especially helpful.

2. We're also seeking selections from poetry and prose; what would you suggest? The more passionate, the better. Open to all suggestions, including work from both ancient and contemporary authors

Some data points about us, to give an idea of what we might be looking for:
- We're an interracial cishet couple.
- He is Indian and a Hindu; it would be wonderful to include work from Hindu and/or South Asian writers, but it is not a requirement.
- Some writers we're considering so far: Vidyapati, Hafiz, Mary Oliver, Federico Garcia Lorca, Gwendolyn Brooks.
- We've had to overcome some considerable obstacles in order for us to be together, chief among them distance and international borders. It would be more than appropriate for our vows to celebrate how we overcame these.
- We're both very passionate, romantic, expressive people; very affectionate; our love languages are definitely a combo of "acts of service," "physical touch" and "quality time."
- Due to circumstances beyond our control, our wedding is going to be a very small courthouse elopement - we're planning a more significant ceremony for maybe a year from now, at which time we'll hopefully have a Hindu priest to provide a puja, but we still want this small ceremony to be special in how we convey our love and commitment to one another.

Please help me choose oral recitations to memorize!

windykites — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 08:57:12 -0800

My new hobby is memorizing recitables and I'd like help selecting poems and prose to learn. I found this AskMe, but I have some very specific criteria that aren't represented in it. My criteria are as follows:

Poetry:
-Poems should rhyme
-Poems should have a poetic structure (no free-verse)
-Poems should ideally be somewhat well-known
-Poems must sound as good spoken as they read on paper (I know that's vague but hopefully you will understand what I mean. I want to recite this stuff).

Any length is fine.

Prose:
-Prose should be somewhat well-known
-Prose should flow well orally. Again, I want to recite this stuff, so it should be written to be spoken or at least adapt itself well to speaking
-If you have a favourite soliloquy or monologue I'm game but I'm not going to memorize entire plays
-No more than, oh let's say a chapter from a book and it needs to be relatively self-contained
-Speeches/public addresses welcome but they must be moving.
-Ditto segments from essays/ philosophical treatises/ etc
These criteria are somewhat flexible; they're based on ease of memorisation and dramatic potential. If you know an absolutely stunning poem that recites beautifully but doesn't happen to rhyme, I'll give it a try, but I doubt if William Carlos Williams or e e cummings have a role here.

I'd also love to be pointed towards resources for this. Do actors have books of things they memorise for auditions? I would love something like that.

Thanks!

Witchy Chicken Soup for the Depressed Millennial Soul

landunderwave — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 17:48:15 -0800

My best friend is going through some hardship. I'm trying to help her find relatable, inspirational, spiritual books about dealing with depression. Details inside. She is not a capital-c Christian, but was raised in a very fundamentalist Evangelical church. Overtly Southern Baptist or otherwise fundamental preachings turn her off. Her own spiritual views can be summed up concisely as "witchy," but not in a formalized Wiccan sense. She strongly prefers female authors. Eastern thought is not unwelcome. She is interested in Pema Chodron, but hasn't read anything of hers yet. We would prefer to avoid anything too "self helpy," anti-rx, or gimmicky, favoring relatable stories about facing depression through a combination of spirituality, therapy, and medicine. She likes bell hooks, Sylvia Plath, and Rupi Kaur. She loves poetry, and reading good poetry helps keep her writing, which in turn helps her feel better. Thanks in advance.

Looking for a reading for a scattering of ashes at sea

otherwordlyglow — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 21:33:52 -0800

I'm looking for a short essay or non-rhymey poem that talks about loss and renewal for an ash scattering in the ocean. We won't be far off from shore but the ocean was a special place for the deceased and I'd like a short reading or poem that touches on the themes of the natural world, a return to the ocean as giver of life, and/or the cycle of renewal.

I'm already thinking about The Peace of Wild Things but am looking for something else that's a little more essay-ish.

After 35 years how I can learn to communicate my inner life effectively?

numberstation — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 14:31:51 -0800

Following an incredibly tumultuous, confusing, and painful recent journey I have had over the course of the last year or so it has been suggested to me that I should write down my experience(s). How can I obtain clarity of thought on something with so many constituent parts, and hopefully therefore also achieve an ability to Communicate the thoughts via the written word in order to achieve my goal in this regard?

Composing in one's head

Countess Elena — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 20:21:22 -0800

I'm interested in examples of people who have composed lengthy pieces of prose in their own heads. I just read Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, and I was fascinated by his work (such as he could do it) on the manuscript he had written, which was destroyed by the Nazis, and later reconstituted as that book. Frankl mentioned hiding shorthand notes for himself, when he could.

What other authors have had to develop techniques for writing without writing? Oral compositions are tens of thousands of years old, of course, but they rely on formula, and what is more, community. Poetry and songs act as mnemonics in a way that prose does not. Surely there are authors who have effectively composed books in their heads?

Frustrated amateur writer seeks supportive group/space.

TheGarden — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 21:05:23 -0800

I'm a creatively frustrated, uneducated amateur writer/enthusiastic reader and I have no clue what groups/spaces would be suitable for sharing work/discussing other's work. I am concerned about joining something that is beyond my capability and I ideally want somewhere friendly and constructive. Does anyone have any suggestions? So I haven't had any training, I haven't been on any courses, but I write short prose and have done since I was a child, everything I have learnt has come from being a book worm. I have found more and more that I'm creatively caged by a lack of community. I am in the first year of an undergrad course I don't like but found myself unexpectedly adoring one section where my tutor group (online forum) dissected some of the similes in Homer's Illiad.

I realised afterwards that what I loved was the writing and the inspiration I got from that. I have never analysed anyone's work like this before, I'm woefully uneducated despite attempting to remedy that by trying my hand at university and realising I am not intelligent enough. *But* the spark that resulted from this one task - found me sucked in and I wished I could spend more time writing myself, sharing that, reading other's writing and having discussions about what can be taken away and interpreted. I thoroughly enjoyed bouncing ideas around and getting inspiration from other people for new concepts or ideas. I also learned a lot from one fellow student who wrote beautifully and cleverly in their analysis.

I don't know where to go though. I feel like my lack of education in general means I will not fit in with writing groups and I don't know if book clubs would be suitable. So where do people like me go to expel their creative demons?

All help and advice would be greatly appreciated. :)

Please suggest some short media for confidence and encouragement.

Going To Maine — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 21:18:34 -0800

I’m trying to wrap up some big stuff these days and could use some media to boast confidence, courage, and focus. Brief prose, poetry, non-fiction, religious texts, and music would be welcome. I'd prefer to avoid longer things in order to save time. Thanks!

No dirty limericks, but a veiled sonnet would be nice

a lungful of dragon — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 14:37:02 -0800

Wedding poetry recommendations for a pair of active, late 20-somethings? I've been asked to recite a brief poem (no more than 1-2 minutes, I'd think) at a sibling's wedding.

As I'm not finding much that is inspiring, I'm hoping the literary minds at Metafilter may offer guidance.

Are there any poems you would recommend that would:

- celebrate the outdoors and nature, and interactions with them
- say nothing about having kids after marriage
- be written in a voice to be spoken to both partners (i.e., "second person plural")
- have an audio recording to help with learning its proper recital

The first two points are crucial — I'm really trying to avoid the bland, flowery, generic Hallmark card fluff I can find via Google, to find something more personal. Also, the bride-to-be seems pretty clear about not having children, so I want to avoid that theme, entirely.

The third point is a nice-to-have, from the perspective of wanting to speak directly to them, for others to hear, as opposed to speaking about their marriage to others. If that distinction makes sense.

The fourth point is a nice-to-have — I'm not much of a public speaker, so if the stanzas are oddly framed, knowing how a professional poet would convey the prose would help me in that department.

For example, I found a poem by Robert Frost called The Master Speed that might be aligned with the first three points, except that when I hear my voice say it out loud, my delivery is awkward and stilted.

Lighthearted would be great, so long as it is still heartfelt. Shel Silverstein is good stuff — I'm thinking about something along the lines of The Romance, sans any references to having offspring.

Thanks for any tips!

What are some works of SFF that use extraordinarily beautiful language?

Going To Maine — Sun, 24 May 2015 21:08:26 -0800

What are some works of SFF that showcase beautiful language on a par with All The King's Men, Gilead, and Raymond Chandler's detective novels? I've read plenty of SFF that has transported me, but little that's struck me as gorgeously written. Thanks!

Authors and novels recommendations for improving writing craft?

RearWindow — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 21:16:44 -0800

I have always been fond of writing poetry, but lately I seem to want to expand my writing craft towards short stories. I think the most notable clincher for writers to improve their overall craft is simply by reading voraciously; with an eclectic wide range of authors and literary works. What are some wonderful literary works, authors, playwrights, short stories, non-fiction, fantasy work, et cetera. Can you recommend for me? To further my own voice and writing craft. I seem to have a knack for writing poetry and university essays, but I wish to advance my craft for writing short stories overall. Are there any eloquent and crafted writers you would recommend for a novice writer to read? Classic and Contemporary works will do just fine. I seem to favor Irish writers and poets for some reason, so if you have any authors that write with the cultural knowledge and landscape of Ireland, fire away. I have read Lolita and The Picture of Dorian Gray, which seems to have helped with my short story writing. I'm Canadian, so I would love to read more about First Nations' literary works as well. I love reading stories from a foreign cultural perspective, since it can help build my critical thinking and place a fresh perspective through someone's live-hood.

I have been told to read more on Wilde, Thoreau, and Capote, so perhaps I'll scout for more of their works after the semester ends. I'm keen on fantasy, but I find that most fantasy prose is not very crafted or deemed has 'high literature' if that makes any sense.

Note: If you have any introspective wealthy advice, feel free to share and contribute. I'm open for all perspectives and what has worked and shaped your writing journey.

Thanks,
Rear Window

Examples of amazing but still accessible writing?

tarvuz — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 21:03:12 -0800

I'm not a smart man. But I do enjoy well written things. But well written books, poems, articles or whatever sometimes seem to be to hard to get into. Anyhow I would love to have examples of what people find to be amazing, creative and perhaps unique in the form of the written word. I don't care if it is famous or not. The best of the best of accessible yet amazingly written works. Thanks!

How to get better at organizing my ideas in writing?

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 23:35:40 -0800

How can I get better at organizing my ideas in writing? I want to be able to write essays, long-form blog posts, articles, etc. I want to be able to use in-depth writing as a tool to accomplish things, instead of just enduring it when it comes up. I'm interested in resources (classes? books?), techniques, and advice. A little background:

I've always struggled with the process of writing (though not the elements of it - my standardized test scores in writing and language skills were, ironically, always perfect). I'm great at writing things like step-by-step instructions for how to do something, but I clam up as soon as I start working on anything abstract. I understand the idea of making an outline, but when I try to do it, I get stuck and frustrated. Sometimes thinking of questions that need to be answered helps me get prose out, but it doesn't help with structure. I'm totally happy when I'm editing other people's writing (even when I'm contributing full sentences to it), and I have a much easier time seeing and tweaking the structure of a piece when it's not my own. I just can't seem to take that ability to my own work.

Making things more difficult, the process of writing makes me feel terrible, emotionally and physically. In college, writing for assignments was sometimes so painful and daunting that I'd have trouble breathing and sleeping.

I'd originally thought I'd go back to school pretty soon after college. My terror of writing is the #1 thing that's kept me from doing it. I've not applied for jobs I'd probably have been good at because I was afraid they might require me to write things. I'm asking this question now because I'm working on the first ~3000 word writing assignment I've had since college (for a journal in my field that publishes both academics and non-academics), and it feels just as terrible as it ever did when I was in school. I really wish it didn't! I care about the subject I'm writing about, and I want to make a good argument. It's just that I can't, or I feel like I can't. It sucks! So even if I can't improve things this time around, I'd like to do something before I get to next time.

Please help!

Wedding Reading both for, and about, sisters

librarianamy — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 05:24:14 -0800

Asking for a friend: She has been asked to do a reading at her sister's wedding in a few weeks. She does not want to use anything biblical or from Shakespeare. Rhyming is ok, but it doesn't have to, and not epically long. The important and tricky part - she'd like it to be on the theme of sisters, but wedding appropriate. Help?

Internet community where I can get feedback on my prose and storytelling

jwhite1979 — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 16:27:08 -0800

I am about 15,000 words into my first novel, and I'm finding it difficult to get feedback from my old English major friends. I'd like to know how the pace, grammar, syntax, etc. of my story strike various experienced readers, but I certainly don't want to put my manuscript online in an unsecured environment. Any thoughts? BTW, I live in the Maine woods; no, there are no local meet-ups. I really wish there were.

Why is this Bukowski poem poetry?

paleyellowwithorange — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 21:37:06 -0800

Yesterday I was reading a Bukowski poem, and as much as I enjoyed it, I got to wondering: "Why is this poetry?" So that's my question: What exactly makes this poetry - as opposed to prose just arbitrarily broken up into discrete lines?

Here's a sample excerpt from the poem:

anyhow, one night in Miami Beach (I
have no idea what I was doing in that
city) I had not eaten in 60 hours
and I took the last of my starving
pennies
went down to the corner grocery and
bought a loaf of bread.

This could just as easily have been written as follows:

Anyhow, one night in Miami Beach (I have no idea what I was doing in that city) I had not eaten in 60 hours and I took the last of my starving pennies went down to the corner grocery and bought a loaf of bread.

So why wasn’t it? Is Bukowski just allowed to do whatever he wants and call it poetry? Or is he following some poetic convention?

What makes it tick? What makes it NOT tick?

tchemgrrl — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:10:58 -0800

I'm looking for examples of analysis of why a particular passage of prose is excellent, or why it fails. I read pretty extensively, but I always feel a little left out of the conversation when people give examples of bad writing. Unless there's a grammar error, it's really rare that I can see the problem. I have the same difficulty when people hold up a particular passage as being particularly good--there were some examples of beautiful prose given in the Great Gatsby MeFi post that left me scratching my head.

Clearly, the quality of prose is not what I see when I'm reading, and I'm okay with that, but I'd like to cultivate my palate a little more. I'm wondering if there is any writing out there that talks about what works or doesn't work in specific particular prose passages in a more analytical way. Stephen Fry's book on poetry forms did a pretty good job of doing this for poetry, showing the ways that good poets broke various rules to emphasize things, and bad poets broke those same rules in ways that destroyed the structure. I'm looking for more examples in that vein.

I'm not particularly interested in advice to writers. I'm also not interested in simple lists of good and bad prose--I've seen things like that before, and like I said, I have a really hard time seeing why the bad stuff is bad, and the good stuff is good. I don't mind academic writing, but the more common academic analysis of plot, motivations, etc. is already solidly in my bailiwick--something geared to a more general audience would probably be better.

(If you are someone who appreciates good prose, I also wouldn't mind hearing how you break things down that way.)

He was, however, unsure of his own judgement...

threeants — Mon, 06 May 2013 06:02:12 -0800

Is placing certain adverbs like "however" and "nonetheless" after the first clause in a sentence an actual stylistic best practice, or just a personal preference I made up? In editing other people's writing for publication, I frequently change sentences like (a) to ones like (b):

(a) However, many people living in the neighborhood do not own cars.

(b) Many people living in the neighborhood, however, do not own cars.

(a) Nonetheless, a number of residents take advantage of local bus lines to get to the grocery store.

(b) A number of residents, nonetheless, take advantage of local bus lines to get to the grocery store.

There may be other words that fit this profile, but only "however" and "nonetheless" are coming to mind for me at the moment.

To my prose ear, the (b) sentences sound elegant and proficient, whereas the (a) sentences sound a bit uneducated or stilted, even ESL-ish (no judgement here...I'm not a prescriptivist, but when I edit for work my job is to make people sound educated!). However*, (a) constructions seem to be so common that I wonder if this is seem weird personal aesthetic that I concocted on my own. What say y'all?

*I unconsciously started this sentence this way and had a good humbling laugh at myself, so I'll leave it as is to eat my slice of humble pie. :) But I would totally edit this back the other way, were I presented it!

positive ugly art

leibniz — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:53:56 -0800

Is there any art that you find ugly, but still admire or value? I am interested in seeing if there is a distinct category of aesthetic or artistic value that could be called the positive ugly. So the criteria is that you find the thing or artwork to be ugly (and maybe actually feel some revulsion) but you still value it. In addition, the value should be distinct from the value of the comic, the horrific, the tragic or the sublime (so ugliest dog in the world doesn't count for instance).

This category seems very popular in modern art, but there's a lot of modern art that I don't value- since it seems to express a nihilist attitude to me. So can you give me an example of a work of art (in any art form) that you find ugly, but still admire or value? And can you explain why you value it?

Details, details, details...and then BAM!

batmonkey — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:11:50 -0800

As a reader of fiction (especially if you're a devotee of speculative fiction), how much do you like detailed descriptions and/or lists as part of the story? What if the story switches between detail and expediency? Feel free to answer the question as asked or explore any of the expanded pondering for more targeted responses.

In moving mental obstacles out of the way of a story I've been writing for a long time, I've realised that some of what I need involves getting outside of my head more [previously: 1, 2]. In this (hopefully last) question of the series, I crave input on how much detail is actually comfortable for readers AND if my custom of switching between approaches is potentially discombobulating.

One of my tendencies when writing is to be extremely detailed, as I want to build a vibrant, tangible impression of what is being encountered or experienced. But I don't use this inexorably - there are parts where flow of events would be hideously stymied and I switch to a more action-oriented, fill-in-the-blanks-yourself style.

Examples: I find the lists in Brian Jacques's Redwall books endearing and sometimes amusing. I originally liked the incredible details in Ill-Made Mute by Cecilia Dart-Thornton, but she seemed to abandon the more artful approach to it in the jump to the other books and it became tiresome. Martha Wells used description to great advantaqe in The Bone Palace. Most know Bradbury's knack for loving and chilling details, and those are certainly part of my concept of the iconic ideal.

But getting through action and complex exchanges seems weighed down by such detail, so I move away from that. Maybe not so far as Hemingway, but certainly along the lines of Jack London. Thereabouts, anyway.

To boil it down:
Details/lists - like or dislike? Is there an ideal that encapsulates your preference? Are there exceptions to your personal rules?

Mixing it up to further the story - preferable or disorienting? Is there anyone who does this particularly well? Especially poorly?

Thanks to bongo_x for the comment that helped me summarise!

My name is Christopher John Francis Boone

fix — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 09:41:39 -0800

Please recommend books that are similar to 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' (not just ones about autism). What I really like about the novel:

Realism, or for some the fine line between realism and magic realism.

Simple, effective, unpretentious prose with very few adverbs.

Chronological narrative interspersed with asides/flashbacks.

Tonnes of detail!

Thanks hive mind:)