I want to achieve the following:
- To produce a work that is well-organized and full of substance.
- To produce a work in which each thought flows smoothly to the next.
- To produce a work that is perfectly clear and coherent.
- To produce a work that has poetic cadence or prose rhythm, comparable to that of the King James Bible or some other rhythmical work.
I have often tried writing sentences and revising as I go, trying to apply few rules about metrical feet, being dissatisfied with the sound, not having barely anything written, and finally giving up.
There seems to be rules for clarity. I have a book on it and it is not difficult to apply. But there are no rules for prose rhythm, and before I can ever get my thoughts out I have already tried rearranging words and looking up words in a thesaurus and given up.
But I did write something with good prose rhythm once five years ago. I don’t have it anymore, unfortunately. So I know that at least I had the ability to write in the rhythm that that piece had.