Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wicked Good Prose

True prose stylists carry on an impassioned lifelong love affair with words, banishing mediocre ones like so many uninteresting suitors, burnishing the good ones till they shimmer. Be infatuated, be seduced, be obsessed.

Beyond the sense of a word is its sensuousness: its sound, its cadence, its spirit. The sounds of peach and mango differ, letting you play in different ways with surrounding words. In turning a phrase, we want the words to build like a jazz riff, with the melodies of one word playing off the melodies of the others.

Sensitize yourself to denotation and connotation. Denotation, the dictionary definition of a word, refers to its explicit or literal meanings. Connotation, the suggestive power of a word, refers to its implicit or latent meanings. The denotations of peach (a single-seeded fruit with tangy yellowish pulp and downy skin that goes from yellow to red)

“Nine pounds where three are sufficient is obesity,” said Frank Lloyd Wright. “But to eliminate expressive words in speaking or writing—words that intensify or vivify meaning—is not simplicity. It may be, or usually is, stupidity.”

Relish every word. Aim deep, but be simple. Take risks. Seek beauty. Find the right pitch.