zlacker

>>cosmoj+(OP)
"A thought flashed through me, which I clothed in act"

I can read and understand phrases like these, because I can read the same language. But I can never create anything with the same ring, or richness of metaphor, when I compose my own. It saddens me greatly. I wonder how one gets the mind for it.

>>HeckFe+ZK
I don’t know of your habits, so this advice may not apply to you. But we are living through a slow-motion crisis in language, in the English-speaking world. It is caused by mostly everyone reading, routinely, constantly, and nearly exclusively, garbage prose. This description applies to nearly all journalism, technical discussion, essays of opinion, and any writing related to politics, computers, society, or technology. And we imitate what we read, even if not consciously. Eventually, we lose the ability to express ourselves well.

Spend some time every day reading Shakespeare, Joyce, or Nabokov. Maybe some PG Wodehouse or Oscar Wilde. After a year or so, it will start to seep in. You will notice your own writing becoming more beautiful, and more precise (which is largely the same thing.) I can guarantee this, because you care, and that’s 90% of what’s required.

>>leephi+Mr1
That's good advice. The apparently effortless prose of a Wodehouse or McPhee is only achieved through a lot of work.