Poetry & wordplay21 categories
Rewrite this in a different register
Testing whether a poem's tone is a choice or a default.
Rewrite the passage below in three registers, keeping the same content and roughly the same length: 1. **Plainer**: shorter words, ordinary syntax, nothing anyone would call poetic 2. **More formal**: elevated diction, longer sentences, more subordination 3. **Spoken**: how someone would actually say this to a friend, contractions and all Under each, note what survived the translation and what turned out to depend entirely on the original wording. The parts that vanish are the parts that were decoration. Then say which register the original is closest to, whether it is consistent throughout, and name any line that is in a different register from its neighbours. Passage:
Making it yours
- Paste your own material where the prompt asks for it. Everything above that line is instruction, not content.
- Delete any rule that does not apply to you. A shorter prompt that fits beats a thorough one that does not.
- If the answer comes back vague, add a line saying what you do not want. Constraints work better than encouragement.
Rewriting lines and stanzas. The line that is dead, the lineation that feels arbitrary, the verb that is doing nothing.
Related prompts
Diagnose the line that isn't landingOne line is dead and you know which one but not why.Alternative line breaks for the same stanzaThe words are right but the lineation feels arbitrary.A stronger verb hereThe line is doing nothing and the verb is why.Six rewrites of the line that is not landingOne line is dead, you know which one, and you want options rather than a verdict.Three ways to break this stanzaThe words are right and the lineation feels arbitrary.Near-rhymes grouped by vowel soundYou need a rhyme and the obvious ones are all wrong or already used.
Keep this one
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