Poetry versus prose

From the cover of The Weight of Water

Author of The Weight of Water Sarah Crossan muses on why she chose to write a teenage novel in verse form

The question I’m most often asked about The Weight of Water is why I chose to tell the story in verse. If I’m honest, I don’t remember making a conscious decision about the form: I was simply jotting down some ideas one morning when Kasienka spoke to me. What I wrote looked like verse and had the musicality of poetry, but I felt daunted. Poetry requires precision: each image, comma, or line break must have a purpose on the page, and I wasn’t sure I could maintain this kind of discipline for an entire novel. I actually tried to rewrite the first few chapters in prose, hoping it would be less demanding, but when I did, Kasienka’s voice got lost because who she is as a character is so intricately linked to how she views the world, and the only way I could authentically capture her was through a series of poetic snapshots into her life.

The beauty of writing in verse was that I was able to structure the story around the poems I had written rather devising poems to fit the confines of plot. And I wrote all the poems on paper before typing them up on my laptop to keep the process slow. It was a different writing experience to any other I’ve had, and although it was difficult, it was utterly rewarding and enjoyable.

Once I finished The Weight of Water I wanted to write something completely different, and working on Breathe in prose was the perfect way to do this because I was pretty sure verse would be a silly way to approach a dystopian novel from three perspectives. For Breathe I typed hundreds or thousands of words in one sitting, focusing on plot, voice, and character, leaving the nuances of language until the second or third edit. But if I thought prose would be easier, I was wrong: ultimately I had to be just as precise with my word choice, of course, though I also had to ensure my plot was motoring along at a clip and was character driven.

I don’t think I could say which form I prefer to work in—both have their merits and drawbacks, and whether I use one or the other is all about the type of story I want to tell.

Sarah Crossan's The Weight of Water is published in paperback this month - read our review.