The 7 Levels of Prose Every Fantasy Writer Must Master

Author: Jed Herne Date ingested: 2026-04-13 Original file: /RAW/videos/The 7 Levels of Prose Every Fantasy Writer Must Master.md Source type: Video transcript — scripted educational video Original URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDGVnNY3V0c Published: 2025-06-09 Mode when ingested: SCHOLAR Argument type: Inductive craft reasoning from wide reading + personal publishing experience (4 novels, 180+ writers coached). The seven-level taxonomy is Herne's own construction, not an established critical framework. All claims [PARAPHRASED] unless marked otherwise. Note on sponsorship: Video is sponsored by ProWritingAid. Levels 1–2 include product integration. Doctrinal craft content is distinguishable from promotional content.

Summary

Herne argues that prose — the specific words on the page — is not decoration but the primary transmission mechanism for story: it is how everything a writer imagines gets into a reader's mind, and all other story elements depend on it landing correctly. He organizes prose craft into a seven-level pyramid, ascending from grammatical competence through adverb reduction, sentence variation, and original metaphor, to three upper levels that are not about technique: narrator fidelity (prose in service of character voice, not authorial display), emotional infusion (writing around feeling rather than directly at it), and sublime prose (beyond formula, a byproduct of living deeply). The central insight of the upper levels is that prose quality depends less on technical skill and more on the writer's capacity to perceive and truthfully render human experience.

Key Concepts

Prose as Transmission — the seven-level taxonomy; prose as the mechanism by which story moves from writer's mind to reader's mind; the upper levels are about understanding life, not mastering technique

Notable Claims

The foundational claim: "Prose refers to the specific words you're using to transmit your story from your mind into the reader's mind. And it doesn't matter how good your characters, worldbuilding, or plot might be. If you can't express your ideas on the page in an effective and emotionally compelling way, then none of these other elements of your story will work." [PARAPHRASED from direct quote — rendered closely]

Level 5 — Truthfulness to narrator (the most distinctive claim): Herne presents Level 5 as a departure from conventional advice. The Joe Abercrombie blog post passage: "You have to try to be honest in every area of your writing. When you use a metaphor to describe something, you have to ask the question, does that thing really look the way you're describing it, or are you just reaching for an easy cliché, for any old words to fill the space? When you write dialogue, you have to ask the question, would this character really say these words in this situation? Everything that seems dishonest, that seems unconvincing, that seems untrue, weakens the effect. If you keep honest, you can't go too far wrong." [DIRECT QUOTE — Abercrombie's mother's advice, as cited by Abercrombie in a blog post, as quoted by Herne] The implication: prose is not the author's opportunity for display. It is in service of the character through whose perspective you're narrating.

Level 5 — Three POV examples from The Devils (Abercrombie): Herne walks through three POV characters to demonstrate prose truthful to narrator. Vigur (volatile Swedish werewolf, short attention span): short punchy syntax, toss-away similes, impatient. [PARAPHRASED] Balthazar (arrogant necromancer with inflated ego): long winding sentences, third-person self-reference, elaborate lists of grievances. [PARAPHRASED] Alex (young street thief, anxious): frenetic energy, constant backward glancing, self-pity as texture. [PARAPHRASED]

Level 6 — Writing feelings without names (Donald Maass): "The art we're seeking is the evocation of tacit feelings that leave the reader helpless to explain and speechlessly certain that they have felt this exact thing themselves." [DIRECT QUOTE — Donald Maass, The Emotional Craft of Fiction, as cited by Herne] The practical instruction: don't name the emotion. Write around it — secondary symptoms, layered physical sensations, contradictory implications. [PARAPHRASED]

Level 6 — Le Guin on the artist's paradox: "The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words." [DIRECT QUOTE — Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness, as cited by Herne] This is a claim about the function of literary fiction: it transmits what cannot be transmitted directly.

Level 6 — Subtext: "Subtext is where the reader understands a deeper meaning that is operating beneath the surface of your text." [PARAPHRASED] F. Scott Fitzgerald identified as the master of this — dialogue that seems understated but is charged with hidden depth. [PARAPHRASED]

Level 6 — Elevated scope: One technique for emotional depth: elevate the moment's scope beyond the immediate. The private becomes cosmic — "in this one night, all the world's nights." The personal love becomes the finding of a home. [PARAPHRASED, from the Guy Gavriel Kay passage]

Level 7 — Sublime prose: Sublime = "of high moral, aesthetic, intellectual or spiritual value. Noble, exalted." [PARAPHRASED — dictionary definition Herne invokes] Herne: this level is beyond formula. "Your ability to write sublime prose is going to be limited by your capacity to understand life and what it means to be human. This is a lifelong pursuit." [PARAPHRASED — rendered closely] The prescription: live deeply. Journal. Read widely. Collect great prose examples. Most authors never reach Level 7, or reach it in only a handful of sentences. It's fine to write at Level 5 most of the time. [PARAPHRASED]

Prose examples cited as sublime:

Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby closing lines: boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past [PARAPHRASED]
Cormac McCarthy, The Road: the blind dogs of the sun; borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it [PARAPHRASED]
Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide: "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." [DIRECT QUOTE — Adams, as cited by Herne]
Christopher Ruocchio, Empire of Silence opening: "Light. The light of that murdered sun still burns me." [DIRECT QUOTE — Ruocchio, as cited by Herne]
Matthew Stover, Revenge of the Sith novelization: Anakin realizing there was no Vader, there was only you [PARAPHRASED]

Contradictions Flagged

The seven-level hierarchy's internal logic is inconsistent. Level 5 (narrator fidelity) is a constraint on prose appropriateness, not an advancement in prose quality — you could have technically Level 7 prose that violates Level 5 (author imposing voice over character). The hierarchy is a teaching convenience, not a logical sequence. This is noted but not a contradiction between sources — it's a tension internal to the taxonomy itself.
No contradiction with the existing Jed Herne source (character arcs video). The two videos address different layers of craft (structural vs. prose) and are complementary.

Questions Raised

Le Guin's formulation ("the novelist says in words what cannot be said in words") is a strong philosophical claim. Is this a position she argues for in The Left Hand of Darkness or is it aphoristic? The claim implies that fiction's function is to transmit what exceeds propositional language — closer to what poetry is usually understood to do. This deserves its own treatment.
The claim that Level 7 prose is limited by the writer's capacity to understand human experience — does this mean that purely technical training cannot produce sublime prose? Or that technical training is necessary but insufficient? Herne implies the former, but doesn't fully argue it.
The Donald Maass "feelings without names" technique — is this related to what cognitive science calls "felt sense" (Gendlin) or phenomenological "prereflective" experience? The description is close.

Last updated: 2026-04-13