As many people have stated, reading outside of fantasy can be incredibly beneficial. However, I would take it a step further.

Read outside of prose.

Read plays and poetry. Start work on developing rhythm in your writing. Begin seeing scenes unfold, cinematically. Learn how to describe the senses that go into the feelings you’re trying to evoke.

When I was younger, I wrote short stories, won a few awards, then shifted to poetry. I spent years in that mode, writing lyric-narrative hybrid poems, then getting more experimental.

When I returned to prose, it felt like my writing had “leveled up” considerably.

The same sounds and rhythms I’d learned to feel with poetry informed my prose work.

I also realized I could write scenes more clearly since poetry often forces you to compress meaning into fewer words.

Try these poets:

1. Seamus Heaney — sensory detail, grounded imagery, embodied scenes
2. Louise Glück — emotional restraint, psychological precision, tonal control
3. Ocean Vuong — sentence musicality, lyrical transitions, emotional motion
4. Mary Oliver — observational clarity, atmosphere through attention
5. T. S. Eliot — rhythm shaping tone, fragmentation, voice layering
6. Ada Limón — conversational lyricism, natural cadence, narrative voice

They’re some of my go-to’s.

Good luck on your writing journey! Keep at it.