Saying Prayers is a ancient tradition. It still is a very useful way of praying for the simple fact that it involves not just the mind and heart of the body - thus helping to cope with distractions.
Within this there are the traditional prayers which many people already know, and also a whole range of books available from the Divine Office to the Simple Prayer Book. Below are links to some to the well known and loved prayers, as well as some web links to other prayers sites with good material.
With any prayer it is not the quantity but the engagement of our whole being in praying which matters. Prayer is not magic it is an relationship which involves our emotions, our thoughts, our worries and all the many elements which make a person wonderful and unique. From this it should be clear that when reading a prayer we need to think about the words and mean them.
The aim is to be honest with God, we can use prayers which express our feelings, our hopes and our whole being. God made us as we are and wants to relate to a complete person. On days of sorrow there are prayers to fit, on days of rejoicing the same. There are prayers in the many books around to match virtually every situation.
When we cannot find one that expresses our feelings then is is perfectly OK to speak to God as we feel with our own words, words from our heart.