Tag Archives: sentence structure

Today’s Writing Tip

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Use short sentences to depict fast, tense action or conversations. This establishes the pace. Longer ones work well for descriptive narrative, or more casual dialog. It helps to think about the tone of voice you or your narrator would be using for a given scene, then capture it in the sentence structure itself.

Over all, vary sentence length to maintain reader attention rather than droning on and on…You don’t want your story to come off as being told by that teacher or professor who used to put you to sleep.

Today’s Writing Tip

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Another way to avoid too many he’s and she’s, at least when you’re in their point of view, is to not say he saw, he heard, he thought, etc. Instead of “He heard the crow of a rooster in the distance, reminding him of his childhood” say “The crow of a rooster in the distance reminded him of his childhood.”

The viewpoint character is the one experiencing the story. Specifying how he perceived something is somewhat redundant. It also nudges the reader out of the story rather than assimilating the character and seeing the story through his or her eyes.

This is another thing to watch for in your final edit. With enough practice, you may be able to shift to this technique in your early drafts, but don’t worry about anything that might interrupt or inhibit your creative flow.

Today’s Writing Tip

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Unless afflicted by writer’s block, authors have no trouble getting words down on paper or screen. However, some have more trouble than others getting those words in the proper order. Periodically study your sentences for correct structure. Especially make sure prepositional phrases are where they make the most sense. If misplaced, they can have hilarious implications that will commit the serious faux pas of throwing your reader out of the story. Place them as close as possible to what they modify for maximum clarity.

Today’s Writing Tip

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Use active voice as much as possible. “The boy threw the ball”, not “The ball was thrown by the boy.” Note it also eliminates a preposition. This is another way that tighter writing is better writing.  There are exceptions, but use them consciously. For example, a statement such as “The board approved the new proposal” is often simply stated “The new proposal was approved.” Watch for needing a prepositional phrase following the verb, in which case you may be slipping into passive voice.