This sentence has five words

Here are five more words

Five word sentences are fine

But several together become monotonous

Listen to what is happening

The writing is getting boring

The sound of it drones

It’s like a stuck record

The ear demands some variety

Now listen

I vary the sentence length, and I create music

Music

The writing sings

It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony

I use short sentences

And I use a sentence of medium length

And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals—sounds that say listen to this, it is important

By Gary Provost

I promise I will get to other writing topics in the future, but in the meantime I am focusing on writing style. As the poem above explained, it becomes tedious to read similar sentence structure over and over again. Instead of explaining, however, I am going to give you some writing time.

~☼Writing time! ☼~

Go through something you have written recently. Find short sentences and try to combine them into one sentence. Alternatively, find long sentences and try to break them apart. See what you like better. Vary your rhythm.

†Back to Lecture†

Using a simple sentence does not make you simple minded. But use simple sentences sparingly, so they carry more weight. And above all, avoid this:

“No matter how I tried to distract myself—and I had plenty to think of: I was honestly and desperately worried about Jacob and his wolf-brothers, I was terrified for Charlie and the others who thought they were hunting animals, I was getting in deeper and deeper with Jacob without ever having consciously decided to progress in that direction and I didn’t know what to do about it—none of these very real, very deserving of thought, very pressing concerns could take my mind off the pain in my chest for long.” Sentence courtesy (if that’s the right word) of New Moon by Stephanie Meyer.