Vary Sentence Length When You Write

 

I've been taking a 5 day class on writing creative nonfiction that centers on writing 100 word stories. The premise intrigued me, so  I signed up. There is a video of 30-35 minutes each day and an assignment for the story. 

Yesterday, one of the points brought out was about varying the length of your sentences. I've mentioned this in a number of my blog posts. If all your sentences are very long, or if all are very short, it can make for boring reading. As we scan the paragraphs, we respond better when there is a variety of sentence lengths.

It's such a small thing in the overall picture of writing, but it's those little bits and pieces that create a good read. You have room to grow as a writer with them.

Short sentences add a punch and bring emphasis. They make you sit up and listen. Long ones can add rhthym. Using both kinds of sentences can add interest to your topic. 

If a writer uses one long sentence after another, the reader can get a bit bogged down. It feels like the prose is just going on and on and ... Use a plethora of short, choppy sentences, and the reader might feel a bit jerked around. What? Is that what you're thinking? These responses are mostly in our subconscious as we read, but beleive me, they do register with readers. 

As an experiment, go to your files and select a story or personal essay. Look at the first two paragraphs. Count the words in each sentence. Make a line chart like this:  6/12/18/2/6/9/10  You'll quickly see if you're heavy on one kind of sentence over another. 

Did you know that the maximum number of words recommended in a sentence is 25? A 25 word sentence is quite long, and if you add even more, your reader is going to be crossing their eyes if you use too many like that. What if you tend to write very lengthy sentences? What can you do to fix the problem? Look for unnecessary words that you can cut--ones like very, really, just. If the sentence is a compound one, with a conjunction joining the two parts (like and, but, or) eliminate the conjunction and make that mile long sentence into two shorter ones. Overly long sentences often try to make more than one point. Keep one thought in one sentence.

What if you wrote a paragraph with nothing but short choppy sentences? That could quickly become a bit irritating, too. That old cliche--Variety is the spice of life--can work with sentence length, too. You want to keep your prose from becoming monotonous. 

There are ever so many small things a writer must heed to turn out a fine piece of writing. Sentence length is only one. 

Book Review: The Keeper of Stories

 

Sally Page's debut novel is a treaure of a read. Ms Page was a florist in the UK, and she heard so many stories about the lives of her customers that it inspired her to write a novel. 

The person who is the keeper of stories in the book is Janice, a cleaner in the UK, outside of London. Janice hears the stories of the people whose homes she cleans, and she makes a habit of keeping those stories in her mind. Janice has her own story that she allows no one to see, even shutting it away from herself most of the time. 

Her husband flits from job to job, and her marriage is not a good one. Janice's days are filled with the people she cleans for. A retired opera singer, a wealthy couple whom she does not like but agrees to add walking their dog to her other duties, a single woman who has a friend that visits frequently, a new widow and her 12 year old son, and later, Miss B, an elderly woman who is the mother of the dog's owner. Added to these people is Euan, a bus driver who Janice thinks looks like a geography teacher. As time goes on with the daily  bus rides, a friendship blossoms between the two. 

It is cantankerous Miss B who digs deep to learn Janice's own story. They become friends, not just cleaner and employer. 

The characters are alive and interesting, even the dog. Their stories are all different, and Janice has a variety of responses to her clients. Some she loves, a few she detests, and her aim is to give help where it is needed as she learns their stories. But what of her own story? That, she keeps well hidden until she finally finds a way to bring it to the surface and face her past. 

The book, published in January of 2023, is well written, filled with humor and emotion. This reader found herself cheering for some and silently growling at others. Janice knows that it is from peoples' stories that you get to know them. Why then, is she reluctant to unlock her own story? 

The author delivers a good sense of place along with the well-developed characters. She made me feel like I was visiting the UK and inspired me to consider the stories of others, as well as my own.

I enjoyed this book and think many others will, as well. Check your local bookstore, Amazon, or your library to find it. My library did not have the book, so I asked them to purchase it. They were quite willing to do so, and I was the first to read it. I look forward to more of Sally Page's work. 

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day With a Story

 

Today is St. Patrick's Day, the day they say everyone is a little bit Irish. Many towns and cities have parades and special dinners. Those of Irish heritage are quite proud on this day. I'm half Irish in heritage, so I qualify for Irish pride on this day.

Stories abound about St. Patrick who was actually not Irish at all. He hailed from Wales, born in the 4th century. Irish men often came to Wales and kidnapped young men, taking them back to Ireland to be laborers. This happened to the young man who became St. Patrick many years later. After more than a decade being held and working in Ireland, he escaped to his own country, but he said a voice told him he was to return to Ireland and turn that country into a Christian nation. He heeded the voice, but went to France first to study in monasterys there before he went to Ireland to carry out his mission. Of course, there is more to the story once he went back to Ireland.

Is this story all true? Or is it merely legend? It might be worthy of some research to find out. When we read or write about the origin of a holiday, we should try to separate fact from fiction. Leprachauns and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? True or false? 

Writers can make good use of the history and legends of St. Patrick's Day, as well as other holidays. You can write a factual article or use it as the basis for a fiction story. An article giving instructions about preparing for and having a party to celebrate the holiday would be welcomes by many a magazine. 

An article using St. Patrick's Day as a springboard to searching your ancestry would be another possibility. So would one that centerd on the foods connected with the Irish as well as the green beer many places offer on this day. 

Make a list of the things this holiday brings to mind, then see if a story, article, or poem comes to mind. My short list would include:

A. the color green

B. leprachauns

C. rainbow and pot of gold

D. St. Patrick

E. parades

F. Irish foods

By Nancy Julien Kopp March 17, 2023

A Wise Quote from a Fine Author

 

Our quote today comes from Ernest Hemingway, who must have been as close to mastering the craft of writing as one can. His quote--We are all apprentices in a craft where no ever becomes a master--tells me that even he, a great and gifted writer, knew that he could do better, that there were places he might improve in the story just written. 

Have you ever heard the adage that says "Ain't nobody perfect"? Maybe it was a line in a book or movie, but it popped into my head after reading Hemingway's quote. 

An apprentice spends a great deal of time learning a trade, a skill, or a craft. We once visited a winery in Germany while with a tour group. The owner, his wife, and one of their sons spoke about their business. The son was about to finish high school. After that, he would be apprenticed to another winemaker. The father wanted him to learn from someone besides himself, but he fully expected the young man to return to work in the family business. The son had surely learned much from his father already, but he was eager to add more knowledge by working for another winemaker. 

It's the same for writers. We are apprentices to the writing craft. We learn as we go. I am a firm believer that we never stop learning if we are serious about being a writer. We can glean a great deal by reading books by published and well-known writers. We can't sit by Stephen King's side and learn from him, but we can read his book titled On Writing. I recently learned that there is an updated version of the book. Ernest Hemingway is no longer living, and even if he was alive, we couldn't peek over his shoulder as he writes. We can, however, read his novels with the eye of an apprentice. 

Keep writing and keep learning. The more you do both things, the stronger, better writer you will become.