A
Adriana
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Introduction:
Sentences are crafted and orchestrated, not just written. They're like a painter's brushstrokes or palette-knife texturing of the pigment. Sentences govern the rhythm of a piece, and it is as important to prose as it is to poetry. There are different ways of illustrating the flow of the sentences and it is a part of a writer's signature.
Some writers' sentences, like those of Tom Wolfe are almost manic in their vitality as shown in a passage below:
Reflection:
Study the way your favorite writers shape individual sentences as well as orchestrate sentence flow within a paragraph. Pay attention to the rhythmic pattern their sentences generate: how two short sentences may follow a much longer sentence; how transitions like however and on the other hand and in the meantime add to the coherence, the flow.
Exercise:
Your manner of sentence construction inevitably affects the reality of the world you're building out of language. Take a "root" sentence like "Joe tackled the thief," your basic subject-verb-object construction, and experiment with variations. Add subject 'modifiers ("Old Joe, feeling a surge of strength and daring that belied his sixty-two years, tackled the thief") or verbal modifiers ("Joe tackled the thief, twisting his neck in a headlock and then jerking backwards hard enough to produce a distinctly audible CRACK from his lower vertebrae").
Next, add two or three more sentences to complete the scene, paying attention to sentence variety and length. Aim for a richly rhythmical texture that enhances the readability of the paragraph.
Sentences are crafted and orchestrated, not just written. They're like a painter's brushstrokes or palette-knife texturing of the pigment. Sentences govern the rhythm of a piece, and it is as important to prose as it is to poetry. There are different ways of illustrating the flow of the sentences and it is a part of a writer's signature.
Some writers' sentences, like those of Tom Wolfe are almost manic in their vitality as shown in a passage below:
Reflection:
Study the way your favorite writers shape individual sentences as well as orchestrate sentence flow within a paragraph. Pay attention to the rhythmic pattern their sentences generate: how two short sentences may follow a much longer sentence; how transitions like however and on the other hand and in the meantime add to the coherence, the flow.
Exercise:
Your manner of sentence construction inevitably affects the reality of the world you're building out of language. Take a "root" sentence like "Joe tackled the thief," your basic subject-verb-object construction, and experiment with variations. Add subject 'modifiers ("Old Joe, feeling a surge of strength and daring that belied his sixty-two years, tackled the thief") or verbal modifiers ("Joe tackled the thief, twisting his neck in a headlock and then jerking backwards hard enough to produce a distinctly audible CRACK from his lower vertebrae").
Next, add two or three more sentences to complete the scene, paying attention to sentence variety and length. Aim for a richly rhythmical texture that enhances the readability of the paragraph.