On sentence length

“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 sentences 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.

So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music.”

Gary Provost

Write Words - Write Music

Exercise 

Cough. (1)

He coughed. (2)

He was sick. (3)

He had a cough. (4)

He had a bad cough. (5)

He worried that he might die. (6)

He lay in his bed coughing badly. (7)

He lay still trying hard not to cough. (8)

After a while he fell into a deep sleep. (9)

In his dream he was standing on a mountain top. (10)

 

(step two: continue the story, shrinking the sentences by one per word per line...)

 

He looked out and saw   ___   ____  ____   ____ (9)