Writing Tip on Sentence Length

Today’s writing tip is critical for the proper flow and pacing of your writing. You should be mindful of the length of your sentences. Short sentences have a purpose, and so do long ones, but too many of either will leave your reader frustrated, whether or not he knows why. The proper flow a reader is used to feeling comes from a combination of short and long sentences. This is a general rule, unless you have a good reason to break it.

Here is an example of a short paragraph made of all short sentences.
<blockquote>There are short sentences. Like this one. And this one. See Dick run. See Jane fall down. You remember those. Listen to the sound. Feel the rhythm. It bugs you. This sentence has five words. Others have less. It’s choppy. Stop reading. You want to.</blockquote>
The short sentence stop the flow of the reader. It draws attention. You will see authors use this often in the form of one word paragraphs when they want to give the reader a clue about something. Too many short sentences strung together create a choppy flow. They agitate, and annoy. Don’t over use them.

Here is an example of a paragraph with all longer sentences:
<blockquote>The long sentence crept up on the writer like a bad habit, starting with his description. The sun arose and crawled up the sky trying to peak over his window, spilling enough inspiring light into his room to help him write the next bit of long winded description he could pluck from his surroundings. The problem is, he thought, that all of the inspiration I get is long winded, and if I don’t vary the length of my sentences, the reader will lose interest quickly; just like with the short sentences.</blockquote>
Longer sentences give information, and allow the author to go on and on. If they are not broken up with shorter sentences, the reader will not only become annoyed, but possibly confused. The shorter sentences give the reader a breather. Be mindful of your reader.

Take a look at your prose. Count your sentence length even! You can’t manage what you don’t measure. There is a time for short sentences, and a time for long ones. If you vary your sentence length properly, the reader will feel the rythmn he is used to, and will have one less thing to get distracted by. You want him lost in your story, not your words.

Give it a try. Write a couple of paragraphs. One paragraph focuses on sentences less than five words long. The other focuses on long sentences. Try to get gauge what it makes you feel when you read and write them. It’s a fun exercise, and can be eye-opening.
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Happy writing!

Justin