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How To Write a Book: Demystifying Sentence Length

Nothing can put you to sleep faster than a monotonous book. Cast your mind to Ayn Rand's repetition of adjectives like unrelenting drops of water that become torture. Fact. I don't apologize for my opinion of her work. Or it could be as simple as the author's failure to vary the lengths of their sentences. 

He walked down Rush Street, energy fading and mood darkening. Spotting the blonde girl, he walked by without waving. The bus blew past him, he would miss the coming attractions. Zzzzzzz. Repeated sentence structure is hypnotic.

Pep things up by varying the length.

He walked down Rush street. His energy was fading and his mood darkening as he spotted the blonde girl. He walked by without waving. The bus blew past. Drat! He'd miss the coming attractions!

To perfect your sentences try this one trick:

Read your story out loud.

sleeping student pic
Any monotony will ring as boring the moment you utter the words. Trust your ear. By nature, when we speak we vary the beginnings of our sentences and combine short sentences for better flow and understanding. Even non-native speakers vary sentence types when speaking using a mixture of simple, compound, and complex: 

Simple Sentence: Karen threw her shoe.

Compound Sentence: Karen threw her shoe, and hit the cat.

Complex Sentence: While yowling in pain, the cat launched at Karen, causing her mother to scream in alarm.

You speak in a way that holds people's attention, so if you can harness your speaking style even just in the abstract, your writing will be fresher and livelier for it. Your writing style will become clear the more you write. Have fun!

-- Anna Erikssön Bendewald 
















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