Tuesday's Tip #1

I've decided to start a "Tuesday's Tip" in the hopes that I can provide at least some sort of useful information on this blog for other writers (instead of just gabbing about my writing all the time). So, without further ado, here we go.

Tuesday's Tip #1 

When reviewing sentence structure, I find it useful to think of the sentence as a piece of music. Each sentence has its own beat or cadence, and, in order to keep the reader interested, you want to make sure that you don't have too much of one beat structure.


For example: Susan went to the store. She picked up some soup. She bought a dozen eggs.


Notice how each sentence has the same rhythm? Of course, this is the most obvious form, since all the sentences have the same structure: Noun/Pronoun + verb + direct object.


When you repeat a sentence structure, it subconsciously sends a signal to the reader, and after a while it will begin to sound like a metronome. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. And even if the story is intriguing, a reader might find themselves bored after a while.


An improvement on our three sentences: Susan went to the store. After perusing the groceries, she bought soup and eggs.


Read the sentences aloud. Notice how your voice dips and rises? Even when you read silently, some part of your brain (at least, in my case) recognizes the sounds and rhythm of the words. Lack of sentence variation (or rhythm variation) can kill a good story. Often when I see the work of a fledgling writer, this is one of the mistakes that catches my eye. It's easy to fall into a pattern of writing, and it's really easy to use what works. My suggestion: Treat your sentences like pieces of music. The more varied, the better. (Though repeating beats have their uses, too. I'll save that for next time!)