• She/they

y'know like, m'yah? (moth nyah)


yrgirlkv
@yrgirlkv

this is one of the best pieces of prose-level writing advice i've ever encountered and i wish they'd teach it in elementary schools. i spent SO much time knowing that something like this was what was separating my writing (at the level of diction and sentence structure) from the things i loved to read but not being able to identify it; if i'd run into this it would've cracked off my power limiter in a second. transcript follows after readmore:


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


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in reply to @yrgirlkv's post:

This isn’t usually taught in schools? If I’m remembering correctly, sentence length variation was a 4th grade topic for me….

Hmm, on second thought, I don’t remember it being brought up frequently again until 11/12th grade. Maybe it wasn’t even normal at my elementary school, haha

I don't doubt that at one point a teacher mentioned it, but once middle school started writing became much more formulaic and so much less focused on prose and a greater emphasis on just cookie cutter content. It's quite annoying

Yeah, thinking back, that’s definitely how it went for me as well. Once middle school hit, there wasn’t any more fiction writing, and we switched to entirely writing essays with color-coded Schaffer paragraphs

It really does disappoint me that we arent learning how to write things that exist beyond the purpose of imparting information in the Correct Way. I wish there was fiction writing or even just less standardized "there is only one correct way" essay writing

i guess this is what poetry brings to the table as well? where writing is primarily about conveying a message, poetry also considers the flow of words and the feeling of them?

As an aside, five-word sentences definitely do get boring, but I suppose it matters less when there is some variety in syllable length as well. ''But several together become monotonous'' is a pretty satisfying combination of syllables, despite being one of many five-worded sentences.