Style

WR3 | Workshops

Style and Sentence length


Some of the best advice on style I’ve ever read comes from Gary Provost’s 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing. Read this paragraph out loud to yourself and see if you can hear what Provost is getting at:

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.

Workshop

In this workshop I would like you to pick a paragraph or two from some of the writing you are currently working on. Rewrite the paragraph(s) using the inspiration from Provost’s idea.