[FFML] [Info] Came across some brilliant advice about writing….

[Larry F]

On 3/18/2013 10:31 PM, Joseph Palmer wrote:
> (Ripped from /r/writing)
> An excellent and relevant quote by Gary Provost (sorry if you've heard it before):
> "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."
>
>
> J.

     The thing is, the quote has numerous punctuation and grammar 
errors, so it's lousy advice if you go deeper than the surface. It's 
also fairly irrelevant; I've never seen anyone write entirely in 
five-word sentences. I have, however, seen endless examples of run-on 
sentences like the last one in this quote. The author needs to learn 
that long can easily become /too/ long.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.chez-vrolet.net/pipermail/ffml/attachments/20130319/940448b9/attachment.html>