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

[June Geraci]

Larry -

I used to work for a man who loved run-on sentences.  He would be giving
me dictation, and go on endlessly.  When I would point it out to him,
he'd shrug.  Some of his sentences were literally six or seven lines
long.  I'd wince when typing them, but you do what you're told to.
 

-----Original Message-----
From: ffml-bounces+jgeraci=ucfs.org at chez-vrolet.net
[mailto:ffml-bounces+jgeraci=ucfs.org at chez-vrolet.net] On Behalf Of
Larry F
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 8:12 AM
To: The Fanfiction Mailing List
Subject: Re: [FFML] [Info] Came across some brilliant advice about
writing....

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.
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