Aquiring Interest as a Writer through use of varied sentences
PrintWhy is it that some people tell a story in an interesting, entertaining way while others do not? Natural gift, a particular drive to me amusing, lots of practice? There are a few simple ways to make a story more interesting:
- Rapid movement. One key reason that varied sentences make a story better is that it enhances the sense of movement.
- How many sentences are there? Writing that is longer than necessary drags the story down.
- How many sentences begin with the subject? Lack of sentence variety is BORING.
- How many times do you find the word “and” used? How many of the sentences begin with “And”? With “Then”?
- Variety of and Careful Choice of Connective Words
- Find ways of moving a story forward with your connective words. Depending on the length of your story and the tone and genre, you will probably find that you need a variety of words and phrases to move things along. How could these words help or hurt your story?
and
very soon
after a while
then
in a moment
presently
finally
as soon as
meanwhile
after
though
however
but
since
yet
still
- Consider participial phrases. “After crashing through,” “about this time,” as I approached” are kinds of phrases that can convey movement. You can place less important facts and bits of exposition into such phrases, effective particularly at the beginning of the sentence.
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