athenadark:

scripturient-manipulator:

bookmania:

Seven years after, I see you again 😚

Guys this completely changed my writing, heed it. I often do an entire draft just looking at sentence variation and oftentimes the results are absolutely transformative in the difference.

Let’s take it futher

your pacing can alter the narrative and you can absolutely manipulate the reader doing that

for example

if you have a series of sentences which are long and sprawling you can lure the reader into a comfy state of unawareness. If you finish that with a short sentence, or, even better a one word sentence, it feels like a slap.

If you have sentences that are the same length the inevitable variation jars and you can do that. For example, if you had a robot breaking its programming you can do that subtly with sentence length.

Sentences steadily getting shorter make the action seem faster. Sentences steadily getting longer slow the action down.

short sentences are good for action

long sentences are good for description

fragments [incomplete sentences] work to show a disconnect in the narrative, you can use them in prose not just dialogue

this skill [which is entirely learned] is called Juxtaposition [or the art of putting things next to each other]