Variety In Your Writing

November 5, 2007

The simple declarative sentence is the bedrock of good writing. “See Spot run,” says it all. However, if your writing is restricted to such sentences, the monotony will kill off your readers faster than a fresh outbreak of the bubonic plague. Variety in your expression will breathe fresh life into them.

Here are some tips to vary your writing.

Change the beginning of sentences and paragraphs. For example, you could select one of these options:

Start with a noun. “Skydivers did not fare well as gusts forced hard landings at the Mississippi State football season opener.”
Start with a prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase starts with in, of, at, with, as, or with. Example: In Starkville hospital next day, skydiver Ted Wilson said that gusts were strong but he felt the show must go on. Another example: With his leg in a cast, skydiver Ted Wilson expressed remorse that he jumped from the plane in high winds.
Start your sentence with a subordinate clause. Beginning a sentence with “Because” or “Since” is looked down on by some grammar mavens, but it is perfectly acceptable usage. Example: Because skydiver Ted Wilson agreed not to sue Mississippi State for the injuries he sustained in an game-opening stunt, and in recognition of his school spirit, the Board of Regents voted to honor him with a pair of season tickets.

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Use direct quotations. Although you don’t want to overuse such quotations, they have real attention-grabbing power. Example: “We will suspend the pilot license of Greg Jones effective immediately,” said FAA official Ken Donaldson at a news conference. “He knew weather conditions were bad, and in allowing Ted Wilson to jump he exercised poor judgment that could have resulted in a serious injury or death.” Some key things to remember about using direct quotations to vary your opening sentences:

Make sure the quotation has enough emotional power to make it worth using. You don’t get the same effect if Ken Donaldson had said, “Golly, I don’t know why our office is taking away the pilot’s license. Might be an administrative thing. Not sure.” You would not want to lead with that quote.

Identify the speaker as quickly as possible. Only eleven words were spoken in the first example before the speaker was identified. The fact that he was from the FAA was important information for readers, and they should not have to wait until the end of the full quote before learning who was speaking.

Direct quotations can be effective at the end of a sentence. Example: There was an uproar when Ken Donaldson made his announcement. After it subsided somewhat, the anguished voice of Greg Jones’ mother could be heard over the din. “It hardly seems fair,” she said, “after all, he pilots 767s for United Airlines on his regular job.”

Start paragraphs with different kinds of sentences to add variety to your writing.

Interrogative (question) example: What motivated Ted Wilson to jump from that plane in high winds? It could have been a desire to kill himself, or it could have been school spirit.
Exclamatory example: Don’t jump to conclusions! If 30,000 fans were watching for you to make a ceremonial dive from the plane to open the game, you probably wouldn’t want to disappoint them either.
Imperative example: Stop all this talk about what motivated Ted Wilson to jump. Mississippi State won the game, and that’s all that counts.

Write your story or chapter in the normal way, then review it and see if you can apply some of these techniques to make it more interesting. Do your best to avoid paragraphs that start with I, the, a, an, there or it.

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Written by The Editor · Filed Under Craft of Writing

Variety In Your Writing

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