Writing should be simple, right? Writing is just the act of taking all the words and putting them on the page. We should be good with words. We’ve been dealing with words for many years. We use words inside our heads. We use words out loud. But when it comes to putting words on the page, especially when it comes to writing fiction, we can often tie ourselves into knots. Sometimes, we read a sentence we’ve just written and we can see that it is problematic but we don’t know how to fix it. Other times, we think the sentence is a wonderful sentence but our readers disagree. They get tripped up. There is a knot within the sentence that causes them to stumble as they read.
Wow, this is a masterclass in sentence construction! As always, thank you, Matt, for sharing your wisdom with us. I can personally vouch for the excellence of your classes. I plan to take another one in the near future!
Excellent observation as always Matt; I teach intro creative writing with a syllabus I don't design in terms of the prose weeks (I input on poetry) and it seems to me there's room for more of this sentence level analysis for beginning prose writers to consider. They tend to only focus on the big stuff; character, plot, setting. What you're saying shows how important it is to consider every line. I'm reminded of Carver's comment about commas...
Wow, this is a masterclass in sentence construction! As always, thank you, Matt, for sharing your wisdom with us. I can personally vouch for the excellence of your classes. I plan to take another one in the near future!
Excellent observation as always Matt; I teach intro creative writing with a syllabus I don't design in terms of the prose weeks (I input on poetry) and it seems to me there's room for more of this sentence level analysis for beginning prose writers to consider. They tend to only focus on the big stuff; character, plot, setting. What you're saying shows how important it is to consider every line. I'm reminded of Carver's comment about commas...