Hello everyone! This is the eleventh of 12 writing tips to improve your writing coming your way. These 12 tips are from my experience of writing a book, writing poems and giving exams.
My eleventh tip for you is to VARY YOUR SENTENCES.
Other than an interesting plot, complicated characters and vivid scenery descriptions, varying your sentence type can also make your writing sound captivating to your reader. If you write in a monotone, the sentences become tedious. Rather than registering the meaning of the sentences, they become characters that are just read by the reader. Your writing loses its meaning.
One-word sentences can interrupt long fluid sentences to shock the reader. A series of quick, short sentences to indicate action can be followed by lengthy descriptive sentences filled with turns of phrase to allow the reader to vividly picture your description in their minds. Long sentences can also be used to build up a setting, allowing the reader to know exactly where the characters are before jumping into action. Make sure to spread these varied sentence types throughout the passage. Do not overuse long sentences one after the other that the writing begins to drone. You should be able to figure out the point at which the reader might begin to lose interest and immediately alter the sentence type so that the reader can jump back into your story.
Furthermore, avoid using too many dialogues as it becomes less of a story and more of a script. Many dialogues can confuse the reader and the meaning and effect of the dialogues are eventually lost. Similarly, avoid paragraph after paragraph packed with descriptions. Your reader may be unable to process such long paragraphs of simply describing a scene and immediately lose interest. Break up descriptions with dialogue and action, but break action and dialogues up with description as well.
Here is an image (shared by my English teacher) to hopefully better convey the importance of varying your sentence types and lengths:
Bonus digital art piece (using a tutorial by GenevieveDesignStudios)
A Nordic Night Sky
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