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What’s in a sentence , really? Words of course. Words are the tools of a writer’s trade. However, words form sentences. Sentences form paragraphs and before long a chapter is born. From there the story morphs into a piece of flash fiction or novella or even an epic . All from a sentence.

Sentences can be simple or compound . They can be short or long. What’s important is what they do to bring a story together. Of course, sentences are so much more than most people think. Look at the ones prior to this one. The very first sentence starts out as a question. What better way to get someone to think than to ask a question?

Some of my sentences are short . Short sentences often build speed in a story. Build tension. A good tool. All a sentence of such a nature requires is the writer to be brief. To overcome the desire to write out all the intricate details in a run on compound sentence when a simple one will do. Spot ran. He ran up the hill. Sarah gasped. Her heart beat in her chest. Her eyes expanded.

So many writers try to build so much into a single sentence. Such a sentence would go – When I arrived, Sarah’s eyes turned ugly and filled the room with a light pervasive of all who came in, and all who left. Or – Upon arrival, I saw the thing change, and morph, and turn into a blob of steel waiting to pounce upon my friends, and my neighbors. Such sentences have their places. Use them as needed but not all the time. Nor use the short ones all the time. Use your sentences to create a rhythm. To speed up or slow down the action. To punctuate a point or lead the reader to the conclusion you’ve left for them to find.

One of the best tools for determining if your sentences meet your needs is to read them out loud . I mean it. Shut yourself up in a room and read your story out loud. Better yet, record yourself telling your story. Then when you are done, listen to it. Are you telling your story or is it rambling ? Are the sentences all the same? Do they lead in with a comma or do they act on their own? Are the verbs the type you need? Are they strong or soft ? Are the nouns clear? Are you filling your sentences up with pronouns and adverbs ?

Now for the all-important question about your sentences, does one lead to the next ? It’s a good question. I like to read the work before I begin to edit. I like to see the world as the reader will, first. I can’t tell you how many times I will be in the groove of the story and wham ! The next sentence I read is completely off track. Or it slows down the story unnecessarily or speeds it up dramatically only to let you down.

If one sentence doesn’t lead to the next, then it doesn’t belong . Stories flow from the way a sentence is put together. How the words are used. Think about this when you self-edit. When you’ve finished the heady storm of passion you used when you wrote the manuscript. 

Let go of the work. Read the sentences one at a time. Listen to them. Then listen to the way they interact with the next one. With the one before it. Can it be said in a better way? Does the sentence need to be there? Ask yourself these questions and more. Tear into your story. Break it down sentence by sentence until you have a cohesive paragraph. Put one paragraph into the next until the chapter flows from beginning to end. Make your reader want to read the next chapter. Make them happy they moved onto the next chapter with a great sentence.

I’m Ross, The Editor at The Pyrateheart Press and I’m out.