Gary Provost is one of my favourite writers. He added so much to the craft.
He also pissed a lot of “Scholars” of writing off too.
He also annoyed a lot of the ad men from the Mad Men era of marketing. Purely because of the way he approached writing, especially sentences.
Here’s one of my favourite quotes/reminders and if you master this. You’ll magnetise your readers to your work. No matter what it is that you choose to share with the written word…
“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.
Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”
Your English teachers and people who read a lot will always say that run on sentences are bad, but you can make ’em work if you write them like a piece of music.
Food for thought eh?
Stephen Walker
P.S. 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost is an amazing little read. There’s a few things in there that I don’t agree with but that’s just me.