250 Things You Should Know About Writing by Chuck Wendig
Authors: Chuck Wendig
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I love those winking little cheeky fuckers like you wouldn't believe. You can't use them too often, but when you do, you use them in general to link two independent clauses without a word like "but" or "and." Mmm. Semi-colons. Come to me, semi-colon. Wink at me. Touch my man-parts. Don't tell my wife. Wink. ;)
13. Destroy, Rebuild
The way to fix a fucked-up sentence is the same way we'll end up fixing civilization: you have to destroy it and rebuild it. Break it down into its constituent parts and just rewrite that slippery sonofabitch. The real secret here? Most times, you'll end up breaking the sentence in twain as if you were Solomon. One boggy, busted-ass sentence is almost always made better when it becomes two leaner, meaner sentences. Bisect those bitches.
14. Sentences Rarely Exist In Isolation
Novels, scripts, blog posts, ransom notes -- whatever the body of writing, you will find more than one sentence living together. And so, writing a good sentence isn't just about nailing one sentence, but about nailing the sentence before it, and after it. They live in colonies, these goddamn things, like termites, or ants, or polyamorous space marines. It's like what they say about roaches: you find one, you know there's bound to be a whole lot more behind the walls.
15. The Dancing Diagram Where The Sentence Shakes Its Word-Booty
Each individual sentence has a rhythm, and you can diagram it -- Shakespeare was quite concerned with this, what with all that iambic pentameter . You can see it too in children's verse. Or even in unmetered poetry -- read free verse aloud and you'll find the rhythm, the way each word and idea flows into the next. And that's the key, right there -- "into the next." Each sentence establishes a rhythm with the one before it and the one after it. They flow into each other like water -- calm water here, rapids here, waterfall there, back again to still waters. We think of sentences as being written down and thus related to the eyes, not the ears -- but good writing sounds good when spoken. Great writing is as much about the ear as it is about the eye.
16. The Doctor Sentence Q. Sentenceworth Variety Hour
Each sentence must be different from the last. Variety creates a chain of interest. If I gaze upon a wallpaper with an endless pattern, my eyes glaze over and I wet myself. But look upon a wall with variety -- a photo, a painting, a swatch of torn wallpaper, a dead hooker hanging on a hook ( that's why they call them "hookers" ) -- and your eye will continue moving from one thing to the next. Sentences work like this. Vary your usage. Short sentence moves into a long sentence. Sentence openings never repeated twice in a row. Simplicity yields to complexity. Each sentence, different in sound and content from the last.
17. Each Sentence Is A Gateway Drug
Like I said earlier, a good sentence begets mystery. It makes you want to get to the next sentence. No one sentence should try to say it all. Think of each sentence like a tiny iteration of a cliffhanger. Each is an opportunity to convince the reader to keep on reading.
18. Is "Is?" Or Isn't "Is?"
Some folks suggest that cutting any and all instances of the verb "to be" from your work will make that work stronger. They're probably not wrong, because "is" ends up fairly limp-dicked far as verbs go. Like with all things: find moderation. Don't go psycho on every iteration of the verb. If you see a sentence that uses some form of "to be" and you think, dang, this sentence could be stronger, then rip out that verb and dose it up with the corticosteroid of a tougher, more assertive verb.
19. Passive Constructions Were Killed By Me, In The Study, With A Lead Pipe
See what I did there? Yeah. You see it. Avoid passive constructions. They wussify your sentences. What makes a sentence passive? When the actor in a sentence is not the subject of that sentence. "Bob strangles Betty." Bob is the actor and the
I love those winking little cheeky fuckers like you wouldn't believe. You can't use them too often, but when you do, you use them in general to link two independent clauses without a word like "but" or "and." Mmm. Semi-colons. Come to me, semi-colon. Wink at me. Touch my man-parts. Don't tell my wife. Wink. ;)
13. Destroy, Rebuild
The way to fix a fucked-up sentence is the same way we'll end up fixing civilization: you have to destroy it and rebuild it. Break it down into its constituent parts and just rewrite that slippery sonofabitch. The real secret here? Most times, you'll end up breaking the sentence in twain as if you were Solomon. One boggy, busted-ass sentence is almost always made better when it becomes two leaner, meaner sentences. Bisect those bitches.
14. Sentences Rarely Exist In Isolation
Novels, scripts, blog posts, ransom notes -- whatever the body of writing, you will find more than one sentence living together. And so, writing a good sentence isn't just about nailing one sentence, but about nailing the sentence before it, and after it. They live in colonies, these goddamn things, like termites, or ants, or polyamorous space marines. It's like what they say about roaches: you find one, you know there's bound to be a whole lot more behind the walls.
15. The Dancing Diagram Where The Sentence Shakes Its Word-Booty
Each individual sentence has a rhythm, and you can diagram it -- Shakespeare was quite concerned with this, what with all that iambic pentameter . You can see it too in children's verse. Or even in unmetered poetry -- read free verse aloud and you'll find the rhythm, the way each word and idea flows into the next. And that's the key, right there -- "into the next." Each sentence establishes a rhythm with the one before it and the one after it. They flow into each other like water -- calm water here, rapids here, waterfall there, back again to still waters. We think of sentences as being written down and thus related to the eyes, not the ears -- but good writing sounds good when spoken. Great writing is as much about the ear as it is about the eye.
16. The Doctor Sentence Q. Sentenceworth Variety Hour
Each sentence must be different from the last. Variety creates a chain of interest. If I gaze upon a wallpaper with an endless pattern, my eyes glaze over and I wet myself. But look upon a wall with variety -- a photo, a painting, a swatch of torn wallpaper, a dead hooker hanging on a hook ( that's why they call them "hookers" ) -- and your eye will continue moving from one thing to the next. Sentences work like this. Vary your usage. Short sentence moves into a long sentence. Sentence openings never repeated twice in a row. Simplicity yields to complexity. Each sentence, different in sound and content from the last.
17. Each Sentence Is A Gateway Drug
Like I said earlier, a good sentence begets mystery. It makes you want to get to the next sentence. No one sentence should try to say it all. Think of each sentence like a tiny iteration of a cliffhanger. Each is an opportunity to convince the reader to keep on reading.
18. Is "Is?" Or Isn't "Is?"
Some folks suggest that cutting any and all instances of the verb "to be" from your work will make that work stronger. They're probably not wrong, because "is" ends up fairly limp-dicked far as verbs go. Like with all things: find moderation. Don't go psycho on every iteration of the verb. If you see a sentence that uses some form of "to be" and you think, dang, this sentence could be stronger, then rip out that verb and dose it up with the corticosteroid of a tougher, more assertive verb.
19. Passive Constructions Were Killed By Me, In The Study, With A Lead Pipe
See what I did there? Yeah. You see it. Avoid passive constructions. They wussify your sentences. What makes a sentence passive? When the actor in a sentence is not the subject of that sentence. "Bob strangles Betty." Bob is the actor and the
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