First You Write a Sentence: The Elements of Reading, Writing . . . and Life

by Joe Moran

inchoate

For Proust, a sentence traced an unbroken line of thought.

For Proust, a sentence traced an unbroken line of thought.

content and form are the same thing, that what a sentence says is how it says it, and vice versa.

content and form are the same thing, that what a sentence says is how it says it, and vice versa.

A sentence, too, should rely more on quality ingredients than baroque artifice.

A sentence, too, should rely more on quality ingredients than baroque artifice.

To write well you need to read and audit your own words, and that is a much stranger and more unnatural act than any of us know.

To write well you need to read and audit your own words, and that is a much stranger and more unnatural act than any of us know.

What the Japanese call shokunin katagi, the artisanal spirit, is about much more than skill. It bears the social obligation to make something for the joy of making it, quietly and beautifully.

What the Japanese call shokunin katagi, the artisanal spirit, is about much more than skill. It bears the social obligation to make something for the joy of making it, quietly and beautifully.

What I have learned is that trainee writers do not need to be able to parse every sentence into its parts. They just have to learn to care.

What I have learned is that trainee writers do not need to be able to parse every sentence into its parts. They just have to learn to care.

Learn to love the feel of sentences, the arcs of anticipation and suspense, the balancing phrases, the wholesome little snap of the full stop.

Learn to love the feel of sentences, the arcs of anticipation and suspense, the balancing phrases, the wholesome little snap of the full stop.

Writing, just like farming, demands both patient work and stoic acceptance when that work comes to naught.

Writing, just like farming, demands both patient work and stoic acceptance when that work comes to naught.

Perhaps, in the age of pinging alerts, status updates and other kinds of instant contact, we have been lured into thinking that it is simple to say what we mean and be understood.

Perhaps, in the age of pinging alerts, status updates and other kinds of instant contact, we have been lured into thinking that it is simple to say what we mean and be understood.

Out of this immovable fact about the sentence—it unfolds—flows everything else.

Out of this immovable fact about the sentence—it unfolds—flows everything else.

Lines are how humans live, learn and make life up as they go along. A line, where a substance (such as ink) and a medium (such as paper) meet, lays down a trail of life. A sentence is a living line of words.

Lines are how humans live, learn and make life up as they go along. A line, where a substance (such as ink) and a medium (such as paper) meet, lays down a trail of life. A sentence is a living line of words.

Stick to time, manner and place and your sentence will never seem cluttered.

Stick to time, manner and place and your sentence will never seem cluttered.

In writing, meaning derives from just four things: syntax, word choice, punctuation and typography.

In writing, meaning derives from just four things: syntax, word choice, punctuation and typography.

copia, or fluent abundance,

copia, or fluent abundance,

It helps, I think, to keep hold of something of that older sense of the writer as a carver of sentences.

It helps, I think, to keep hold of something of that older sense of the writer as a carver of sentences.

Writers were learning that a sentence wields more power with a strong stress at the end, where it stays in the mind and sends a backwash over the words that went before.

Writers were learning that a sentence wields more power with a strong stress at the end, where it stays in the mind and sends a backwash over the words that went before.

To write a sentence, you need a working memory, to keep the parts in play until they fall into place.

To write a sentence, you need a working memory, to keep the parts in play until they fall into place.

The names of wild flowers, such as stitchwort, lady’s bedstraw and feverfew, are one- or two-word poems that transport us instantly out of doors. The denaturing of the dictionary is part of the denaturing of our lives, not just a symptom of it.

The names of wild flowers, such as stitchwort, lady’s bedstraw and feverfew, are one- or two-word poems that transport us instantly out of doors. The denaturing of the dictionary is part of the denaturing of our lives, not just a symptom of it.

The philosopher Max Black wrote that metaphor does not so much compare something to something else as alter what both those things mean.

The philosopher Max Black wrote that metaphor does not so much compare something to something else as alter what both those things mean.

Writing drifts into obscurity when it overuses a certain kind of abstract noun: a nominalization. A nominalization makes a verb (or sometimes an adjective) into a noun. It turns act into action, react into reaction, interact into interaction. It gives a process a name.

Writing drifts into obscurity when it overuses a certain kind of abstract noun: a nominalization. A nominalization makes a verb (or sometimes an adjective) into a noun. It turns act into action, react into reaction, interact into interaction. It gives a process a name.

cachet,

chiaroscuro

Loneliness was pointless and depleting; solitude reacquainted you more lastingly with life.

Loneliness was pointless and depleting; solitude reacquainted you more lastingly with life.

In good writing, problems are lived, not solved—are held and weighed with words, not beaten with a stick until they are tamed.

In good writing, problems are lived, not solved—are held and weighed with words, not beaten with a stick until they are tamed.

sempiternal.

People who love words—crossword solvers, anagram lovers, Scrabble players—love nouns and adjectives. But people who love sentences love verbs.

People who love words—crossword solvers, anagram lovers, Scrabble players—love nouns and adjectives. But people who love sentences love verbs.

Non-finite verbs—infinitives (the basic form of a verb, usually beginning to), participles (verbal adjectives) and gerunds (verbal nouns)—do not need a tense or need to agree with a subject.

Non-finite verbs—infinitives (the basic form of a verb, usually beginning to), participles (verbal adjectives) and gerunds (verbal nouns)—do not need a tense or need to agree with a subject.

Just as rationing is makes prose crisper, so does rationing had.

Just as rationing is makes prose crisper, so does rationing had.

It all brings to mind the title of a Milan Kundera novel: Life is Elsewhere.

It all brings to mind the title of a Milan Kundera novel: Life is Elsewhere.

By varying the types of noun and verb, you give your sentences a grain and texture that begins to approximate life. The task is to layer reality without extracting too much verbal heat—to be intricate but not convoluted, and just as simple as is needed, but no more.

By varying the types of noun and verb, you give your sentences a grain and texture that begins to approximate life. The task is to layer reality without extracting too much verbal heat—to be intricate but not convoluted, and just as simple as is needed, but no more.

Weighing down your sentence with nouns is always bad. But verbs, behind which you can never hide because they make you say what the subjects of your sentences are doing, are always good.

Weighing down your sentence with nouns is always bad. But verbs, behind which you can never hide because they make you say what the subjects of your sentences are doing, are always good.

George Orwell, in his essay “Why I Write,” gave this idea its epigram: “Good prose is like a windowpane.”

George Orwell, in his essay “Why I Write,” gave this idea its epigram: “Good prose is like a windowpane.”

blancmange,

getting to know words as sounds and shapes before they calcified into meaning. The rhetorician sees meaning as something reached by tasting and relishing the words, not by trying to make the writing invisible.

getting to know words as sounds and shapes before they calcified into meaning. The rhetorician sees meaning as something reached by tasting and relishing the words, not by trying to make the writing invisible.

William Tyndale,

woad

I like my sentences to look the same as they speak. I steer clear of contractions, like No. or Ltd, and spell out numbers up to a hundred, because otherwise the reader has to think for a micro-moment about how to turn that symbol into sound.

I like my sentences to look the same as they speak. I steer clear of contractions, like No. or Ltd, and spell out numbers up to a hundred, because otherwise the reader has to think for a micro-moment about how to turn that symbol into sound.

Sentences should be as much like speech as you can make them—so long as you remember that they are nothing like speech.

Sentences should be as much like speech as you can make them—so long as you remember that they are nothing like speech.

A sentence should ring in the head but be wrought like writing.

A sentence should ring in the head but be wrought like writing.

Cutting words has this same creative quality. It seems to liberate a meaning that the writer was not aware of but that was waiting there to be found. Distilling prose, like boiling down a sauce, releases its real flavor and its true essence.

Cutting words has this same creative quality. It seems to liberate a meaning that the writer was not aware of but that was waiting there to be found. Distilling prose, like boiling down a sauce, releases its real flavor and its true essence.

Giving nothingness the qualities of being is a good summary of how not to use adjectives.

Giving nothingness the qualities of being is a good summary of how not to use adjectives.

wine is just taste and smell—or something vaguer than smell called aroma.

wine is just taste and smell—or something vaguer than smell called aroma.

Writing gives necessity the appearance of freedom when the words no longer look as if they are laboring to belong. For an adjective or adverb to belong, it must obey this iron law: the right word is only the right word in the right place.

Writing gives necessity the appearance of freedom when the words no longer look as if they are laboring to belong. For an adjective or adverb to belong, it must obey this iron law: the right word is only the right word in the right place.

The need for a semicolon is a matter of taste, but the need for a full stop is a matter of fact.

The need for a semicolon is a matter of taste, but the need for a full stop is a matter of fact.

We live in an age that overprizes speech—that likes to pretend that writing is speech.

We live in an age that overprizes speech—that likes to pretend that writing is speech.

One way to invoke such a quasi-dialogue is to end the odd sentence with a question mark.

One way to invoke such a quasi-dialogue is to end the odd sentence with a question mark.

In the care of a cathedral, or a sentence, we feel as if a little alcove of sense and order has been carved out in our minds, before we are decanted once again into the noise and haste of our lives.

In the care of a cathedral, or a sentence, we feel as if a little alcove of sense and order has been carved out in our minds, before we are decanted once again into the noise and haste of our lives.

The plain style’s power rests on this tension between the ease of its phrasing and the shock of its thought slid cleanly into the mind.

The plain style’s power rests on this tension between the ease of its phrasing and the shock of its thought slid cleanly into the mind.

Long sentences have their uses. They can be more concise than a string of simple ones, because having a subject and main verb for each thought wastes words. And sometimes long sentences are useful for the opposite reason: not to save words but to expend them, to stretch out a thought so the reader can keep up as you think it through. “To know that simplifying may often mean expanding,” Flesch wrote, “is the beginning of wisdom.”

Long sentences have their uses. They can be more concise than a string of simple ones, because having a subject and main verb for each thought wastes words. And sometimes long sentences are useful for the opposite reason: not to save words but to expend them, to stretch out a thought so the reader can keep up as you think it through. “To know that simplifying may often mean expanding,” Flesch wrote, “is the beginning of wisdom.”