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

by Joe Moran

“Writing is not an exercise in excision, it’s a journey into sound,” wrote E. B. White to a reader who was too slavishly following that famous advice from Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style: “Omit needless words.”

“Writing is not an exercise in excision, it’s a journey into sound,” wrote E. B. White to a reader who was too slavishly following that famous advice from Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style: “Omit needless words.”

The special scourge of modern writing, Christensen felt, was turning the subject of a sentence into a long noun phrase.

A comma-splice sentence can be fixed by replacing the comma with a semicolon, a colon, a conjunction or a full stop.

A comma-splice sentence can be fixed by replacing the comma with a semicolon, a colon, a conjunction or a full stop.

Only when you learn to separate clauses and phrases properly with commas can you write long sentences of lucidity and grace.

Only when you learn to separate clauses and phrases properly with commas can you write long sentences of lucidity and grace.

A long sentence should feel alive, awake, kinetic, aerobic—like a poem.

The trick, with both a long sentence and a high-wire walk, is to give off an air of controlled anarchy, of boundless freedom within clear constraints.

The trick, with both a long sentence and a high-wire walk, is to give off an air of controlled anarchy, of boundless freedom within clear constraints.

You can always tell if someone on TV is using a teleprompter, because they never move their hands.

You can always tell if someone on TV is using a teleprompter, because they never move their hands.

Each sentence should burn brightly but briefly, lighting the way into the next one.

Each sentence should burn brightly but briefly, lighting the way into the next one.

The story is like a mainspring, and each sentence gives a little turn on the ratchet, steadily ramping up the stakes.

The story is like a mainspring, and each sentence gives a little turn on the ratchet, steadily ramping up the stakes.

ostinato

When you rename something hitherto named, the word you are referring back to is the antecedent and the word that replaces it is the anaphor.

When you rename something hitherto named, the word you are referring back to is the antecedent and the word that replaces it is the anaphor.

A bad sentence can never be saved by swapping words; better throw it out and start again.

A bad sentence can never be saved by swapping words; better throw it out and start again.

Often the simple antidote is that self-effacing pronoun to which elegant variers seem allergic: it.

Often the simple antidote is that self-effacing pronoun to which elegant variers seem allergic: it.

Novice writers vary their sentence structure too much, but their sentence lengths too little.

Novice writers vary their sentence structure too much, but their sentence lengths too little.

If you keep pressing enter after every full stop, the music of your writing is easier to hear because now it can also be seen.

If you keep pressing enter after every full stop, the music of your writing is easier to hear because now it can also be seen.

The American poet Amy Lowell called the cadence a “rhythmic curve . . . corresponding roughly to the necessity of breathing.”

The American poet Amy Lowell called the cadence a “rhythmic curve . . . corresponding roughly to the necessity of breathing.”

Vary your sentence length and you mirror the way the mind works, veering between seductive certainty and hard-won nuance.

A group of sentences of varied lengths is called a paragraph. That is as good a definition of a paragraph as any, since no definition quite works.

Skilled writers ignore all this. They use pure topic sentences rarely and wrap-up sentences hardly ever.

Paragraphs are emotional because they are about pace and variety as much as meaning and logic.

You can alter the whole tone of a sentence by moving it from the end of a paragraph to the start of a new one, and vice versa.

You can alter the whole tone of a sentence by moving it from the end of a paragraph to the start of a new one, and vice versa.

Voice is the invisible force field, the holding energy that glues writing together. If it has no voice, no sense that the sentences all emerged from the same mind, then no amount of signposting or meta-comment will make it gel.

Voice is the invisible force field, the holding energy that glues writing together. If it has no voice, no sense that the sentences all emerged from the same mind, then no amount of signposting or meta-comment will make it gel.

Here is another way of cheating chaos: write a sentence, then another, then another.

Here is another way of cheating chaos: write a sentence, then another, then another.

Flow occurs when you are in pursuit of something that feels both worthwhile and just the right amount of difficult. There is a perfect fit between the challenge of a task and your capacity to complete it.

Flow occurs when you are in pursuit of something that feels both worthwhile and just the right amount of difficult. There is a perfect fit between the challenge of a task and your capacity to complete it.

Writing flows when there is something for the eye and mind to chew on without it ever being a chore.

Writing flows when there is something for the eye and mind to chew on without it ever being a chore.

When you lose the ability to write them, sentences matter more than ever, and you will do anything to make them again.

When you lose the ability to write them, sentences matter more than ever, and you will do anything to make them again.

Most of the bad sentences I have written suffered from the same problem: I did not think that my own voice was worth hearing.

Most of the bad sentences I have written suffered from the same problem: I did not think that my own voice was worth hearing.

You acquire a written voice not when you learn to sound like yourself, but when you perfect the knack of slotting words together so that they sound like a convincing impression of a whole, consistent person.

You acquire a written voice not when you learn to sound like yourself, but when you perfect the knack of slotting words together so that they sound like a convincing impression of a whole, consistent person. My voice when it works best is an expression of enthusiasm and excitement about what I have seen, discovered and understood about the world. When I write about those feelings and insights I believe my writing becomes interesting. Being interested and excited about my surroundings allows me to write well.

Sounding like yourself, or at least the avatar of yourself that you have made out of words, is the only way to make others interested in what you have to say.

Sounding like yourself, or at least the avatar of yourself that you have made out of words, is the only way to make others interested in what you have to say. Arriving as an avatar.

strops,

For everyone is an equal citizen in the state of sentencehood. Sentences give us a shared space to find meaning in the world together. Like any form of human culture—breaking bread, making music, playing games—they bind us to each other and to the earth.

For everyone is an equal citizen in the state of sentencehood. Sentences give us a shared space to find meaning in the world together. Like any form of human culture—breaking bread, making music, playing games—they bind us to each other and to the earth.

The most reliable antidepressant is rekindled curiosity, and only the curious try to draw bits of the world together into words. The word curious derives from the Latin cura, which also gives us both cure and care.

The most reliable antidepressant is rekindled curiosity, and only the curious try to draw bits of the world together into words. The word curious derives from the Latin cura, which also gives us both cure and care. Is it curiosity that draws one to read. There is reading of course that brings us to what we needed to know. But there is the reading we do to discover new worlds that makes its enthusiastic readers.

You only learn to write sentences by reading enough of them, and then writing enough of them, although the moment of “enough” never quite arrives.

You only learn to write sentences by reading enough of them, and then writing enough of them, although the moment of “enough” never quite arrives.