Sentencing Guidelines

“When we are young, the words are scattered all around us. As they are assembled by experience, so also are we, sentence by sentence, until the story takes shape.”
― Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves

We never call someone a sentence-smith, do we?

If you’re an aspiring writer, learn to master the sentence, from the Latin for a thought expressed.

Here’s some very light guidance to a first-time author on the ten chapters of that memoir he/she/they will be writing (but this also applies to poetry):

• Keep your sentences under 25 words, on average:

Avoid construction of elaborate and meandering clauses, which lead, quite often, to a morass of troublesome, longer sentences, marked by erroneous comma usage, subject-object agreement and verb tense mistakes. (33-word sentence)

Avoid clauses. (2-word sentence).

• If you want to elaborate on a simple point or provide a writer-splaining, information-loaded aside, try it out in a new sentence. Trust me.
• If you run out of breath reading your sentence, it’s too long.
• Long sentences inhibit comprehension, especially for busy readers. You’re not dumbing things down. You’re fostering convenience.

A sentence is easily the best weapon in your arsenal.

It’s where you flex your intellectual and narrative muscles.

Don’t agonize over individual word choice (le mot juste, for you English majors), until your sentences can carry the heavy load like a 25-car freight train.

This essay originally appeared in Laying Low (2021)

Photo by author: Auburn Umbrellas