“Give the reader a single sentence, and they should know by the voice that it was written by you.”
I remember getting this advice, or something very similar, when I was a brand new writer. As a result, I agonized over my writing. How could I make each and every sentence sound like me?
I thought of this exercise again when I saw a Facebook challenge. It was originally posted for National Book Week, which has since come and gone, but it is the sort of thing that writers love. The challenge: Grab the nearest book and go to page 56, then type the 5th sentence in the comments section. You aren’t supposed to tell the title or author of the book.
Admittedly, I had to finagle mine a bit. The closest book to me, Living Fossils: Clues to the Past, was a picture book with only 36 pages. Instead, I grabbed the one I'm currently reading.
My sentence? “I did it.” (Sentence 1)
That’s not a ton to work with when using it to identify the author’s voice, tone, and more.
So I grabbed up another book and found this sentence -- “‘Hairlock?’” (Sentence 2)
Seriously? That’s not a whole lot better. What would I get if I tried 5 more books?
“And not after June 19 – the day the bill prohibiting slavery in the territories, having cleared Congress, was sent to Lincoln.” (Sentence 3)
“As you read through the list of tasks, think of ways to divide and conquer the work.” (Sentence 4)
“Zips, wiggles, pouts, smiles, laughter, mirror, hair-flicking, head-tossing.” (Sentence 5)
“Patricia Moore’s great-great-grandfather, Jeremiah Cox, had been a ship captain and later owner of a fleet of vessels, which, from the look of things, had never unloaded cargo except at the landing.” (Sentence 6)
“Because essential oils can be expensive, unscrupulous vendors may add synthetic fragrance components or diluents to their products to stretch them and make more money.” (Sentence 7)
What can you tell from a single sentence? Even if I hadn’t been the one to type them out, I think I’d be able to recognize the nonfiction. That would be sentences 3, 4, and 7. I read a lot of nonfiction but I also read a lot of children’s books. You might assume that the shortest sentences (1 and 2) are from children’s books. Those are both adult fiction. The children’s books would be 3 and 5.
I wish I had done this exercise as a new writer. Voice isn’t likely to be obvious from a single sentence. It takes a group of sentences for the reader to see how one plays into and off another and to get a feel for your word usage and flow.
Yes, each sentence is important. It needs to be clear. It needs to communicate. And it needs to be justifiably different from the sentences that precede and follow it. But don’t let agonizing over a single sentence trip you up. One word or twenty, the work and your voice are much bigger than a single sentence.
--SueBE
In addition to blogging here at the Muffin, Sue Bradford Edwards blogs at One Writer's Journey.
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I remember getting this advice, or something very similar, when I was a brand new writer. As a result, I agonized over my writing. How could I make each and every sentence sound like me?
I thought of this exercise again when I saw a Facebook challenge. It was originally posted for National Book Week, which has since come and gone, but it is the sort of thing that writers love. The challenge: Grab the nearest book and go to page 56, then type the 5th sentence in the comments section. You aren’t supposed to tell the title or author of the book.
Admittedly, I had to finagle mine a bit. The closest book to me, Living Fossils: Clues to the Past, was a picture book with only 36 pages. Instead, I grabbed the one I'm currently reading.
My sentence? “I did it.” (Sentence 1)
That’s not a ton to work with when using it to identify the author’s voice, tone, and more.
So I grabbed up another book and found this sentence -- “‘Hairlock?’” (Sentence 2)
Seriously? That’s not a whole lot better. What would I get if I tried 5 more books?
“And not after June 19 – the day the bill prohibiting slavery in the territories, having cleared Congress, was sent to Lincoln.” (Sentence 3)
“As you read through the list of tasks, think of ways to divide and conquer the work.” (Sentence 4)
“Zips, wiggles, pouts, smiles, laughter, mirror, hair-flicking, head-tossing.” (Sentence 5)
“Patricia Moore’s great-great-grandfather, Jeremiah Cox, had been a ship captain and later owner of a fleet of vessels, which, from the look of things, had never unloaded cargo except at the landing.” (Sentence 6)
“Because essential oils can be expensive, unscrupulous vendors may add synthetic fragrance components or diluents to their products to stretch them and make more money.” (Sentence 7)
What can you tell from a single sentence? Even if I hadn’t been the one to type them out, I think I’d be able to recognize the nonfiction. That would be sentences 3, 4, and 7. I read a lot of nonfiction but I also read a lot of children’s books. You might assume that the shortest sentences (1 and 2) are from children’s books. Those are both adult fiction. The children’s books would be 3 and 5.
I wish I had done this exercise as a new writer. Voice isn’t likely to be obvious from a single sentence. It takes a group of sentences for the reader to see how one plays into and off another and to get a feel for your word usage and flow.
Yes, each sentence is important. It needs to be clear. It needs to communicate. And it needs to be justifiably different from the sentences that precede and follow it. But don’t let agonizing over a single sentence trip you up. One word or twenty, the work and your voice are much bigger than a single sentence.
--SueBE
In addition to blogging here at the Muffin, Sue Bradford Edwards blogs at One Writer's Journey.
