Sentences Category
Joyce, Wallace, Woolf and More Wrote in Fractals
Posted on April 5, 2016 Leave a Comment
For writers who never did well in math, you might be surprised to learn that literature contains fractals. Fractals are geometric figures made of small components that have statistical characteristics identical to the whole. If you zoom in on a fractal, you see the same shapes again and again no matter how far you zoom […]
When Less Is More
Posted on October 17, 2012 Leave a Comment
Like many people who write, I love language, and I especially admire writers that are able to compress details and time into just a few words. Look at this example from Jim Henry’s story, “The Flood.” “When I got home from the gym there was a message for the other Jonathan Patrick from a guy […]
Read Your Sentences Aloud
Posted on August 16, 2012 2 Comments
I read this post from a friend of mine and was reminded of something John Cheever wrote in the forward to his collection of stories. He said, “My favorite stories are those that were written in less than a week and that were often composed aloud.” At about the same time that a read that […]
The Right Word
Posted on August 2, 2012 7 Comments
I’m always so impressed with writers who construct amazing sentences comprised of exactly the right words. I try to do this with my own writing, but know it’s a talent that needs much developed. I recently asked my writing friend Kim Davis, who writes beautiful poetry, for advice on polishing my word-choice skills. She had […]
Sentences Are the Pack Mules of Literature
Posted on July 26, 2012 2 Comments
On Tuesday, I wrote the post, 100 Most Beautiful Words, and tried to make the case that although words are wonderful, sentences are what’s important. That night, I sat down with Douglas Bauer’s The Stuff of Fiction and read the chapter devoted entirely to the sentence. Some things Bauer said stood out for me and […]
100 Most Beautiful Words
Posted on July 24, 2012 5 Comments
This isn’t my list. But a friend passed it along and I thought it was interesting. It’s one person’s collection of the 100 Most Beautiful Words. I’d have to agree that many of these words roll over the tongue in a pleasing way. Desultory. Efflorescence. Lissome. I love words, but more than that, I love […]
Tracy Staedter 