Though I’ve never asked, I can’t imagine anyone considering sentence structure in their every day conversation. They just say what they want to say.
However, writers (and public speakers) must consider sentence structure because poor structure impacts the readers’ ability to comprehend the message, as well as their enjoyment of your story.
Defined, “sentence structure” is how you construct your sentence. Proper grammar is a part of that, but also includes length and complexity.
Keep reading to learn how your word choices and sentence length and complexity affect your story.
What does sentence structure affect?
Reading level: If you’re writing for children, your sentence length and complexity is going to be much simpler than if you were writing for adults with a college degree.
Ease of reading: The reader flows from one sentence to the next, like floating down a stream on an inner tube. Sentences that never vary in length or construction become monotonous. Your reader will fall asleep.
Pacing: Sentence length affects how quickly a sentence is read, thus affecting the pace of the story.
The best way to show all this is through examples.
Reading level
I’m not going to spend much time with reading level because I think most people understand this.
Example: If you’re writing for children, your sentence length and complexity is going to be much different than if you were writing for adults with a college degree.
The above sentence has 27 words. It is not a simple sentence because it contains a lot more than your basic subject/verb. The readability stats in MS Word rate this sentence at 12.4, meaning at the level of a twelfth grader.
Know your audience and how to write for them.
This article shows how to turn on the readability stats in MS Word.
Ease of reading
You know you’ve read a great book when you get to the end and feel as though time stood still.
Varied sentence length and construction impacts how smoothly a book reads. Having the correct pacing throughout your story also contributes to ease of reading.
Bad: Gabrielle packed her suitcase. She loaded the car. She pointed her Rav 4 toward Colorado. The clock read 5:15 a.m.
None of the above sentences is grammatically incorrect. None of these sentences is complex either. This construction, sentence after sentence, creates a choppy read. Imagine a whole book written this way! You wouldn’t get past page 1 before wanting to put it down.
Better: Gabrielle tossed together a suitcase of clothing and toiletries, loaded it into the car, and pointed her Rav 4 west to Colorado. The clock on the dash read 5:15 a.m.
Pacing
Pacing controls the speed at which a story is told. It also controls the speed at which the reader is pulled through the story. Like rafting a river, there are places where the river flows slowly, places where the flow speeds up, and maybe even some rapids. Think of your story in the same way.
You can control pacing in many way, but here’s how with sentence structure…
- The words you choose
- Length
- Complexity
- Paragraph length
Word choice example: “She ran down the street.” versus “She bolted down the street.”
Same number of words, exact same structure, but different verb. The verb bolted gives a greater sense of speed.
Long sentences slow the read, as do long paragraphs. But they also offer the reader time to relax and take a breath. You don’t want to be on those rapids through the whole story.
Let’s look at my example sentence from above and see how we can construct it for a slower pace and then a quick pace.
Slow: Gabrielle packed her suitcase, carefully selecting each piece of clothing and toiletries. Then she loaded the suitcase and a cooler of bottled water and sandwiches into her Rav 4 and headed west to Colorado. The clock on the dash read 5:15 a.m.
Quick: Gabrielle threw together a suitcase and a cooler of food. Then loaded the car and pointed it west. The clock read 5:15 a.m.
Not perfect, but it demonstrates my point.
All these same things apply to your paragraph construction as well.
Grab a favorite book and dissect it. Give several pages a visual examination first. What do you see?
Next, read through several scenes and examine the writing for sentence structure.
- What kinds of words does the author use?
- How do the sentence and paragraph lengths vary?
- Where does the pace increase?
- How does the author accomplish that uptick?
- How does the author slow things down again?
- Try reading a scene out loud. Can you get a better feel for how the sentence structure affects the pace?
Now examine your WIP for these same things. What scenes are supposed to be fast-paced? Do they read that way? Make this a part of your self-editing routine.
How would you rewrite the following sentences for a smoother read?
Gabrielle packed her suitcase. She loaded it into the car. She pointed her Rav 4 toward Colorado. The clock read 5:15 a.m.
Put your revision in the comments below.