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Charles Dube, Highway to success
HOW do you build detail into simple sentences? A simple sentence does not have to be simple. It can reveal lots of information and can be manipulated to achieve various effects. To demonstrate this — we will use the same example used last week.
“With one single gesture, I swallowed the contents of the bottle.” A simple sentence has only one clause, or is a main clause. A clause is a group of words including a verb.
So, the writer might have started with the sentence: I swallowed the contents. They might have expanded the noun clause: I swallowed the contents of the bottle.
Detail can then be added to make it more interesting, for example: by using an adverbial phrase to say how he swallowed it. With one gesture, I swallowed the contents of the bottle. By using adjectives to describe what the gesture was like: With one angry gesture, I swallowed the contents of the bottle.
By using an adverb to say when he swallowed the contents of the bottle: Suddenly, with one angry gesture, I swallowed the contents of the bottle.
Remember, the simplest sentence is made up of a subject and a verb. Subject +verb. She walked.
She, is the subject. Walked is a verb. The sentence is made up of two words, but it expresses a complete idea. It makes sense.
How do you use simple sentences to create dramatic impact? Simple sentences as already shown above, can also be very short and just as effective.
Better writers often use short sentences for dramatic impact For example, have a look at this sentence: It was a mask. Simple sentences can be far from simple and writers manipulate them to create different effects.
Better writers add detail to a simple sentence by carefully selecting adverbs, adverbial phrases, adjectives and by expanding noun phrases.
They use a short, simple sentence for a key moment in the plot. Before you begin to write, think about how you want your reader to feel and/or think at that moment of crisis, if there is any.
You need to understand how short sentences emphasise the tense moments in a narrative. Look at these short simple sentences: She screamed. The sound alarmed me. My link to my Mathematics teacher disintegrated. What is effective about these? Why has the writer used them?
Varying your sentences. How can you vary your sentences to create tension? Short sentences tend to create a short stop in text, which emphasises the information in that sentence. Clever punctuation — how can you use punctuation to clarify?
It can be used to add additional detail. Some writers use parenthetical commas (instead of brackets) to slot in extra information and the information within the commas can always be removed. Punctuation is essential to meaning, helping to add emphasis to certain points in the text.
It can mimic the movement described in the text, create tension and drama, add pathos, highlight humour, create tone and numerous other things. It is absolutely necessary to writing. Punctuation is used by writers to engage the reader, keeping them involved in the text.
Ellipses (. . .) can be used to show gaps in a text, which can keep the reader guessing, inviting them to fill in the gaps. Ellipses can be used to great effect, but can lose their effect if they are overused. Better writers use punctuation in their writing to aid understanding and to emphasise meaning.
For example, to heighten the drama and tension of their narrative. Application of all these suggestions may lead to great success in English language learning and writing. Understand how to create a crisis in your story. You need to plan for this.
Ask yourself what ingredients make a successful crisis in your story. Think about the climactic moments you might have read somewhere, make a list. Highlight the ingredients that you would like to include in the climax of your story.
Then you need to think about what will happen in this moment, where it will happen and who it will happen to.
Write down your ideas for the what; where; and who, for your crisis moment. You can use ideas below to help. You might wish to start with the event:
Trapped behind a closed door, chased by a wild dangerous animal, jumping from a jet into the turbulent sea beneath. Where . . . You could begin with the setting: a windswept beach, a deserted playground in a local park, a town, woods darkening in the twilight, a town square milling with people.
Who . . . you could start with your character, a creature of the night, a human sized and terrifying spider, or an ordinary looking girl, who patiently waits for what?
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