tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post3897213062648012633..comments2023-09-05T12:51:25.656-05:00Comments on edittorrent: From the "Bad Advice" FileEdittorrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-30860960316436988212012-09-04T13:54:14.524-05:002012-09-04T13:54:14.524-05:00I believe it has to do with the limits of our shor...I believe it has to do with the limits of our short term memory, which IIRC is seven plus or minus two items (depending on the person, how well rested they are, and so on). An entire phrase, such as a noun and all its qualifiers probably becomes a single item. If the number of items in the sentence exceeds a person's short term memory limits they will find it impossible to comprehend, because they can't put all the pieces together. So it's not the number of words per se, but the complexity of the sentence. But as a sentence gets longer, it will tend to get more complex and more people will have difficulty with it.R. E. Hunterhttp://rehunter.org/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-39832073734148865242012-09-04T13:48:47.156-05:002012-09-04T13:48:47.156-05:00@Laura
It depends on the sentences. There are dul...@Laura <br />It depends on the sentences. There are dull, short sentences, too, even in action scenes. And sometimes a staccato rhythm can push the reader's mind out of the text enough to make the text seem slower. It's like reading a grocery list where each item on the list is an action. "He swung. She ducked. He missed. She screamed. She ran. He chased her." etc. <br /><br />TheresaEdittorrenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-38901305440628334962012-09-04T09:44:10.451-05:002012-09-04T09:44:10.451-05:00Okay, you send me your list, and I'll send you...Okay, you send me your list, and I'll send you mine. I just bet there'd be some overlapping in those files.Normandie Fischerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10598870265371056412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-88906291152469582292012-09-04T00:53:18.026-05:002012-09-04T00:53:18.026-05:00Oh, thank you for this! I am a lover of the long ...Oh, thank you for this! I am a lover of the long sentence (I was educated on Victorian writers and Faulkner), so I tend to write them. I have been trying to cut down that tendency, since I do think I overuse, but it's nice to have some solid reassurance that I don't have to reduce all sentences to 7 words only.Clare Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12275618718871589963noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-37869763263700454002012-09-03T23:01:24.097-05:002012-09-03T23:01:24.097-05:00I have heard both sides of this advice coin before...I have heard both sides of this advice coin before, long versus short. I have also heard that if you're writing an action scene, such as a fight or other fast-paced drama, then short sentences help convey the tension and speed at which the scene unfolds. I do think it's more interesting to read when sentences vary in length, though.<br /><br />I have read some books where the author tried to stick to a specific sentence structure throughout, and it becomes monotonous after a while. It's good to break up the rhythm so as not to put the reader into a hypnotic trance! :)Laura Hughes, MittensMorgulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00934132671168843593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-24143282011171378512012-09-03T22:49:19.414-05:002012-09-03T22:49:19.414-05:00At a writer's forum, I was going to start a th...At a writer's forum, I was going to start a thread asking what writing tips each user was tired of hearing, but I decided to go with a more positive topic. Maybe I should start a "bad advice" file too, with links as citations.<br /><br />Funny enough, one of the suggestions Joe Bunting gives in his recent e-book is "write long sentences" if you want to inject a literary flair to the prose. Emphasis on "inject". He isn't advocating sentence unvariation.<br /><br />(On the other hand, I'm recalling the phrase "sentences aren't mini-vans!" from Reasoning with Vampires, but that's the result of sloppy structuring.)Chihuahua Zerohttp://youngaspiringwriter.blogspot.com/2012/08/joe-bunting-interview.html#.UD2X5NZlTAEnoreply@blogger.com