Tag Archive - Sentence structure

Utilize the Power of Breath Units to Write Masterfully

You may not have heard of breath units. In fact, if you Google this term, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any information on it.

Breath units are simply the number of words spoken in one breath.

Why should you care?

Because your writing style is all about breath units.

Your genre determines the kinds of breath units a writer should use.

You’ll notice this blog post, so far, is very similar to many blog posts you’ve read before.

These breath units are short.

For the most part.

And that’s because blog posts tend to share small bits of useful (one hopes) information. Continue Reading…

Writing Mechanics: Avoiding the “I” Trap and Other Irritants

In today’s post editor Linda Clare continues our look at Fatal Flaw #12: Flawed Writing Mechanics. We’ve taken a look at scene structure, and now we’ll cover some of the smaller bits that jam up the gears of writing mechanics.

This week we’re discussing how poor writing mechanics can lead to dull writing. Let’s examine how repetitive pronoun/proper name use and other small mistakes can weaken fiction and what we can do to strengthen our work.

Get Out of the “I” Trap

In the Julia Roberts/Brad Pitt movie The Mexican, Roberts leans out a window, hurling all Pitt’s possessions on him. He protests, “But I . . . I . . . ”

She yells back. “I, I, I, I, I. It’s always about you, Jerry.” She then throws something else onto his head.

When writers overuse pronouns in their fiction, I think of this scene. Every writer faces the same challenge: how to communicate the story without boring readers by repeating pronouns at the beginning of sentences. Continue Reading…