Episode Description
Leslie & Alyssa critique the opening of Genya’s literary fiction novel, Martha’s Dream. They discuss sentence and paragraph length, poetic language, and reconciling adult-like observations with the protagonist (a child).
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Show Notes
“The most subtle way to influence your pacing is through your structuring of sentences. The length of words, clauses, sentences, and paragraphs all contribute to how the pacing is conveyed to the reader. Again, long=slow, short=fast. When it’s time to write the intense scenes, cut back on the beautiful, long-winded passages and give it to your reader straight. Short sentences and snappy nouns and verbs convey urgency, whereas long, measured sentences offer moments of introspection and build-up.”
Read about the rules and art of paragraphing.
And here's an article about varying sentence length.
Inline Critique
