To write well is to make your sentences well.
Fundamentally whatever you want to write, it’s sentences that you’re going to need to master.
If you think of writing as a continual movement between the big picture and the small; then each sentence is the small picture. The detail.
So when you have something to write for work, your job or yourself, concentrate on your sentences and take them one at a time.
Just write one sentence and then write another.
Think of each sentence as an act of creation. Each one lives. They move, breathe, express and travel. Sometimes it even seems that they make themselves up as you go.
However, take your time to produce each sentence. They shouldn’t feel mass produced. Nor anonymous.
Each should have its own personality that blends with its surrounds and makes it part of a greater whole.
A sentence can tell a story – of what is, of what happens, of who did what, of what is done. Good sentences make good writing.
Your task is to get to the end of each sentence, one after the other.
If you’re planning a path with your sentences – meaning you want to get somewhere with them – make sure you take your reader along with you for the journey. Entrance them with your words; each one carefully added to complete the sentence.
To write is to make sentences, and out of them and them alone you make a story. Or an argument, a business case or a persuasion.
They should rise and fall, like your own footfall. As the Buddhists say, ‘Just walk’.
When writing, just write.
Photo via stock.xchng user sue_r_b
