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endings

Everything ends, that's a truism. In a story (a written story, I'm talking about here) there are multiple kinds of endings. Sentences end. Paragraphs end. Chapters end. The story, finally, ends.

My sense is that if you develop an ear for a good rhythmic sentence, you're on your way. One of things I notice about people who are first getting started with creative writing is the tendency to try to stuff too much into a sentence. I once had (but can't find now) a one-page story by a student where every single sentence seemed to have an unnecessary and distracting tail -- mostly in the form of a prepositional phrase -- that could be (pardon the imagery) docked. When a sentence doesn't work for me one of the first things I look for is excess baggage. Sometimes it's fairly innocuous: He nodded his head. A bit longer: Marie was always forgetting to write down telephone numbers when she took messages for herself or other people.

I'll be looking for more examples of this, and tomorrow I'll move on to the subject of ending paragraphs.

Just to be contrary, here's a website that tries to teach you to make your sentences longer, for those of you who might be paid by the word or otherwise have a passion for such things.

October 6, 2004 10:20 AM

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Posted by: Catherine at October 6, 2004 11:10 AM

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