As a professional copywriter, not only do I do a lot of writing
but I also look at a lot of writing. One of the things I’ve
noticed that set the good/great writers from the so-so is
rhythm.
What I mean by rhythm is how the writing sounds. The
rhythm of the words and sentences. It’s a subtle aspect of
writing, one not normally talked about, but that doesn’t
lessen its importance.
Unfortunately, rhythm is also tough to teach (which is
probably why it isn’t talked about very much). It’s something
felt deep inside, like it is with music. It isn’t as straight
forward as pointing out a grammar error. What makes it
tougher is that everyone has his/her own style and own
unique rhythm. However, these three tips should get you
started thinking about your own writing rhythm and how to
improve it.
1. Watch out for long sentences. In fact, you might want to
consider avoiding them altogether.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with long sentences. And
there are times where longer sentences are necessary (see
next tip — but note I said longer and not long). The problem
is that long sentences have a tendency to turn into flabby
sentences.
Think of a sentence as an eel. The longer it gets, the more
slippery and elusive it becomes. Long sentences are
sentences just waiting to slither far away and completely out
of your control.
So what’s going on with long sentences? One problem is
they’re tiring to read. By the time readers reach the end of a
long sentence, they’ve most likely forgotten the
subject/verb/point of the sentence. And they’re probably too
tired or too lazy or too busy to go back to the beginning of the
sentence and sort the whole thing out.
Another problem is long sentences lack punctuation.
Punctuation is a big part of rhythm. The start and stop of a
period. The bated breath of an em-dash. Think of
punctuation as your percussion section.
But when you write a long sentence, all you have to work
with is the quiet sigh of the unobtrusive comma. Yes, they
have their place. But it’s a subtler instrument. (Think triangle
rather than kettledrum.)
A good rule of thumb is to make sure a single sentence
doesn’t go over 30 words. If it does, strongly consider
breaking it in two. Or three.
2. Vary sentence length. In music, a steady beat is usually a
good thing. In writing, it’s considered one of the deadly sins.
(Okay, not really. But it still isn’t good writing.)
If every sentence is the same length, your writing is going to
get pretty dull pretty quick. You need short sentences, longer
sentences (but not too long) medium length sentences and
very short sentences.
How do you know if your sentences are all the same? Does
your piece sound monotonous? Are you getting a sing-song
voice in your head when you read it? Better take a closer
look at those sentence lengths. They’re probably all pretty
close to being the same.
3. Sentence fragments are a good thing. Forget your
fourth-grade English teacher. Forget that obnoxious green
line in Microsoft Word telling you your grammar is wrong. In
copywriting, as well as in many other forms of writing,
sentence fragments are a lifesaver. Those fragments allow
you to quickly and easily vary your sentence length. Plus,
they can help your writing sound conversational. People talk
in sentence fragments. Therefore, reading sentence
fragments gives people the impression you’re talking to
them — in your own voice and your own style.
So what’s a sentence fragment? A sentence that isn’t
complete. It’s missing something — noun, verb, both. It’s not
a complete sentence.
Rhythm in writing is much more than just what’s going on
with your sentences. (Not that we’ve covered everything that
goes wrong with sentences.) But it’s a good place to start.
Creativity Exercises — Get in touch with your writing rhythm
Hearing things out loud is a good way to start getting in
touch with your writing rhythm. You may have heard of this
technique to find mistakes — and yes, it’s a good way to
discover errors. But, this is also an excellent way to start
getting to know your own unique rhythm.
Start by reading your own work out loud. If you’ve never done
this before, try not to be too hard on yourself. Chances are
you’re going to discover all sorts of problems — including too
long sentences and paragraphs where all the sentences
are the same length. Make a note of what needs fixing.
Once you fix it, read it out loud again. Then read it the
original way. Listen to the difference. Even better, try to feel
the difference — deep inside, in your gut. Our gut is an
excellent rhythm sensor.
You should also read out loud things you haven’t written.
And read a variety of things — plays, novels, direct mail
pieces, newspaper articles, Web sites, poems. Read bad
writing and read writing that’s so beautiful your knees
buckle. Listen to the rhythm while you’re reading. How does
it make you feel? More importantly, how does it make your
gut feel? Your gut will never lie to you — learn to trust it.
Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and
Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She
offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine
their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting
principles to become more successful at attracting new
clients, selling products and services and boosting
business. She can be reached at www.writingusa.com.
Copyright 2004 Michele Pariza Wacek
