Writing Powerful Sentences

I fell in love with reading, and writing from the eloquent sentences written by authors like Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, and Margaret Atwood. A well written sentence paints an image in my mind, and I am become absorbed in the story. My own life no longer exists. If I have any writing goal — it is to write so beautifully that people quote me. Not only is this a goal for myself, I also want to help you create sentences that are over-shared through facebook meme’s.

Simple and Direct

When I started writing I thought it was necessary to write complex sentences, riddled with metaphors, and imagery. My past-self makes me laugh on a regular basis. That isn’t to say I’ve mastered this art form — but I’ve improved a great deal from paying attention to the simple, and direct rule.

“The curves of your lips rewrite history.”
— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

A large part of editing involves cutting out unnecessary sentences that don’t move your story forward. The same should be done within the sentences themselves. Read your sentence aloud, could you have made your point in fewer words? Cut out the filler words in your sentences to make them stronger.

Examples:
“Actually” “like” “so” “that” “some”