Writing Long Sentences: How To and When To
Part 1: Thirty Great Sentences
*Important note for anyone new to the Prism & Pen Master Class (the Writing Queer Workshop): please see the post below at the end of the workshop.
Introduction:
Those of you who have taken a writing class or read a lot about good writing technique will be aware of what is often presented as a split between writers (like William Faulkner) who favor long sentences and those (like Ernest Hemingway) who are exponents of the simple declarative sentence, short, sharp and direct.
Let me assure you that such a split never existed even in the creative writing classroom, or perhaps I should say especially in the classroom, where it is well understood that for most purposes writers need to master both approaches. And the particular mix of sentence lengths and types forms a major component of the the writer’s personal style.
Of course, no writer ever needs to create monster sentences consisting of many hundreds or even thousands of words, yet many accomplished writers rise above the writing throngs precisely by this means. Consider how the “Faulknerian sentence” is now synonymous with long sentences. Longish sentences made up…
