Sentences - Blog Posts
A Quick Guide to Varying Sentence Starters
One of the things that really winds me up about my own writing is looking back and seeing a multitude of sentences beginning with “I” or “And” or “But”. I’m a messy first-drafter as it is and I do a lot of line edits, but it’s still takes up a significant portion of my time going back to change things.
So, I’m here today to share with you the ways I try to vary my sentence starters and some tips and tricks for drafting and edits”
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We all know why it’s important to vary your sentence structure, and by extent, your sentence starters. Besides obvious intentional things such as creating tension, or specific mood/tone/atmosphere, we should be aiming to vary how we start sentences to keep the reader engaged and not it being repetitive.
This is especially important if you, like me, write in first person and begin a lot of sentences with things like “I was” or “I am” etc. Or if you have a habit of beginning sentences with characters’ names. But what other options do we have? Here are five general categories that I like to use:
ING WORDS Coughing, she pushed her way through the blaze. Smiling, he leaned in for a kiss.
SIMILIES (and other techniques) Like the chattering of a typewriter, their eyes flittered over the group in front. Sweeping in like a dove, she cut through the awkward conversation.
PREPOSITION (beside, near, with, across, around, out, at, in, etc.) On the starter’s whistle, I pushed forward. Under the heavy fog, the streetlamp glowed valiantly
CONNECTIVE (Because, but, and, despite, after, before, etc.) After he left, I slipped the dagger back into its brace. But I wasn’t about to give in now. ED WORDS Distracted, she let the ice cream fall from her hands. Stunned by his words, they stopped in their tracks.
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Obviously you can make these examples much more complex and attuned to your own styles! There are lots of other ways you can vary your sentence openers, these are just what I personally use - so hopefully you can get some use of them!
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Hints and Tips!
Use the highlighting treatment! Go through your WIP and focus on your sentence openers. Select a different colour for each category (Blue for She/He/They/I starters, red for ED Words, yellow for ING words, as an example) and use it to help you see where you may need to add some more variation!
This also is a great exercise to do with a published book you really enjoy or by an author you admire - it’s a great learning experience!
Use a good mix of short, long, and medium sentences! If you find that your writing feels a bit samey or dry, even with varied openers, try changing the structure of the whole sentence itself!
Experiment and play around with word order and structure - free write for a few minutes every day and try something new! It’s all practice and even if it never sees the light of day in your WIP, it’s still a worthwhile thing to do!
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I hope you’ve enjoyed this guide and/or found it useful!
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This is awesome.
Congrats to whoever made that cake, I know that sort of thing is not as easy as people sometimes make it look on tv.
3. (regarding this particular meme usage) Totally why I might come across better when writing, because I can edit it however many times I want before people read it.
When I do the same while speaking, people wonder why I am saying the same thing over again multiple times in slightly different ways... not understanding that's how I sound in real time when compulsively editing myself, because I speak the way I write, not vice versa.
(part of why I sometimes say written English is like my first language, and spoken English my second)
(also this only took me a few minutes to write, but although I lost count, I am fairly certain that I made at least several dozen edits to this and may have to do a few more before posting since I wrote this bit)
