I find when I'm writing my novel that it's a lot less emotionally taxing on myself when I write with short sentences instead of long descriptive ones. After cutting out so many sentences when I draft that I kind of just lead nowhere, I find I'm writing in shorter sentences more often. So my question here is, which is better? The William Faulkner style where its these long and evocative stream of consciousness writing that contains a plethora of descriptive details, or the Ernest Hemingway iceberg effect. Which style do you prefer personally as a writer: laconic or verbose? Which style works best and in what sort of scenarios, depending on certain narrative elements?
Long and short sentences should be used alongside each other, not either or. If you go with the same sentence-length through an entire book it'll be duller to read. On top of that shorter sentences works better for fast phased events such as action scenes... while longer sentences is more for settling down in between the faster things. Whatever you write you need long ones, short ones and middle of the road ones just to make it a pleasant read and not bore (or stress) your readers to death.
yep what lemie said , vary your sentence length to make your writing flow ... all short will come over like an instruction manual while all long will be tiresome. you can also use length for those exciting moments , where shorter sentences can build tension - either action or sexual, and longer sentences can show a plateauing of pace after the climax, or when you want to slow for a moment before building it up again
If it's more emotionally taxing to write longer sentences, would it help to write shorter sentences as the first draft, use the second draft to work on the plot itself, the third to lengthen the sentences that need it, and the fourth draft for focusing on grammar and sentence flow and the like?
Letters are our atoms, words our molecules, and sentences the materials that we can beat out for a story. Use them all. Use them wisely. Use them to build an all-embracing panorama* for your readers, and dazzle them with your constructions. *I was trying to think of another "pan" word here but all my pre-coffee brain would come up with was pantheon, panoply, and, oddly, pancreas. Tempted to use pancreas for laughs.
The best way to figure this out on an individual basis, in my opinion, is to read what you've written out loud. Even better, get somebody who hasn't read it before to read it out loud to you. (Or even use a computerised 'voice' to read your text out loud.) Take notes as they read. Wherever it doesn't sound right to you, or wherever your reader hiccups a bit, mark that spot (on your own copy.) Don't try to figure out the solution then; just mark those spots. Later you can go back and attempt to re-word the spots that gave trouble. If your sentences are all too short, the reading will sound choppy. If the sentences are too long (or badly punctuated) the reader may run out of breath. The best, in my opinion, is a mixture. Longer sentences work well in quiet, reflective parts of the story, while action sequences often benefit from shorter sentences. Beware of too much of either, though. You don't want your readers to fall off the branch because they've grown sleepy. You also don't want them to drop dead of exhaustion because they've been galloping through pages and pages of prose without any kind of a rest.
It entirely depends on the tone and style of the book you're writing to write. A lot of books from the nineteenth century and before that used to favour longer sentences and IMO had a more self-indulgent style to their work. These days due to our lack of attention spans we go for shorter sentences and more active verbs etc. I think this is a good thing personally, though when I'm in the mood I enjoy a book that takes it's time and writes verbosely (but without the pomposity). In truth, either is fine so long as you commit to a tone and stick to it. You don't want to write a really long introduction that is self-reflective and then suddenly in the next paragraph switch to a more action-orientated passage. The key is to be consistent.
You really want to have a mix of both long and short sentences. Too many clipped, short sentences are going to start to sound like a children's book like Dick and Jane. Short sentences or sentence fragments can be very powerful when used sparingly. They might seem easier to write, but too many short sentences to the point where it's an obvious pattern or approach is probably going to be a problem. It really will start to sound like the prose in a baby book regardless of the content. Also, writing is often emotionally taxing. I find the more wiped out I feel after writing something, the better it is. Writing is hard work and shortcuts often show in a negative way.
