How to Write Structurally Sound Sentences
Now that you’ve learned how to write various types of sentences, you can weave them through narrative to create an atmosphere and tone for your story. It's time to make an approach for your prose. In this article, we are showing you how to write better sentences in fiction through a variety of techniques. Some we’ve already discussed through this sentence structure series, but inside this blog post are a few new topics. After you've completed the entire series, you can stitch everything together for a strong story that readers will love.
Through this series we’ve discussed these specific sentence structure elements: what makes up a sentence, pace, rhythm, active voice, passive voice, description, purple prose, and dialogue. Now, we’re tackling how to identify and correct run-on sentences, sentence fragments, and transitional phrases. This is the final instalment in the sentence structure series, and by the end of it, you’ll be equipped to wield words however you need for your novel.
Before jumping into this last post, you may want to start from the beginning and work your way through the other three articles to get a full understanding of sentence structure. If you missed the other blog post’s in this series, here is a list of them…
In the first post on this series, How to Structure Sentences: The Basics, we broke down how to craft grammatically correct sentences, what makes up sentences, and how you can wield them for powerful prose as the writer. In the second article, How Sentence Structure Affects Pacing in Storytelling, we broke down pace, active voice vs passive voice, and description vs purple prose. In the third installment, How to Write Engaging Dialogue: Voice and Sentence Structure Tips, with Examples, we discussed dialogue in books and for screenplays.
Let’s first dive into run-on, fragments, and transitional phrases.
How to identify and correct a run-on sentence?
The more you write, the easier sentence fragments and run-on sentences will stick out to you, but initially they are tricky to spot. Before you can identify a run-on sentence, we must first know what they are.
What is a run-on sentence?
A run-on sentence is when two independent clauses do not have the proper punctuation, or conjunction to separate them.
Here’s an example of a run-on sentence:
Incorrect: Mary loved ice cream she went to the store to buy a few tubs.
Correct: Mary loved ice cream. She went to the store to buy a few tubs.
You can strengthen your sentences by adding punctuation. Use semicolons, commas, or em dashes and add coordinating and subordinating conjunctions to complete your sentences. This also allows you to play with sentence length, creating a pace and rhythm in your prose.
What is a sentence fragment?
A sentence fragment is exactly what it sounds like, it’s an incomplete sentence. All sentences must be complete with a subject and verb; read this article to understand the basics of sentence structure. These sentences do not express a complete thought.
For example: Wrote the book all night long.
This sentence doesn’t tell us who it’s about. The subject is missing and therefore it’s a sentence fragment.
What are transitional phrases?
Transitional phrases often get overlooked by writers because we intimately know the world within our minds, so we forget to connect our sentences for reader experience. Transitions show the change in places, time, and events. They are pivotal for creating a smooth link that connects ideas.
When to use a transitional phrase?
You may use a transition when you’re writing multiple scenes, or shifting Pov’s as an omniscient narrator, or third person limited within the same chapter. Do your best to ensure not to head-hop if you choose to have multiple Pov’s.
Transitions, chapter breaks, and section breaks help you avoid confusing a reader when we are entering a new perspective in third-person Pov’s. Transitions are used to express a change in time, place, point of view, etc. They are often implemented in prose between chapters, paragraphs, scenes, time, places, etc.
Check out this article for more ideas for writing transitions in your fiction.
Example: If you wrap up one scene at the end of a day, the reader needs you to tell them the character has moved into the next day.
“He was bone tired. Timmy couldn’t keep his eyes open, and the crickets lulled him to sleep.
(Section break)
The sun woke Timmy from his slumber, and he jolted out of bed. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep. He was so tired last night that he never set an alarm. Timmy checked his phone. He bolted for the door. He was late.”
How to approach writing using sentence structure techniques
To begin, if you’re on the first draft, it’s great to be aware of these techniques and to understand sentence structure beforehand, but don’t get hung up on your sentences in the first draft.
My greatest advice for the first draft is this: allow it to exist. Don’t get caught up in the technicalities of the craft at this point, especially if you’re a new writer. If you’re a seasoned author, the practice you’ve gained by writing multiple stories will already come through your prose naturally. At that point, you will find that your sentence structure is cleaner, therefore, require less editing. But if you have never written a book, it takes practice to write clear sentences— don’t be discouraged. We’ve all been there. All your focus should be on to sit and write–write the story that is coursing through you.
Most of these tools you learn through sentence structure will get fixed in the editing process. After your first draft is written and you’ve started self-editing the book, depending on your process, these tweaks will come out when you’re ready to line editing your book. If you’re on the first round of edits, you should be looking for story structure errors, character development, plot holes, and overall development of the book.
Grab our free self-editing checklist if you need help with this process. ↓
Line edits focus on sentence structure, pace, tone, and everything else we’ve discussed through this series. When you book a professional line editor, those are also the tweaks they will make to your manuscript. They are not checking for grammar errors; they are helping you tell a story that is clear and rhythmic.
Start weaving these sentence structure techniques into your novel during draft three, if you haven’t already.
At Humming Hearts Publishing, we offer line editing services for fiction books. If you have any questions about your specific story, or are looking for a line editor, we are happy to speak with you about your novel. Simply fill out a service inquiry and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
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How to Write Better Sentences: Clear prose
If you’re not on your first draft, here are some techniques to strengthen your sentence structure:
Read the story aloud.
This is the biggest tool you have to improve your structure. Listening to the sentences allows you to catch awkward phrases, poor pacing, run-on sentences, and so much more.
Examine every single sentence.
Don’t just rush through these edits, truly read and reread your sentences for flow, readability, and tone.
Get reader feedback.
Find a trusted friend to read your work, ask them if anything didn’t make sense or flow. Sometimes we are too close to the work and overlook sentence errors.
Pay for a professional edit.
This goes without saying that having a professional comb through your work will always improve it.
Recap on how to improve sentence structure in fiction
Now that we’ve learned all there is to know about sentence structure, let’s blend all that we’ve discovered and implement these techniques into your fiction. Remember, the tools for strong sentences consist of:
Varying sentence lengths
Pacing
Engaging Dialogue
Rhythm
Active voice
Avoid run-on sentences
Avoid sentence fragments
Use powerful transitions when necessary
Improve your sentence structure with these writing exercises
If you’re struggling to tighten your sentence structure, here are some writing exercises that may help you identify issues.
Comb through your writing one page at a time. This seems obvious but when you print your entire manuscript, it feels daunting to edit. After you line-edit one page, take a five-minute break, then jump into the next page. This helps you digest the words rather than getting overwhelmed by the entire book. The more you practice this, the more endurance you’ll gain, then you can up your page-count. Start small. You can and will get it all done, but you can’t do it all at once. Take your time and don’t rush this process.
Tell us what project you’re working on, we’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
Happy Writing!
