## Metadata - Author: [[Verlyn Klinkenborg]] - Full Title: Several Short Sentences About Writing - Category: #books ## Highlights - Here, in short, is what I want to tell you. Know what each sentence says, What it doesn’t say, And what it implies. Of these, the hardest is knowing what each sentence actually says. ([Location 51](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=51)) - it’s a place to begin, and to begin from again and again. ([Location 63](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=63)) - Short sentences aren’t hard to make. The difficulty is forcing yourself to keep them short. ([Location 65](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=65)) - Knowing what you’re trying to say is always important. But knowing what you’ve actually said is crucial. ([Location 76](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=76)) - 1. Many people assume there’s a correlation between sentence length and the sophistication or complexity of an idea or thought—even intelligence generally. There isn’t. 2. Many people assume there’s a correlation between the reader’s experience while reading and the writer’s experience while writing—her state of mind, her ease or difficulty in putting words together. There isn’t. ([Location 127](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=127)) - But long sentences often tend to collapse or break down or become opaque or trip over their awkwardness. They’re pasted together with false syntax And rely on words like “with” and “as” to lengthen the sentence. They’re short on verbs, weak in syntactic vigor, Full of floating, unattached phrases, often out of position. And worse—the end of the sentence commonly forgets its beginning, As if the sentence were a long, weary road to the wrong place. ([Location 144](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=144)) - Tags: [[orange]] - Writing short sentences restores clarity, the directness of subject and verb. It forces you to discard the strong elements of long sentences, Like relative pronouns and subordinate clauses, And the weak ones as well: Prepositional chains, passive constructions, and dependent phrases. ([Location 150](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=150)) - Every word is optional until it proves to be essential, Something you can only determine by removing words one by one And seeing what’s lost or gained. ([Location 177](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=177)) - Without extraneous words or phrases or clauses, there will be room for implication. The longer the sentence, the less it’s able to imply, And writing by implication should be one of your goals. Implication is almost nonexistent in the prose that surrounds you, ([Location 182](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=182)) - writer’s real work is the endless winnowing of sentences, The relentless exploration of possibilities, The effort, over and over again, to see in what you started out to say The possibility of saying something you didn’t know you could. ([Location 200](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=200)) - Fiction and nonfiction resemble each other far more closely than they do any actual event. Their techniques are essentially the same, apart from sheer invention. ([Location 210](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=210)) - No matter what genre you call it. Or, better yet, make the reader forget about genre completely. ([Location 229](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=229)) - You’re also two people, writer and reader. ([Location 244](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=244)) - You can only become a better writer by becoming a better reader. You have far more experience as a reader than you do as a writer. You’ve read millions of words arranged by other writers. How many sentences have you made so far? ([Location 245](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=245)) - Tags: [[orange]] - Every work of literature is the result of thousands and thousands of decisions. Intricate, minute decisions—this word or that, here or where, now or later, again and again. It’s the living tissue of a writer’s choices, Not the fossil record of an ancient, inspired race. ([Location 469](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=469)) - Who’s going to give you the authority to feel that what you notice is important? It will have to be you. ([Location 520](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=520)) - One of the hardest things about learning to read well is learning ([Location 621](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XCQMW&location=621))