A Writing Technique That Was a Key to the Classics

Although there were many writing techniques that helped craft the classics, arguably one of the most important was, and remains, variety. Variety not just in terms of vocabulary and ideas, but variety in terms of sentence length and structure. Humans crave variety, after all. Diverse sentence lengths, not to mention a multitude of ideas, make the written word pleasant to read, and turns mere books into timeless classics. It was perhaps Gary Provost, American writer and writing instructor, who put it best:

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.

Now listen.

I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony.

I use short sentences.

And I use sentences of medium length.

And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”

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