Spellbinding Sentences

1. Writing Skill is Learned Through Practice.

Mastery is the mysterious process during which what is at first difficult becomes progressively easier and more pleasurable through practice.

Talent is a myth. The idea that great writers are born with innate talent is disproven by expertise studies. Researchers find that greatness in any field, including writing, comes from sustained, focused effort, great teachers, and consistent practice. Just "keeping writing" isn't enough; deliberate practice of component skills is necessary.

Practice changes the brain. The human brain is plastic, meaning it changes based on what we demand of it. Practicing writing skills creates new neural connections, allowing us to do things we couldn't before. This practice should be playful, private, and free from the anxiety of performance or judgment.

Deliberate practice is key. To move beyond amateur status, practice must be deliberate. This means:

• Highly focused on improving a specific skill.
• Demanding full attention and effort.
• Challenging yourself beyond what's easy.
• Tolerating frustration and using it as fuel.
• Eventually becoming your own teacher.
  This book provides the guided practice to set you on the mastery path.

2. Awaken Your "Word Mind" and Collect Words.

The oldest man, a leader of men answered; he unlocked the wordhoard.

Unlock your word hoard. English is rich with over half a million words, but each writer uses only a fraction. Your personal collection of words is your "word hoard." To improve, you must become consciously aware of the words you have and actively build this hoard. This requires waking up your "word mind," distinct from your "content mind."

Practice waking up. Basic practices like freewriting, focusing attention solely on the words used, help awaken the word mind. This trains your "writer's ear" to listen to words' sounds, meanings, and rhythms. Keeping a notebook is essential for collecting words that appeal to you from internal freewriting or external sources like conversations and reading.

Collect and make words your own. Actively collecting words you encounter is the first step to adding them to your hoard. The second, crucial step is to use them. Play with new words by putting them into sentences, lines of poetry, or dialogue. This makes them part of your active vocabulary and strengthens your word mind for future writing.

3. Master Diction: Understand Word Meaning and Qualities.

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style.

Precision in meaning. Skilled writers care deeply about the precise meaning of words. Denotation is the dictionary definition, the public meaning. Connotation is the associations a word brings to mind, the "ripples" beyond the splash. Using words with precision ensures your meaning transfers accurately to the reader.

Explore word qualities. Words have qualities beyond meaning that affect their power and suitability. Key qualities include:

• Formal/Informal: Latinate vs. Anglo-Saxon/colloquial words, affecting tone and voice.
• General/Specific: Broad terms vs. detailed terms, affecting vividness and clarity.
• Abstract/Concrete: Ideas vs. sensory experiences, affecting reader engagement.

Use qualities for effect. Understanding these qualities allows deliberate word choice. Specific, concrete words create pictures and show meaning, while general, abstract words often tell without engaging the senses. Formal or informal language sets the tone and helps define character voices. Practice identifying and using words based on their qualities expands your stylistic options.

4. Use the Language of the Imagination: Create Verbal Images.

The artist seeks out the luminous detail and presents it.

Imagination creates pictures. The imagination is the mental faculty that creates pictures in our minds, drawing on sensory information. It's a natural human ability, not limited to a gifted few. To use it in writing, we must train our powers of observation and collect sensory details.

Verbal images transfer pictures. The imagination speaks in sensory images. To transfer these mental pictures to readers, writers create "verbal images" using words. This is representational writing, distinct from discursive writing which talks about things. Skilled writers use specific, concrete language to make these word-pictures come alive for the reader.

Techniques for vivid images. Building a vocabulary of the senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, body language) is crucial. Techniques include:

• Adding adjectives and adverbs.
• Pointing to a specific part of an object or action.
• Choosing details based on the desired effect.
• Using synesthesia (blending senses).
• Creating static (description) or dynamic (narration) images.
• Employing comparison through similes (A is like B) and metaphors (A is B) to create figurative images, avoiding clichés.

5. Understand Parts of Speech: What Words Do.

We’re born to love grammar. We are taught to hate it.

Words have roles. In every sentence, each word plays a specific role, known as its part of speech. Understanding these roles is crucial for building effective sentences. Words are not just static units of meaning; they do work within the sentence structure.

Content vs. Structural words.

• Content words (Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs) carry the main meaning.
• Structural words (Determiners, Prepositions, Conjunctions, Pronouns, Interjections) organize and connect content words.

Power in function. Each part of speech has its own power:

• Nouns name and call things into being.
• Verbs make things happen, conveying action or state of being.
• Adjectives modify nouns, adding detail and color.
• Adverbs modify verbs (and sometimes adjectives/adverbs), providing more information about the action.
  Many words can play multiple roles (e.g., a noun acting as an adjective or verb), adding versatility. Practice using words in different roles strengthens your word mind.

6. Build Sentences with Phrases: Groups of Words That Work Together.

When you write, you make a point not by subtracting, as though you had sharpened a pencil, but by adding.

Phrases are building blocks. English speakers naturally group words into phrases – small units of meaning processed together. Phrases are structural patterns (like determiner + adjective + noun) that allow us to combine words efficiently. They are essential building blocks of sentences, functioning as single parts of speech.

Types of phrases:

• Noun phrases (e.g., the black cat) function as nouns.
• Verb phrases (e.g., skipped and hopped) function as verbs.
• Adjective phrases (e.g., bright and sunny) function as adjectives.
• Adverb phrases (e.g., quickly and easily) function as adverbs.
• Prepositional phrases (e.g., in the morning) often function as adjectives or adverbs.
• Participial phrases (e.g., holding out his hand) often function as adjectives or adverbs.

Compose with phrases. Mastering phrase construction allows you to compose sentences not just word-by-word, but phrase-by-phrase. This provides more options for varying sentence structure, adding detail, and creating rhythm. Practice making and combining different types of phrases is key to developing this skill.

7. Master the Basic Sentence Pattern: The Kernel.

Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence—which is a noble thing.

The core structure. All declarative sentences in English are built upon a basic pattern: Subject + Predicate. The subject names who or what the sentence is about (noun or noun phrase), and the predicate says something about the subject (verb or verb phrase). This pattern provides purpose and makes meaning clear through word order.

Kernels are the simplest. The simplest form of this pattern is the kernel sentence (also called base clause or core statement). Kernels are short, unadorned sentences like "Joe laughed" or "The dog died." They embody the fundamental subject-predicate rhythm, which is the ground rhythm of all English sentences.

Types of kernels. There are four main types of kernels based on the verb used:

• Type 1: Subject + Be verb + Complement/Adverbial (e.g., Joe is sad.)
• Type 2: Subject + Linking verb + Complement (e.g., Sally appears happy.)
• Type 3: Subject + Intransitive verb (+ Adverbial) (e.g., Birds sing.)
• Type 4: Subject + Transitive verb + Direct Object (+ Indirect Object/Object Complement/Adverbial) (e.g., Jeff read the newspaper.)
  Practicing these types embeds the core patterns in your writer's mind, making them available for more complex constructions.

8. Elaborate Sentences: Add Modifiers for Detail and Effect.

If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge.

Adding detail. While kernels are essential, relying solely on them can be monotonous. Elaborating a kernel means adding more information (words, phrases) while maintaining the core subject-predicate structure. This is like adding details and decoration to a basic house structure.

Bound vs. Free modifiers.

• Bound modifiers are fixed within the subject or predicate "slots" (e.g., The little brown dog). They don't require extra punctuation.
• Free modifiers are set off by punctuation (usually commas, dashes) and can often be moved to different places in the sentence (before the subject, between subject/predicate, after the predicate). They add information without "stuffing the slots."

Types of modifiers. Modifiers can be:

• Single words (adjectives, adverbs).
• Phrases (prepositional, participial, appositive, nominative absolute).
• Clauses (adjective, adverb).
  Appositives rename a noun (e.g., Cindy Alexander, my best friend,). Nominative absolutes are noun phrases modifying the whole sentence (e.g., The man, his head bowed,). Mastering these expands your options for adding detail and varying sentence structure.

9. Extend Sentences: Combine Clauses for Complexity.

Only connect.

Combine independent clauses. Sentences can be extended by combining two or more independent clauses (groups of words that can stand alone as sentences). This creates compound sentences. Independent clauses can be joined using:

• Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, or, nor, yet, so), usually with a comma.
• Punctuation alone (semicolon, dash, colon), a technique called asyndeton.

Add dependent clauses. Another way to extend sentences is by adding dependent clauses (groups of words with a subject and predicate that cannot stand alone). Dependent clauses are created by:

• Using subordinating conjunctions (because, although, when, etc.) to create subordinate clauses (often function as adverbs).
• Using relative pronouns (who, which, that, etc.) to create relative clauses (often function as adjectives).
  Dependent clauses can also function as nouns.

New sentence structures. Combining clauses creates new sentence types:

• Compound sentences: Independent clause + Independent clause(s).
• Complex sentences: Independent clause + Dependent clause(s).
• Compound-complex sentences: Independent clause(s) + Dependent clause(s).
  Understanding how to combine and subordinate clauses provides immense flexibility for expressing complex ideas and relationships between thoughts.

10. Compose for Clarity, Purpose, and Movement.

Essentially style resembles good manners. It comes of endeavouring to understand others, of thinking for them rather than yourself—or thinking, that is, with the heart as well as the head.

Clarity is paramount. The primary goal of writing is clear communication. Readers process sentences sequentially, adding each piece of information. Command of syntax allows you to order words and phrases so readers can easily follow your meaning. Reading your work aloud helps identify confusing passages.

Sentences have purpose. Beyond making statements, sentences can narrate, describe, convey thoughts/feelings, state facts, explain ideas, or offer opinions. Deliberately choosing what each sentence does adds layers to your writing.

Create movement. Sentences move forward, typically from known to unknown information. This movement keeps readers engaged. Techniques include:

• Using the basic S-V pattern.
• Placing free modifiers strategically (left-branching, right-branching, mid-branching) to set scenes, delay action, or insert information.
• Creating continuity between sentences by repeating words/phrases or using transitions.
• Managing "leaps" or shifts in focus between paragraphs or ideas.

11. Write with Rhythm: Repeat and Vary Structures.

It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing.

Language has music. Writing, like speech, has musical qualities, particularly rhythm. Sentence rhythm is created through repetition and variation of syntactic elements over time. This isn't just decoration; it affects how readers experience your writing.

Creating rhythm patterns. Rhythm is built by repeating and varying:

• Single words or parts of speech (e.g., repeating adjectives or verbs).
• Phrases (repeating a phrase exactly or repeating a phrase structure).
• Clauses (repeating a clause structure).
• Basic sentence structures (repeating kernel patterns or varying between simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences).

Effects of rhythm. Syntactic repetition (parallelism) creates balance and predictability, while variation creates surprise and emphasis. These techniques can make sentences easier to understand, connect related ideas, intensify emotions, build suspense, or create a sense of abundance. Listening to the rhythm of your sentences and those of skilled writers is crucial for developing this craft.

Last updated: May 19, 2025