Grammar Punk Blog

Mix It Up!

It might surprise you to know that some of us who write as a profession don’t always see proper grammar as a job prerequisite. At least not in the front of their heads. “Grammar can be “gotten” not necessarily studied. I respectfully disagree.

Proper grammar helps to make a story flow smoothly. Having a firm grasp of the basic rules and  parameters of grammar also helps the ease of writing exponentially. Knowing the rules and making them part of your repertoire leaves your brain free for  creativity and storytelling.

This is not to say that the many (many!) rules have to be memorized and applied, we’re talking basic grammar here. Learning how to construct tight clean paragraphs with well thought-out sentences will create the bones for a strong story.

First lesson: sentence length. This one may seem like a no brainer—wrong! When writing anything you expect to be read by anyone else, mix it up. If you’ve never thought about it before, and that’s not uncommon, think about it now. And notice when you’re reading.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I like long sentences, not prohibitively long, but not short and choppy. Unless short and choppy is called for. Like now. You’ll want to watch run on, nonsensically long sentences that tend to drone on and on using up a lot of words without the necessity or bother of a lot of unnecessary interruptions like punctuation or flow and style. You get the idea. I also like semicolons, a lot, but that’s another story and another topic we’ll get to later.  

So, remember, long sentences, short sentences, medium length sentences. Mix and match. You’ll be surprised how much easier your writing will be on your readers.