The foundation of good writing: the sentence

Posted February 15, 2025

Had you met me in my first year of school, you would never have pegged me as a future writer. Besides my awkwardness and social difficulties, I could not learn to read.

My brain could not form the letters on the board into meaningful patterns. They stubbornly remained squiggles.

My early learning difficulties have had several effects on my life, one of them, I guess, quite unexpected. Predictably, they left me with a lifelong insecurity, the corollary of that being a fierce need to prove – to myself, mainly – that I wasn’t stupid. The truly unexpected result was my love of language structures, and grammar.

I was lucky to have parents who read to me. While I couldn’t form the words or read them on the page, I listened. I grew to love the shape and feel of words and sentences, in my mouth and ears. When I was finally able to read, I focused on every word, and the way it slotted into its sentence.

I grew to care about the rhythm and flow of paragraphs. I love the way sentences work; the way they can be adapted to different circumstances and purposes. I was the geek who loved grammar at school, and I was drawn to study linguistics at university.

I believe this has made me the kind of writer I turned out to be, one who cares about text at the basic sentence level.

Trish has asked me to focus this year’s newsletters on providing hard skills. We are always mindful that not all of you, within our community, are able to sign up for our courses, mentoring programmes or away-games in Venice, Barrydale or Stow-on-the-Wold. We want to continue providing on-going value and support for every one of you.

The foundation of good writing

Language seemed a natural place to begin. Not only is it the foundation of good writing, but I found myself giving the same advice to at least four of our mentees this month.

Use full sentences except, very rarely, for effect. Like screaming, sentence fragments lose their force if they’re overused. Incomplete sentences can be powerful, but only if you use them with care.

Here, suitably disguised, is a paragraph which will show you what I mean:

The nail bent. He hissed. Straightened. Angled his body. Aimed his hammer at the next nail. Crack, snap. A stinging pain where the nail flew up and cut into the skin of his arm.

The first two are complete sentences. They contain a subject and an intransitive verb – the kind that doesn’t require an object, unlike the transitive, ‘He kicked the ball.’ The sentences that follow lack a subject. Reading paragraph after paragraph of headless sentences very quickly becomes a tic. It niggles and irritates, drawing us out of the narrative. Just one fragment would be effective eg:

He straightened. Angled his body. Then he aimed his hammer…

and so on. Or, he could simply have written:

He straightened. Angling his body, he aimed the hammer…

I, personally, would choose my second example. The sentence structure is varied, so the writing is not monotonous. It brings us up short with the sharp simple sentence, then mimics the flow of the movement with the complex sentence that follows.

The sentence: A stinging pain where the nail flew up…’ lacks a verb, but uses an adjective to stand in for it. Far better to rely on a strong verb:

His wrist smarted where the nail flew up and struck him.

Or (I think, better still):

The nail shot up, striking him a glancing blow. His wrist smarted.

It’s a matter of listening to the flow of the sentences, and hearing which works best. Which allows us to best experience the drama of the moment?

I might continue on the subject of language next month but I will, in the newsletters to come, cover anything about writing practice that occurs to me during the month. It could be a large, general issue, or a small nit-pick at the micro level. It could be something that I slammed against in my own writing, or an issue that presented itself in our mentoring.

I hope it will help us to be more aware of the craft, and will make us all into better writers.

Invitation – Writing Webinar: Strong Sentences, Stronger Stories

Continuing our focus on language and writing fundamentals, our next webinar builds on my reflections about sentence structure. Richard and I have noticed through our combined years of teaching and mentoring how these basics can strengthen and transform a writer’s work. We’ll answer your questions and explore practical ways to write more powerful sentences – or respond to any other questions you might have about writing.

When: Wednesday 5 March 16:00 GMT | 18:00 SAST

Where: Zoom

Register: Sign up for the Strong Sentences, Stronger Stories webinar here

Our webinar aims to provide hands-on value for writers at all levels. Whether you’re writing your first novel or polishing your fifth, mastering sentence structure will help you create prose that captivates readers and serves your story.

The webinar is free and open to all members of our writing community. Richard and I look forward to seeing you there and continuing our journey of growth together.

Register here for our Strong Sentences, Strong Stories webinar

Dive deeper: Thirty-day Writing Bootcamp

Ready to strengthen your command of language? Our Thirty-day Writing Bootcamp dedicates its first week entirely to mastering the building blocks of powerful writing.

Through daily exercises and focused guidance, you’ll explore how to wield language more effectively. Each day, we’ll send you succinct notes and a practical writing challenge designed to sharpen your skills and develop your writing muscle.

The bootcamp extends beyond language into observation, voice, and scene-crafting – but it all begins with mastering the basics. Spend just 30-60 minutes a day on guided exercises that will transform your relationship with language and help establish a sustainable writing practice. Sign up here.

Community news

As part of a Master’s Degree in Publishing Studies, All About Writing community member, Hilary Alexander is conducting a research study about the relationship between readers and the titles of books, which is in turn related to the decisions that publishers make about marketing books. The study title is Homing: A study of real place names featured in the titles of South African fiction and their influence on publishers’ marketing strategies. The research is a qualitative study, using an online questionnaire, reader interviews, and interviews with publishers and authors. In the first phase, she is seeking responses to a basic questionnaire that will form the basis of a deeper investigation into the topic. Your responses and data will be kept confidential. The survey closes on 28 February. Here’s the link to participate.

I hope to see you at the Strong Sentences, Stronger Stories webinar on 5 March.

In the meantime, happy writing

Jo-Anne

Jo-Anne Richards

Jo-Anne Richards is an internationally published novelist with a PhD in Creative Writing from Wits University. Her first novel, The Innocence of Roast Chicken, was originally published by Headline Review in the UK, and has recently been rereleased as one of the prestigious Picador Africa Classics collection. She ran the Honours programme in Journalism & Media Studies at Wits University for fifteen years.