W.B.’s Book Report: Several Short Sentences About Writing

If you’ve been reading this blog since Thursday, a thought may have occurred to you:

“I wonder if he’s been reading Several Short Sentences About Writing.”

It’s a little book, written by Verlyn Klinkenborg, about the power and purpose of sentences.

Click on the cover for the link.

One way he makes his point is by making virtually every sentence its own paragraph.

You see, if you’d read the book, why these last several blog posts might give you that thought.

Any written work is a chain of linked sentences.

The better the sentences, and the stronger the links, the better the work is.

The concept is so simple, it seems obvious once you hear it.

And yet, it takes Klinkenborg’s little book to cement the idea.

That’s why it’s among the most illuminating books about writing I’ve ever encountered.

No, I’m not going to make every sentence its own paragraph from this day forward.

I do have to say the book has made me want to be more aware, and more intentional, about each and every sentence.

As long as that doesn’t tie me in knots, it’s a great attitude adjustment.

I can’t recommend Several Short Sentences About Writing too strenuously. It’s that good.

Published by WarrenBluhm

Wordsmith and podcaster, Warren is a reporter, editor and storyteller who lives near the shores of Green Bay with his wife, two golden retrievers, Dejah and Summer, and Blackberry, an insistent cat. Author of It's Going to Be All Right, Echoes of Freedom Past, Full, Refuse to be Afraid, Gladness is Infectious, 24 flashes, How to Play a Blue Guitar, Myke Phoenix: The Complete Novelettes, A Bridge at Crossroads, The Imaginary Bomb, A Scream of Consciousness, and The Imaginary Revolution.

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