GREAT WRITING: WHEN WORDS MATTER MORE

From Google AI on current sentence construction:

 

Basic Structure: Subject-Verb-Object (SVO)

• Subject: Who/what the sentence is about (e.g., Matt).

• Verb: The action or state of being (e.g., eats).

• Object: Receives the action (e.g., pizza).

• Example: “Matt eats pizza.”

Many writers are given credit for distilling the only two plots in all of literature:

Man goes on a journey.

A stranger comes to town.

In the interests of boomerpdx readers, the baby boomers and millennials, GenX and Z, Alpha and Beta, this writer wants to help.

 

I once met a man with an incredible story he was writing: the story of his life.

Who would know better than him?

He was a few years older than me, married with no kids, and carried himself with a certain style.

He’d been an enforcer/collector for gangsters in St. Louis.

He was a former gangster living under the radar.

If you’ve ever been around someone who seemed short on time, he was it.

As a fellow writer I loaned him one of my favorite writing books, “The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers.”

A month later I learned its fate.

The guy may or may not have been a hit-man.

Either way he retired after he found he had some kind of cancer.

He got treated and went into remission.

But it came back with a vengeance.

Instead of going through the whole ordeal again, he gave himself a Viking funeral.

 

 

My book was on the boat with him, which is kind of cool.

Note: If a man goes on a journey he’ll eventually arrive in a town where he is a stranger.

See what I did there? One plot, or a million?

 

You Know You’re Doing Well When . . .

Types of Sentences

• Simple: One independent clause (Subject + Verb).

  • The professor yelled.

• Compound: Two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction (like and, but, or).

  • I am tired, but I have to study.

• Complex: One independent clause and at least one dependent (subordinate) clause.

  • I have room if my roommate doesn’t show.

• Compound-Complex: Two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

  • Acting in self-defense, I shot the sheriff, who always hated me, but I didn’t shoot the deputy. 

 

You’re making progress as a writer when you have no friends and your family shuns you.

Why are people like that?

Because you shit-talk them endlessly in pursuit of great writing.

They are your inspiration, your resources, your ‘raison d’être.’ 

Oui.

Some may feel like chopping your head off like St. Denis.

If that happens, just pick it up and keep going.

 

Fitting Everything Together

Key Components & Variations

• Independent Clause: A complete thought that can stand alone (Subject + Verb).

• Dependent Clause: A group of words with a subject and verb that cannot stand alone.

• Subject Complements: Describe or link to the subject (e.g., He is a good father).

• Transitive Verbs: Require an object (e.g., eat).

• Intransitive Verbs: Do not require an object (e.g., sleep). 

 

It looks like the sentence police like their periods inside their parentheses.

Good to know.

Independent, dependent, transitive, intransitive.

This is where most people besides English majors close the sentence structure book in pursuit of great writing.

Just remember, know the rules before breaking the rules. Readers can tell.

 

Good Readers Make Better Writers

Writing Conventions

• Start with a capital letter and end with a period (.), question mark (?), or exclamation point (!).

• Use commas for series, introductory phrases, and separating independent clauses (with conjunctions).

• Maintain consistent point of view and verb tense. 

 

There it is, all laid out.

It looks both simple and impossible.

You’ll know which is which once you get started.

A quick lesson from the Epic of Gilgamesh:

 

“Forget death and seek life!”

With these encouraging words, Gilgamesh, the star of the eponymous 4000-year-old epic poem, coins the world’s first heroic catchphrase.

 

PS: If it’s good enough for Gilgamesh and Gillaspie, it’s good enough for you.

 

PSS: Forget death? I told my long married and long suffering wife that I was fearful of coming home and finding her dead.

She said, “Well, it’ll be one of us finding the other, and it will only happen once. Don’t worry about it.”

That was helpful, like a post on great writing is helpful.