Insane Dames

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Sentence Structure

by Sue McKlveen
(submitted to the Gulf Coast Romance Writers website)

Consider these sentences:

Jane went to the store. She was given a loaf of bread. She ate it on the way home. She was hungry.

You’d have the basic premise for the story. However, if you wrote it differently:

Jane, who was completely broke, went to the store to beg for food. The owner didn’t like the way she dressed, so he kicked her out the door, throwing her a loaf of stale bread. Embarrassed and very hungry, Jane ate the bread on the way home, returning to where she lived on the streets.

Now you feel sorry for Jane. What do we do to give that same kick to our writing? Not only do we add more information, we change the type of sentence structure from sentence to sentence to keep the reader interested.

There are four basic sentence types, defined by the use of clauses, phrases, and conjunctions. Clauses have verbs and subjects, phrases don’t. A phrase would be ‘During the television show’; a clause is something like ‘whom I knew in grade school’. Conjunctions are words like yet, for, not, and, or, but, and so. Dependent clauses need to have the main clause to support them.

The simple sentence structure, with one main clause and no dependent clauses, is one form. An example of this is, ‘Larry went home.’ Noun and verb, one thought. It’s rather boring, however, it can have amazing impact when used alone and for suspense.

Another form is the compound sentence. They have at least two main clauses and no dependent clauses. An example is the sentence, ‘The woman spoke to me and I tried not to laugh.’

The third sentence form is the complex sentence, with one main clause and one or more dependent clauses. An example of this is, ‘Although the nasty cheerleader was my nemesis in high school, I had to be nice to her in church.’ The main clause is ‘I had to be nice to her in church’, and the dependent clause starts with words like ‘Although’.

The last type of sentence is called a compound-complex sentence. It has at least two main clauses and one or more dependent clauses. An example of this is, ‘Because it was snowing, I carefully backed out of the garage, and the car slid into the mailbox.’

Some people would argue more types of sentences, adding the following:

loose sentences (putting the main point at the beginning of a long sentence)
periodic sentence (putting the main point at the end of a long sentence)
declarative sentences (stating a fact, avoiding emotion)
exclamatory sentences (forceful declarative sentence, ending in an exclamation)
interrogative sentences (asks the reader a direct question)
imperative sentences (gives a direct command to someone)

Vary your type of sentences so your reader won’t become bored or your sentences too long and flowery. Every paragraph of your manuscript should be carefully worded, so when you read it aloud and hear the rhythm, it’ll make the reader want to continue. Try to intermix sentences beginning with clauses with straight simple sentences, just to change it up and not make it sound mechanical.

References:
www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/sntmatr.html
The Everything Grammar and Style Book by Susan Thurman, 2002, Adams Media Corporation

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