Klinkenborg - Several Short Sentences About Writing

Klinkenborg Essay

6/16/14

Decisions

Here is what you need to know:

Disregard everything you know about writing.

Pick up Several short sentences about writing.

Read it.

Klinkenborg makes statements about writing.

His statements are written like this.

Short.

Sometimes these statements are longer, with a length of 13 or so words.

But they are short statements at heart.

Statements like “all writing is revision” (Klinkenborg 85)

And “Your job as a writer is making sentences” (13).

Not only should you read these statements, but also think about them as well.

You can agree with these statements.

You can test these statements.

You can completely disregard these statements.

But think about these statements.

Do they help you?
Do they spark some disagreement within you, and if so, does this disagreement help you?

It probably does.

So why buy this book?

This is a book full of starting points.

Perhaps they’ll help you find enough clarity in your own mind and your own writing to discover what it means to write.

I don’t mean ‘write the way I do’ or ‘write the way they do.’

I mean ‘write the way you do’ (Prologue).

That’s enough about that.

The sentences that Klinkenborg writes are short.

What is the value of the short sentence?

Klinkenborg answers:

They’ll sound strange for a while until you can hear what they’re capable of.

But they carry you back to a prose you can control…

They make ambiguity less likely and easier to detect (9).

These statements are hard for me to agree with,
But I agree with them.

Somewhat.

Short sentences do make ambiguity easier to detect and less likely.

When there are fewer words, there is less ambiguity,

Fewer words to convolute your point.

Yet, take this sentence: The cat is orange.

Although it seems simple, there are many ambiguities about this sentence.

While I could be thinking housecat, you could be thinking lion.

Where I see pale orange, you could see sunset orange.

Also, how much of the cat is orange?

I never specified.

Let me rephrase: The shorthaired housecat is sunset orange with a white underbelly and white paws.

Do you see the difference?

Now the cat is a shorthaired housecat.

The orange is now sunset orange.

Every part of the cat’s body is orange except for its underbelly and paws.

The short sentence allowed me to examine what was ambiguous and fix it.

Although I extended the length of the sentence, it was short at heart.

What does that mean?

I took the short sentence and made it less ambiguous by adding more details.

But the short sentence is still there.

It is the basis for the longer sentence.

In other words, at the “heart” of the longer sentence lies the shorter sentence.

The basic principles of the short sentence define the elaborate principles of the longer one.  

The short sentence is the reason the long sentence exists.

Short sentences give you more control over your prose.

Remember that cat sentence?

I controlled the revision statement.

Nothing was left up to the imagination.

The less ambiguity in your sentence, the more control you have over the content.

Yet, what about long sentences?

Although short sentences have a lot of redeeming qualities, long sentences also have value that cannot be ignored when writing a piece.

Klinkenborg states:

There’s nothing wrong with well made, strongly constructed, purposeful long sentences.

But long sentences often tend to collapse or break down or become opaque or trip over their awkwardness.

They’re pasted together with false syntax
And rely on words like ‘with’ and ‘as’ to lengthen the sentence…

[They are] Full of floating, unattached phrases, often out of position.

And worse-the end of the sentence commonly forgets its beginning,

As if the sentence were a long, weary road to the wrong place. (9-10)

I both agree and disagree with these statements.

I believe that if a long sentence is constructed well, and makes it’s point clearly, then making it shorter is unnecessary, because the sentence may lose important details.

But it must be constructed clearly, because if it is not, the reader will lose track of the idea, and will finish the sentence “at the wrong place” (10).

Most of the negative statements Klinkenborg makes about long sentences are correct, however, they are only correct if you are unfamiliar with constructing long sentences properly.

In addition, I say most because I believe that the use of “with” and “as” are sometimes necessary, as they can expand upon the main idea of a sentence, the key word being idea.

I believe that one sentence is one idea; therefore, long sentences are groups of short sentences sharing the same idea that are merely sewn together.

If you limit one sentence to one idea, then you eliminate any risk of a floating clause, because everything in your sentence will revolve around that one idea.

Long sentences allow you to write fluidly without lapsing on the smallest detail or separating them from the main idea.

Remember, separate sentences are separate ideas.

Details are not separate ideas, but rather one idea, expanded upon to create beautiful imagery to the finest detail, as if to paint a picture with words, and I believe that long sentences are best at accomplishing that.

Let’s do a writing exercise.

I will write a description, first using short sentences, then one long sentence:

The cat is a beautiful golden brown calico. His green eyes light up in the darkness of the hallway. He strolls down the dark hallway, waving his majestic tail.