Want to Improve Your Writing? Don't Write Words. Write Music.

Do you want to become a 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿?

This advice changed my writing forever:

𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀. 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰.

Gary Provost, a famous writer, demonstrated this beautifully:

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.

Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length.

And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”