: Repetitive sentences How do I start off sentences without them being too repetitive and boring? I have a problem of starting a sentence with something like "The person" and end up using "The

If I understand the problem correctly, I think what you want to be doing is vary the subject of your sentences.

Look at this example:

John walked out of the office. He observed the sky turning grey, and then felt cold rain landing on him. He opened his umbrella.

Now this:

John walked out of his office. The sky above was rapidly turning grey. Cold drops trickled down his collar. He opened his umbrella.

Instead of writing "person saw X", you can write "X happened". But there's more: instead of John slipping on the wet pavement and landing face-first in a puddle, it might be John's heel slipping on the wet pavement, and his face landing in a puddle. Or the puddle might rush up to meet his face.

Also, vary the order of your sentences' various parts. The subject doesn't always have to come first. Compare:

His umbrella was broken of course. John picked it up despondently.

to:

His umbrella was broken of course. Despondently, John picked it up.

It can be useful to use complex sentences:

A passing car sent a wave of water John's way, as if he wasn't soaked through already.

But don't make all your sentences complex: you want to vary length and structure.

Hope that helps! I think I'll stop ruining John's day at this point.

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My answer is two-fold.

There are lots of online sites that teach ways to vary sentence structure.

I can state this also as:

~Many sites online teach ways to vary sentence structure.
~Online, one
can find many sites that teach ways to vary sentence structure.
~To
learn ways to vary sentence structure, one can look online.
~Varying
sentence structure can be accomplished many ways, as described online.

There are certainly a dozen other ways to rewrite that sentence. You can also break the sentence into two: "Go online. You'll find ways to vary sentence structure." You can start with a dependent clause, or an independent clause. You can make a simple sentence compound or complex or compound-complex, or vice versa. These are all tools to play with.

Play. :)

This is an important skill to learn, especially if you wish to write fiction. So, don't just visit a website that catches your eye and has twenty different ways to write the same sentence. No, what you need is to practice. Go through your piece and change sentences. You can do this.

It will become second nature. But you have to be the one to do it.

Good luck.

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