: Re: How to avoid repetitive sentence structure? I've realized that I always start sentences with (name of character), he, she, it, they, her, his, the, after (a moment/that), and then. I wonder

@Deb2945533

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Check out the book The Art of Styling Sentences. It's a bit formulaic way of forming dynamic sentences where they show you twenty sentence patterns and where and how to use them. To quote from the book description:

The authors review the fundamentals of good sentence structure and then go on to describe twenty basic sentence patterns that encompass virtually every effective way of writing sentences in English. They also draw on passages by current prominent writers, using these examples to show how varying rhythm and sentence patterns can result in elegant writing styles that keep their readers interested.

Also, there's another technique, I can't find it online right now, but it more or less goes like this: you make all your sentences simple sentences, like:

Adele wondered where was everyone. It occurred to her. Maybe they were in a safe place now. Maybe everyone knew about this. I was the only one who didn’t, she thought. She stared at her hands. She thought about the things that had actually belonged to her in this world.

Then see how you can combine them in different ways. For example:

Adele wondered where was everyone, and then it occurred to her. Maybe they were in a safe place now.



Adele wondered where was everyone. It occurred to her - maybe they were in a safe place now.



Adele wondered where was everyone, but it occurred to her that perhaps they were in a safe place now.

She stared at her hands, while thinking about the things that had actually belonged to her in this world.



Staring at her hands, she thought about the things that had actually belonged to her in this world.



She thought about the things that had actually belonged to her in this world as she stared at her hands.



She stared at her hands as she thought about the things that had actually belonged to her in this world.

And so on. Then you just vary the way you combine them - you use first example for one sentence, third for the next, second for the one after that... It's not the most brilliant example, but I hope you get the point.

One more thing: to get the whole text to feel dynamic, vary your sentence length. All short sentences in a paragraph imply fast action. Fight. Flight. Action. More action. Speed. All long sentences imply slow action, long, boring, slow action or can also serve to give the feeling of light-headedness or tiredness of the point of view character, on the count that the reader himself feels tired after reading such a long sentence. But by varying the short and long sentences, you get a general feel of dynamic - fast, slow, fast, slow, fast, fast, slow...

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