Short sentences vs. long sentences in fiction
I understand that short sentences are a way to build tension. Do long sentences have a defined emotional impact in fiction writing?
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1 answer
+1 to DPT for the rhythm notes.
Do long sentences have a defined emotional impact in fiction writing?
Often it is just the opposite of building tension, it is the relief of tension. Long sentences require more mental effort to parse and understand, this fact suggests we (readers) can relax and invest that effort. Their existence implies we have reached a time for contemplation, or feeling emotion. Not the time for action or battle or emergency.
As DPT notes, you want to mix it up, but the presence of some long sentences is enough to give this signal.
In exposition longer sentences can be used to describe a scene, or character feelings, or character activities that are not particularly urgent.
In dialogue, long sentences are used when characters need to explain something or instruct other characters or tell a story. The fact that they are long is an indication to other characters (and the reader) that there is no immediate urgency, it is a time to understand something more nuanced than the progression of a battle.
Just as longer sentences require more mental effort to understand, they take more mental effort to compose. So long sentences with clauses and conditional dependencies and conclusions are also an indication of the complex thought we expect from most reasonably intelligent people. Whereas, a heavy reliance on short declaratory sentences is usually understood to indicate very shallow thinking or an inability to think complex thoughts.
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