The Long and Short of It

A fascinating discussion of sentence length and punctuation use in a variety of famous novels and some amazing graphic representations.


WRITING ACTIVITY

Write a brief fiction piece according to this structure:

short F
long
short F
long
dialogue: short, short, long
short
short F
short F
long
short
long
dialogue: long, short, short, short, short
short
long
long
short F
short F
short F
long (thought)


F=fragment
25 sentences. You can begin only 8 with a noun referring to a person. 
dialogue=can be internal monologue, or an interaction between two or more characters.

You can repeat this structure multiple times to create a longer piece. 

VARIATION: Rewrite one of your pieces of writing or part of another writer's writing according to this structure. How does the variety of sentence-length affect the rhythm, pacing, voice, tone, etc. of the piece?