The Unstrung Harp

[ritaxis]

Average words in a sentence: 22. Maximum length of a sentence: 98 words.

I'm not doing it on purpose, I swear. Is it even possible to write decent prose if the sentences are that long? Is it necessarily a symptom of some fatal flaw -- self-indulgence, maybe just bad writing? I will not know until later, thank you, Mr. Earbrass.

I was also not happy to recall that The Tin Drum, which was given to me to read when I was twelve and was therefore an extremely influential book for me, also has a small young man with a drum surviving 20th century war in a landscape which is not Poland. But it's totally different! It's not the same not-Poland! It's not the same being small! it's not the same kind of drum! It's not even the same war!

Anyway, Yanek is four years old now, and the Duke-to-be is born, and Yanek's sister's stepmother has started calling him a petit chevalier and dressing him funny. But she'll lose interest in that when he gets old enough to fetch and carry and watch the younger children. There will be times when he may as well be Cinderella as Tom Thumb.

Comments

[karinfromnosund.livejournal.com]

If you have the occasional sentence of almost a hundred words, then twenty-two isn't a surprising average. It's only a problem if it doesn't work, I think. (As always)

I have never read "The Tin Drum", but I think it was in my parents' bookshelves somewhere.

[redbird]

Yes, it's possible. It may not be the kind of prose you want to write, but it's certainly possible. (There is nothing wrong, stylistically or grammatically, with the sentence here that begins "I was also not happy to recall…)

[pameladean]

Of course you can write decent prose with sentences of that length. You will have more difficulty with getting tangled up, but much less with monotony.

P.