5 Vital Examples Of Why Short Sentences Are Better Than Long Sentences

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Jul 13, 2016 12:00:00 PM

red-pencil.jpegThere is no singular tool for good writing structure. You simply need to use the tool required to convey your idea. The idea is in your head. It needs to get out of your head. How you make that idea available to people who are not your own brain is a miracle you determine. That's what writing is. Sentences can end in prepositions. And sentences can start with "and."

If the sentence is strong and confident, the writing has done its job, and so have you. Short sentences with fewer words have less opportunity to waffle around the point. Writing shorter sentences helps you present clearer ideas. Readers can follow them. It won't be a struggle to read.

I collect long, meandering sentences while editing my company's blog. Here are 5 examples demonstrating why short sentences are better than long sentences.

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Topics: short sentences are better than long sentences, how to write

Small Tips For Updating Your Blog Style Guide

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Jun 30, 2016 12:00:00 PM

Ghost_Little_Facebook_Thumbnail_Logo_Photo.pngStyle is impossible. You can mimic it, but then the mimicry becomes it's own style. Knowing that, I'm somtimes not sure what I can teach anybody about developing a writing style. It comes from an invisible place. Sometimes it escapes to another place, abandoning you.

It's an odd situation. I can tell you how a style is developed, but then it'll be up to you to grab onto what you can and see what spins forth for your writing, your blog, and your style.

Begin at the beginning:

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Topics: how to write

What Is The Difference Between A Writer And A Blogger?

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Jun 29, 2016 12:00:00 PM

Ghost_Little_Facebook_Thumbnail_Logo_Photo.pngCertain people who bear the diamond-hard feeling that the world owes them a speaking platform will tell you through their clenched orthodontistry that there's nothing worse than a Millennial, except maybe a blogger. This is a section of people who believe status is the greatest yardstick of a person's capability. To them, a writer is a writer, and a blogger is a plagiarist without an editor.

What is the difference between the two? Is one superior? Is the other outdated terminology? Is a rose, is a rose, is a rose, is a rose, or am I Frankensteining too many miniature gags and references together?

Here's the difference between a blogger and a writer:

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Topics: storytelling analysis, marketing, how to write

Using Free Books as an Inbound Offer

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Jun 23, 2016 12:00:00 PM

01-tenant.jpgGhost Little is built on simple principles:

  • Transparency
  • Everything counts
  • Build invitations for all tastes
  • Free books to get folks in on the worlds

When you think about how a modern person consumes media, and the idea that you want as many modern people as possible laying eyes on your work, your creative process changes. I didn't get into the promotional phase for Ghost Little and wipe sweat off my forehead, thankful that I had written 5 different entry-points via 5 different genres just by coincidence.

It began on the product level. The shared universe is the product. The free books themselves are the invitation in.

As fun as it was to write about the expert craftsmanship of the threads weaving the Avengers movies together, that wasn't an accident.

If you are going to build any product, determining the intended audience is step one. Then the inbound offers create themselves.

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Topics: free books, how to write

How To Write Facebook Business-Page Copy

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Jun 17, 2016 12:00:00 PM

Ages ago, when the world only knew of the iPhone 4, or 4S, perhaps, people would ask you for your ideas in an elevator pitch. A whole elevator ride? You have the person trapped in a box with you for roughly 10-30 seconds? And the only thing they can do is listen to you describe something?

Those jerks had it lucky. Try writing arresting Facebook page copy for a visitor who already has extra browser tabs open, their phone vibrating with text alerts, and the Spotify app open to a song they like, but don't LOVE.

Mine was a remarkable exercise. Here's how to write for your Facebook Business-page...

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Topics: how to write

Testing The Dan Harmon Story Circle

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Jun 16, 2016 12:00:00 PM

dan-harmon-story-circle.jpgI've talked about the acting methodology for Ghost Little's universal story structure. It borrows from how Pixar builds its movie plots, with a few modifications. That's how everything clicks at a high altitude for the story. Lower down though, I've implemented something else: the Dan Harmon Story Circle.

Each chapter in each book begins with an outline governed by a story circle. It's worked to great effect, in particular with introductory chapters, which are self-contained stories by design, as well as each book's starting point.

I'm also using this tool to elevate the offer of free books to invite new readers into the story-sphere. 

However, just as I'm working on a modified Pixar story structure, I want to see if there's anywhere Harmon's story circle should be changed.

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Topics: storytelling analysis, how to write

Writer's Block Is A Myth

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Jun 14, 2016 12:00:00 PM

IMG_20160612_111700.jpgLet's run an exercise.

If you're a functioning adult with a heartbeat (and if you're a functioning kid with a heartbeat, congratulations for getting this far), you can glance to the top of this page and notice a statement regarding writer's block. The suggestion "let's run an exercise" follows.

Writer's block because the writing-action has nothing to do with writing. Statistically speaking, writing is only 49% writing, at most. Nobody in the world is technically a "writer," by the strictest definition.

Writer's block is a myth because

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Topics: storytelling analysis, how to write

How To Write About Dread

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: May 26, 2016 12:00:00 PM

a-slanted-tower.jpgDuring my younger years, I would sometimes drive eight hours a day through the empiness of rural New Hampshire, interviewing for jobs. Writing that sentence fills my mouth with tasteless loneliness.

I had a few things to occupy myself: the ultra-long ambient Nine Inch Nails album, "GHOSTS I-IV," released earlier that year, a jar of iced coffee brewed from my own recipe, and Stephen King novels on audiobook.

And dread. Youthful, livid dread that my life might die on the vine. The Stephen King audiobooks didn't help that, but I realize I had immersed myself in the frantic mind of a creative soul, who knew the feeling.

Stephen King's The Dark Tower series put its arm around my shoulder, and through a hitched-up grin, it said, "You and I are gonna be great friends." That was how I met evil.

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Topics: how to write

How To Write About A Boring Topic

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: May 25, 2016 12:00:00 PM

golden-party-turtles.jpgAre you staring down into a big barrel of boring? Probably wish there were fish in that barrel. At least then you'd have a live target.

Instead, you've been tasked with ladeling that gray slop onto a paper, a report, a blog post, or a project. You need to write about a boring topic. Your body is resisting the task. Writing about a boring topic is emotionally taxing.

Know what else is boring? Running.

Who here disagrees? Who thinks running is most certainly NOT boring?

But people still have asked me how to write about boring topics throughout my professional career. Regardless of which side you take on that topic, you'd likely agree that somebody, somewhere, could write about recreational running and make it interesting. Somebody cares enough about it, knows enough about it, and knows the audience well enough to keep it sharp.

That's the secret.

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Topics: how to write

Bayonetta Teaches Us How To Write About Sex-positive Women Characters In Video Games

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: May 19, 2016 8:37:00 AM

bayo-gun-feet.jpg

You will face a vicious argument from weeping baby-boy-men if you imply women unjustly endure an ultra-honed discrimination in all media formats. It's bad in movies and TV. It's bad in the technology industry. It's bad in the video game "industry." For every piece of advice dealt out to women to keep from avoiding harassment like "just wear a fake engagement ring," there's no mention that instead, men should stop being gutless monsters who probably hate and fear their own mothers.

How does a man engage on this topic? We need to be taught, sadly, how to write about women in games. Bayonetta is going to teach us.

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Topics: how to write

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The Ghost Little blog publishes EVERY WEEKDAY. It's sometimes immediately relevant to the books' development process. Other times, it's only thematically-relevant. Thoughts and ideas influence the creative process in ways that you wouldn't initially anticipate. They're all worth detailing and discussing!

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