Research shows that you have seven seconds to engage your audience, at which point they decide whether to stick with you or bail. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons Twitter is so popular: A 140-character tweet can be consumed in about half that time. But you’re not publishing on Twitter, at least not exclusively, so how do you fully engage your reader and ensure they’re going along for the ride? One word: style.
Style, to put it stylishly, is having the proper words in the proper places. (Thank you, Jonathan Swift.) Easier said than done, right? Perhaps not. The key to developing and nurturing an engaging writing style is by always remembering that the verb is the heart of your sentence. It should never take too long for your reader to get to the heart (no long introductory phrases), and there should be a payoff for reaching it (a well structured predicate clause). The best way to achieve this rule of thumb is by omitting unnecessary words. For example, “Late for his flight, running past the gates with illuminated destinations that were not his, the jetway was just about to close when Paul made his plane with not a second to spare.” is a wandering, poorly constructed sentence. It tries to build tension and excitement, but the long set-up tires the reader and there’s no real payoff. It’s also a bit hard to read. Instead, try this on for size: “Running past gates showing destinations that were not his, Paul hopped his flight without a second to spare.” Why is this a better sentence? For one, a person, Paul, is doing the action. The verb, “hopped,” comes a bit late as the twelfth word, but putting it later in the sentence helps build that bit of desired tension. It also trusts your reader to draw quick conclusions along the way: Paul is in an airport; Paul has a long distance to cover; Paul made it to his gate.
One other key to remember: Have people doing things in your sentences. It’s much more interesting to read a story about a mother and father who have 12 children than it is to read about population growth.
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