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Waterfalls, Water, and Writing
How to fix your writing right now
Like water, writing is about flow.
Water, however, follows a basic set of rules. Certain switches are never unswitched. Certain properties can never not exist.
In writing, this is called syntax. Syntax is our basic thing to build on. It’s unchanged, and, generally, not moldable. Unlike water, who knows its properties without any awareness, we need to learn about the properties of words and sentences.
We need to learn about structure.
Let’s do just that. But, let’s also talk about how to make waterfalls.
It’s awkward and long.
You’ve got a great concept in the sentence. However, the sentence spans a few lines. Read it to yourself, speaking the words in your mind.
Does it sound strange or weird?
Don’t immediately delete it. Instead, when you have a great concept for a sentence, learn to chop it up. Many people are afraid of using simple sentences as if it’s displaying something anti-intellectual. Great ideas and amazing writing don’t need to be complicated in order to say a lot. If you don’t believe me, go read anything Ernest Heminway has written. In fact, here is one for you: