1 & 2 word sentences...

I've always though that you can get away with more in fiction concerning sentences. Sometimes things just aren't sentences because...well, it works that way. It wouldn't work in a business letter or an academic paper (usually) but I think they're okay in most fiction. Especially when it's making a point.

But that's just my opinion.

Captain Morgan said:

I ask this because even in my rough drafts I am always worried of not having something grammatically proper. Now I wonder if I have been looking TOO MUCH INTO IT. I've seen such bad structures in non-dialogue writing in current novels, I am suspecting that using formal writing is being rather too prudent.

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You're right, you're being too prudent. I mean you can't disregard grammar, but you can bend the rules. I do this all the time for emphasis:

Timothy went to the sink. Damn. The dishes were gone.

I always say you gotta know the rules to break them. You have to know that "Going to the store" is not a grammatically complete sentence, and probably would not be acceptable anywhere. But people use one- and two-word sentences all the time in conversation, and if your writing style is conversational and informal, then it's appropriate to use even when it's not dialogue.

Sometimes one or two word sentences really speed the pace along, or punctuate a thought that you really want to hit home.

Fragments can be good sometimes.

I use one- or two-word sentences. All. The. Time.

They rock.

Seriously.

Totally!

It's funny, but I went through a phase using one and two word sentences when I first started writing sixteen years ago, using two word sentences such as "verdant hills." I quit when I figured that style of writing had passed although I do see it occasionally. I think it depends on the words. If it is words we would normally use alone, like 'go figiure," or something, or an exclamation I think it's still okay. It doesn't matter what I think though because obviously some editors and readers don't mind one and two word sentences one bit.

Captain Morgan said:

I have been reading a best-seller novel, and kept seen numerous 1 and 2 word sentence sprinkled about. I find this a little strange, as I've always been told a sentence MUST STAND ALONE. A sentence must have a subject and predicate.

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Sentence fragments are fine, as long as you don't overdo it. They're even more acceptable in dialogue -- people don't always talk in complete sentences.

No.

Yes.

Well, maybe.

I love short sentences. Totally. But not always. Just sometimes.

Captain Morgan said:

I have been reading a best-seller novel, and kept seen numerous 1 and 2 word sentence sprinkled about. I find this a little strange, as I've always been told a sentence MUST STAND ALONE. A sentence must have a subject and predicate.

That said, I understand why it is POSSIBLE to have a single word sentence:

Go!

But... When describing things in a novel, and using one or two word sentences sprinkled about, isn't this breaking the rules of accepted writing?

I ask this because even in my rough drafts I am always worried of not having something grammatically proper. Now I wonder if I have been looking TOO MUCH INTO IT. I've seen such bad structures in non-dialogue writing in current novels, I am suspecting that using formal writing is being rather too prudent.

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A one word sentence can stand alone as well as a fifty word sentence. The subject/predicate rule is more a rule of thumb than a hard and fast, no exception rule. Does a one word sentence in a novel break the rules? No.

Oh. Me, too.

JoNightshade said:

Timothy went to the sink. Damn. The dishes were gone.

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And this would be a bad thing because...?

It bugs me when there are too many short sentences in a novel (when I was a teenager, I read R.L. Stine's Fear Street series, which was oh so very guilty of this), but reading a novel with long sentence after long sentence can be exhausting. Short sentences can be a great way to speed up the pacing or just improve the "sound" of your paragraphs. A couple months ago, I was in a workshop with bestselling author Terry Kay, and he talked a bit of sentence length. He had all of us put a piece of tracing paper over a page of our WIP and then draw a line to represent each sentence, making breaks only when we hit a period. His point was that there's a level between lots of breaks and just a few breaks that serves to make the reading experience more comfortable and more enjoyable for the reader.

I remember the first time I read part of my current WIP out loud to a group of other writers. I kept having take deep breaths in the middle of sentences because so many of them were just too darn long. Since beginning the rewrite, I've been mindful of lessening the number of sentences that -- literally -- take one's breath away.

A: Hey, where are my keys?
B: On the table.

Does B say a sentence? A sentence fragment? To B it doesn't matter what the grammarian calls it. To say it's not acceptable is silly (but some people do).

As it is, grammarians theorise that it is an ellipses. What B is really saying is "(Your keys are) on the table." (And above I've typed "(Does B say) a sentence fragment?") Still, the orthographic conventions are to capitalize the first word in the whatever-you-call-it sequence of words, and to put a punctuation mark at the end. In other words, it's treated just like a sentence.

The idea that every sentence must have a subject and predicate, if I'm not mistaken, comes from from philosophy via rhetorics. It has nothing to do with how people really express themselves.

Is "Ouch!" a sentence? The "o" is capitalized and it's got an exclamation mark. It looks like one. A sentence consisting of a single interjection? No subject, no verb. And not an ellipsis, either. (At least I wouldn't know what the full sentence looks like.)

Nouns and verbs are perfectly expendable:

"Away with you all!" (Movement implied by a preposition rather than a verb.)

Or: "Up, up and away!" (not even the pronoun left!)

Traditional grammarians are often a lazy bunch. If something isn't easy to describe, or if it doesn't fit in their schemes, they'll just outlaw it. People in the real world shouldn't pay attention.

One or two word sentences don't really violate any rules. They're either not classified as sentences (which is pretty much irrelevant to writers), or they're just outlawed by grammarians who don't want to admit that their way of thinking about language has flaws.

A: Joe?
B: Coming!

Take that, grammarian!

Jesus wept!

javili said:

Jesus wept!

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A perfect answer.

swvaughn said:

And this would be a bad thing because...?

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He was going to use the plates as lethal Frisbees to fend off attacking ninjas. Now... well, now he's just screwed.

Captain Morgan said:

I have been reading a best-seller novel, and kept seen numerous 1 and 2 word sentence sprinkled about. I find this a little strange, as I've always been told a sentence MUST STAND ALONE. A sentence must have a subject and predicate.

That said, I understand why it is POSSIBLE to have a single word sentence:

Go!

But... When describing things in a novel, and using one or two word sentences sprinkled about, isn't this breaking the rules of accepted writing?

I ask this because even in my rough drafts I am always worried of not having something grammatically proper. Now I wonder if I have been looking TOO MUCH INTO IT. I've seen such bad structures in non-dialogue writing in current novels, I am suspecting that using formal writing is being rather too prudent.

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Nonsense. Often done. By many. No problem.

caw

JoNightshade said:

He was going to use the plates as lethal Frisbees to fend off attacking ninjas. Now... well, now he's just screwed.

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Poor doomed Timothy. The ninjas probably stole the dishes...

swvaughn said:

Poor doomed Timothy. The ninjas probably stole the dishes...

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Actually, the butler did it. He's a total neat freak. Figures.

yeah. My book is full of fragments - an earlier poster was right - that's how people talk. Fragments are your friend.
Now awkward sentences...
those can bite you in the butt...

Captain Morgan said:

But... When describing things in a novel, and using one or two word sentences sprinkled about, isn't this breaking the rules of accepted writing?

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One and Two word sentences are excellent ways to both offer relief to the eye after a very long paragraph, to punctuate a thought, and to frame a scene.

They do not break any rules.

Too much of anything gets boring when I read it. Too many long sentences make it extremely slow. Too many short sentences become annoying; it's as if the writer has the hiccups while he writes.

But a nice combo of long, short, and really, really short makes the reading more pleasant to get through. It creates a rhythm that sounds more like conversation where a bunch of long, perfect sentences make it sound like you're being explained something. Some of my favorite writers use a series of short and medium-length sentences to help create tension, where tension is the goal, of course. And a single-word sentence can bring emphasis to an idea.

gp101 said:

<...> the writer <...> while he writes. <...>

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... or she...