How to Develop Your Writing Style in Fiction: Creating Effective Sentences

In a previous article, I talked about the characteristics of individual words as they affect and determine writing style. Some of these included word length, complexity and abstractness, amongst other things. The next step, then, in developing a writer's voice after choosing words is to learn how to put them together into coherent and artistically effective sentences. Before clicking away from this, know that it's not simply a grammar lesson. This is a guide to how writing style can be developed by constructing sentences in various ways.

First, although this is likely common knowledge, a sentence is a full thought. It has a subject, verb and (most of the time) an object, at the very least. It doesn't matter what an author chooses to do when developing writing style - the essential thing is to convey entire thoughts by taking into account four characteristics of sentences.

Size

We already know that shorter words give less information and therefore slow pace down. Shorter sentences use up less space on the page and take less time to read, so it would seem at first that they quicken pace. This isn't so, for a very simple reason: punctuation. A fullstop at the end of a sentence offers the reader to pause briefly and breathe, whereas commas, semicolons and the like only offer a slight pause. It's simply how the eye interprets writing.
Also, the author's style can allow for more information to be passed to the reader in longer sentences.
Rhythm is another key concept in cultivating writing style - it's the unconscious altering or repetition of verbal or written patterns. If there's a scene in fiction that's written with a series of short, choppy sentences, it gives off the impression that the sequence is choppy. This element of style is most effectively used to create suspense, because of the reader's need to pause and take in each separate action.

Variety

There are two components to sentences: phrases and clauses. Phrases by themselves don't give a complete thought, but rather, they elaborate on simpler parts. Clauses, on the other hand, are the most simple parts of a sentence. They can stand by themselves, unless there's a subordinating or causal word like a preposition. Actions that are central to the writing are often written as their own clauses sans subordinates. If the writer wishes to elaborate on the action, phrases are added to answer questions of 'when?', 'why?', or 'how?', amongst others. Depending on what the desired style effect is, the order of these can be shifted about at will. Oftentimes, to me, the most effective place in a group of words is the end, followed by the beginning, then the middle. To emphasise an action for its own sake, it would be best placed at the end, but if the action is secondary and its reasons more important, place it near the beginning of the sentence.

Coherence

Coherence in writing implies a relatedness in events and words - cause and effect, if you will. This also applies to thoughts, and transitions. The type of written fiction in a given work determines how coherent sentences and thoughts have to be - if an overarching plot is central, and the reader has to be able to understand all of it to get full satisfaction, it's necessary for the writing style to rely on traditional transitions. However, if the novel or passage is focused on a single character's thoughts, the writer can afford to be just a bit more chaotic.
Parallelism (having a similar sentence structure), repetition and the use of transitional expressions (like, therefore, thus, etc) are all different ways to achieve a coherent writing style.

Completeness

Fiction writers have an advantage over other writers - they're not as constrained by normal rules of grammar. Using sentence fragments and run-on sentences can be a refreshing way to develop writing style when used properly. Both of these can be used to denote disjointed and jumbled thoughts, depending on what the author wants the reader to experience along with the character. Basically, it makes for a dramatic effect. However, don't use it to create emotion, use it to heighten already-existing feeling.