As I was reading “The Sentence is a Lonely Place,” a certain sentence hit home for me: “They [writers] seem content if the resultant sentence is free from obvious faults and is faithful to the lineaments of the thought or feeling or whatnot that was awaiting deathless expression.”
That pretty much describes my writing. As long as a sentence sounds good, flows, and has no mistakes, I move on. Even when I edit my papers I tend to read through and focus on it as a whole, rather than paying attention to the content of specific sentences. Gary Lutz’s passion towards and how meticulously he digests sentences blows my mind.
It seems like a good idea to keep the tactics Lutz described in mind when writing. Hopefully by doing so, I’ll be able to create sentences that “[look] and [sound] fulfilled, permanent.”
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ReplyDeleteThese were my sentiments exactly. I tend too much to just hammer out my papers and then do a quick edit for the obvious errors and grammar mistakes. Lutz definitely laid out some interesting things to think about while you write.
ReplyDeleteI'm the same way as well, but I don't feel too bad about it. I don't think it's always practical to craft every sentence to literary perfection, especially if it's, say, a paper about the Magna Carta for a British Lit class from hell, or a reply to a blog post.
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