Creating Cadence

 This writing tip will not only help make your writing more ‘musical’ but will also help with pace, driving the reading of your text forward through careful word positioning.

Cadence – create this by changing the sentence structure. Check out the Before and After sentences underneath. What is the most powerful word/phrase in your sentence? Place this at the end rather than the middle. It will allow you to leapfrog to your next sentence and carry your reader forward too.

 BEFORE

1. Janice sprang out of the way of the on coming – on crawling – hairy beetle.

2. Sam gritted his teeth as he stared at the huge rock face he was expected to assail.

3. ‘There’s more to life than this,’ she thought, examining the green mould forming on the edges of the coffee cup.

4. ‘No time like the present,’ he exclaimed, jumping into bed with her.

5. Emma pointed her spear, shrieking and the horde of dark bodies seething into the entranceway halted abruptly.

 AFTER

1. Janice had to spring sideways to avoid the ominous advance of the hairy beetle.

2. With gritted teeth Sam wondered how he could ever assail such a massive rock face.

3. She scowled at the green mould in the coffee cup thinking, ‘There’s more to life than this.’

 4. He exclaimed ‘No time like the present,’ as he jumped into her bed.

5. Emma’s shriek as she brandished her spear halted the seething mass of dark bodies abruptly in the entranceway.

Advertisement

Tags: cadence, sentence flow