I often find some really bad sentences in books I read. I wanted to start a series in which we look at why they are bad and how to fix them.
Unfortunately, I’m a bit stuck on how to proceed. I really want this blog to lift up excellent books and art. I don’t want to tear down people who are probably still learning and getting better. In a year, they might be embarrassed by these sentences themselves and wish their name wasn’t attached to it in some blog post.
I’m sure you can find horrible sentences in each of my books as well.
Hence the issue: use a single sentence without attribution for educational purposes (technically a copyright violation) or attach the name and book to it.
For now, I’m erring on the side of writer anonymity. Here’s the sentence:
That sweet, crooning voice, singing a song I’d been in the room for when he wrote.
First-Person Voice
We have here a classic example of why I say new writers shouldn’t write in the first-person. I’m sure this gem popped out in the middle of a writing session, when the author was fully into the “character’s voice.”
As it came out, she probably thought: yeah, that’s exactly how he would talk.
It’s important to remember that the way people talk does not make good prose.
First, full sentences should be used. The above is a sentence fragment. I wish I could show you more context, but the sentences around this are also fragments.
I’m all for using a sentence fragment judiciously for voice, but I’d never do it more than once per chapter. Too many sentence fragments create jarring, obnoxious prose. It leads to more confusion than it’s worth.
I once heard it described this way: strong prose leads to a strong voice; weak prose leads to a weak voice. In other words, “breaking the rules,” like forming a sentence fragment, is a weak and cheap way to form narrative voice.
Word Order
Word order pops out next. There’s something funny about: “I’d been in the room for when he wrote.” Unless I grew up with a strange dialect, I’m pretty sure most native English speakers will hear “when he wrote” and feel it is missing a direct object.
So, it should probably read “when he wrote it.” The sentence also has an implied pause after “for.”
Again, I’m not of the old school of thought where you can’t end a sentence with a preposition. But in this case, it creates confusion to have “for when” juxtaposed like that.
All I’m trying to say is that the word order is sloppy, and it could be cleaned up easily by writing something like: “I’d been in the room when he wrote it.”
Clear Subjects
Of course, this brings us back to the first point. The author put herself into a bind when using a sentence fragment because she didn’t clearly identify the correct subject of the sentence.
She started with “That sweet, crooning voice,” implying this as the subject, but the second clause wants to use “I” as the subject.
I know people don’t believe me when I say to use third-person and full sentences. I guarantee this mess of a sentence happened because using the first-person caused her to confuse the narrative voice with the thoughts of the main character (leading to a bunch of sentence fragments).
I’ll reiterate this from previous posts.
The prose you use when you write in the first-person is not some stream-of-consciousness coming from the main character (unless you’ve chosen this on purpose for a piece of experimental writing).
In modern commercial writing, thoughts of the main character are usually offset and italicized to be clear about the distinction. Details can be found in my narrative voice article.
This is what makes the first-person so difficult.
Anyway, I’ll end my rant about point of view. You can obviously do it if the writing calls for it. You must be extra vigilant, or else sentences like this will pop out and sound good in your head.
Fixed Version
Here’s my rewrite. I think the key is to realize there are two separate ideas that should be separated: hearing the voice, and recalling the writing.
His sweet, crooning voice lilted through the speakers. I’d been in the room when he wrote the song that changed his life.
I changed “I’d been” to “I was,” because simple past tense causes no confusion and cleans things up even more.
As always, context will matter. Maybe this doesn’t flow with the sentences around it, and some other alterations will be necessary.
