Varying Sentence Length

Varying sentence length is one simple way to create variety. Most of us tend to pack too much into a sentence. Don't make your reader wander too long down the path of a single sentence lest he or she lose the trail of your thought. Sometimes breaking a long sentence in two is good advice. Likewise, trudging the same distance along each sentence can become tedious for the reader. Allow some short hikes—short sentences that vary the pace of your prose. Short sentences are particularly effective when you want to emphasize a point. Note how John Keegan uses a variety of sentence lengths to create drama and emphasis in this passage from his account of the Dieppe invasion:

At first the fire was from guns too light to penetrate the thick armour of the Churchills [tanks], and the officers aboard the landing vessels offshore listened with admiration on their radios to the "cool and steady voices" of the tanks crews coordinating their fire to support their infantry comrades. Gradually, however, the enemy brought heavier calibers to bear and, one by one, the Calgary Regiments tanks fell silent. None was evacuated from the beach. Very few of the Hamiltons and the Essex Scottish [light infantry] got away; the first lost a hundred, the second two hundred dead. And, to crown the tragedy, at the last moment the force commander landed his "floating reserve," Les fusiliers de Mont-Royal, who were bracketed by concentrated German artillery during their ten-minute run-in to the beaches, and drenched with fire as they touched ground. The French Canadians nevertheless stormed from their landing craft. But shortly they too had lost over a hundred men killed and were pinned to the shingle, unable either to advance or retreat.

The first sentence describing the scene is a whopping 49 words. It is followed by a sentence of 20 words, and after that a sobering short sentence of only 6 words. The third last sentence mounts to 45 words and is followed by an 8-word sentence. Keegan's abrupt varying of sentence lengths adds intensity and emphasis to the story he is recounting. Your prose will be that much more interesting to read if you consciously vary the lengths of your sentences.