Stop and Go Sentences

I remember intensely studying Banana Yoshimoto's novella Kitchen and trying to figure out why her story was so unputdownable. The plot was forgettable, at least to me. The characters were also forgettable. Yet, each time I read it, I found myself propelled from beginning to end. That's how I figured out that she was using a great technique on the sentence level of her prose.

Take this generic passage as an example:

The family lived in a house. It was an oddly-shaped house with two large bedrooms at either end and a squat windowless kitchen in the center. Emil Lacadally chose it because of its symmetry, a quality which he valued over anything else when it came to matters of architecture.

Taken step by step, the sentences do not propel the reader forward. Each one holds its own idea and doesn't lead into the next, even though they logically follow each other. The first sentence sort of just sits there with nothing of interest contained inside of it. The second sentence is a bit more interesting, but it also feels like a complete thought that doesn't push the story forward. And so on.

The paragraph could be rewritten like this:

The family lived in an oddly-shaped house. Two large bedrooms sat at either end, and a squat, windowless kitchen was wedged in the center--it was the obvious choice for Emil Lacadally. He loved symmetry. It was a quality he valued over anything else when it came to matters of architecture.

Here, the first sentence prompts the reader to ask the question, "How is the house oddly-shaped?" The second sentence answers that question, and sets up a new question: "Why is it the obvious choice for Emil?" The third sentence answers THAT question and prompts the question "Why does Emil love symmetry?"

Instead of each sentence feeling self-contained, it instead pushes the reader forward by setting up a question that the reader wants answered and answering the question that was set up before it. I'd argue that, even if the story itself is boring, this type of knitted prose can successfully snag a reader. It's hard to find a stopping place in a paragraph like this.

And, notice that the second sentence is actually two independent clauses. It could have easily been broken up into two sentences, but I think this construction, avoiding the momentum-stopping period, helps to keep that forward movement going. (And, yes, I'm pro-semicolons!)

There's also a level of predictability in this. The reader can sort of predict what the next sentence will be about, assuming that they expect their questions to be answered. This creates a logical flow pattern for the prose that feels smoother and faster-paced. If you are able to write these sort of "go" sentences and mix them up with "stop" sentences like in the first paragraph, you will gain a good level of control over manipulating your reader in the best sense of the word.

So, if you want self-propelled prose, consider having each sentence work to answer the question set up before it and inspire a new question to be asked. Be sensitive to a reader's expectations, and work to meet them. This is an easy technique to master, and I've found a lot of use for it in my own prose.