One of the things I’ve noticed about my writing, a thing I find really annoying and you’ve probably also noticed it, is that if you’ve read many of my posts or if you’ve read other things I may have written (and yes, I’ve written quite a few things), I have a propensity to pepper what I write with clauses.
I remove them when I rewrite. Usually. However, I don’t always have time to rewrite or, if it’s a casual post like this one, while I may have the time, I may not have the inclination.
The first sentence of this post probably should have read, “I write too many clauses.”
The cause of this clause failing likely resides in my thought process. I know what I want to say (“I write too many clauses”) but, while I know that’s my point, there are subordinate thoughts, related ones, popping into my head and part of me tries to capture them before they are forgotten and lost. That part of me litters my writing with clauses.
I’m not alone in doing this. Others do it as well. However, more often I find what many writers do is something related: Pile up a whole whack of words in sentences and paragraphs before they get to the one sentence that is their point and the primary reason someone would want to read what they have written. I believe in journalism they call this burying the lede. (Also known as burying the lead. Lede is a traditional spelling.)
And my point? Whether in a story, article, paragraph or, as in my case, a sentence, we should all stop doing this. It annoys me and, more importantly, it is tedious for readers to have to plow through all those words to get to the point.
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