write each sentence on its own line

Verlyn Klinkenborg wrote one of my favorite books about writing, appropriately titled Several short sentences about writing. It hits a sweet spot I’m especially fond of: practical and profound. You get stuff you can try as soon as you close the covers. And you get stuff you can wrestle with long beyond that. 

One of the moves he suggests that I quite like is drafting your prose as if it were some kind of poem or legal brief - every sentence gets its own line and a carriage return after. So your writing looks like this:

This is my next sentence.

And this is the sentence after that.

Oh my, here is another sentence.

Klinkenborg’s take is that your sentences should be wasteless, pleasing, and complete units of thought. Making them stand alone, each on its own line, lets you see if they meet that standard. 

Sometimes, part of your job is writing to the team about a recurring event or a familiar topic. Using Klinkenborg’s tactic can help you freshen and free your writing. You may be less likely to drive into the big hungry ditch of cliche.

-eric