In reading, which do you prefer?

[miyako73]

1) a paragraph of longer sentences (2 lines or more) or

2) a paragraph of shorter sentences (less than 2 lines)

[Mr.lucifer]

I don't know, something that gets to the point as long as its not boring usually.

[_Shannon_]

I like a variation in paragraph and sentence structure. Some long. Some short.

[dfloyd]

and paragraph structure. Henry James can take two pages to describe the shape of a tea cup handle. As long as the writer doesn't dawdle over details, and most of the authors of classic literature don't, I just read and enjoy. Poe can write a one-page paragraph which is enthralling.

[_Shannon_]

and paragraph structure. Henry James can take two pages to describe the shape of a tea cup handle. As long as the writer doesn't dawdle over details, and most of the authors of classic literature don't, I just read and enjoy. Poe can write a one-page paragraph which is enthralling.
LOL! I get so mad at James when I'm reading him...every now and then I just yell at him, "Get ON with it already!!!!"

[miyako73]

I like this kind of describing-- short sentences, vivid metaphors, and not too passive.

Tinkers
Paul Harding

"The sun was going down. It sank into the stand of beech trees beyond the back lot, lighting their tops, so that their bare arterial branches turned to a netting of black vessels around brains made of light. The trees lolled under the weight of those luminescent organs growing at the tops of their slender trunks. The brains murmured among themselves. They kept counsel and possessed a wintery wisdom -- cold scarlet and opaline minds, brief and burnished, flaring in the metallic blue of dusk. Then they were gone. The light drained from the sky and the trees and funneled to a point on the western horizon, where it seemed to be swallowed by the earth. The branches of the trees were darknesses over the lesser dark of dusk. Kathleen thought, That is like Howard's brain -- lit and used up and then dark. Lit too brightly. How much light does the mind need? Have use for? Like a room full of lamps. Like a brain full of light."

[stlukesguild]

In reading, which do you prefer?
1) a paragraph of longer sentences (2 lines or more) or

2) a paragraph of shorter sentences (less than 2 lines)

In painting, which do you prefer the use of an analogous color scheme or one that employs complimentaries? In music which is better, the string quartet or the trio?

What is the point of such questions?:confused5:

I like the lush prose of Walter Pater and Marcel Proust... and I also like the concise language of Kafka and J.L. Borges. Neither is better than the other. Both can be masterfully employed by a writer... or used in a manner that grates on the nerves.

[Desolation]

I like sentences that are exactly as long as the author feels that they need to be to get the point across.

[stlukesguild]

Exactly.

[mal4mac]

I dislike robots that demand your post be more than five characters long.

... and that demand you wait 30 seconds between posts. There should be no limits to literature!

[aliengirl]

I dislike robots that demand your post be more than five characters long.

... and that demand you wait 30 seconds between posts. There should be no limits to literature!

:iagree:

[IceM]

A couple of 1's followed by a 2 makes for colorful reading.

[JoeLopp]

It all depends upon what kind of info is imparted. Short or long, if it has a point, it's all perfectly fine, IMO. Too often rambling sentences/paras are a not too sufficient cover for lack of ideas/info ... heck anything that moves a story along.

Of course, I suppose the same could be said for short paras as well, using the same criteria...