  Short Stories
This week: Ramble or Run? Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI 17 WDC YEARS!  
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Ramble or Run?
Using paragraphs to control the pace. |
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Long, long ago, I was an advertising copywriter.
I gave it up to be a teacher. (People said I was crazy, but that's another story!  )
Anyway, as a copywriter, I had to learn how to grab attention, hold attention and sell a product all in the space of very few words.
That's grab, hold and sell.
One of the most important lessons was - where to start the next paragraph.
Sometimes, a sentence was a paragraph all by itself, when it had to pack a real punch, or re-inforce something that had already been said. Sometimes, when an explanation or argument had to build up to a point, a few sentences were grouped together, so the reader would hold the thought. It doesn't do to break the thought too abruptly.
Or does it?
Where the words might lose their grip on the reader, it became necessary to pick up the pace. To give a little dose of adrenaline, to keep the attention going. Some paragraphs were really short.
Three words, maybe.
Or two.
One.
If we had to describe something, paragraphs were longer. That was bliss, for us, to be able to write a long paragraph. Sitting at our desks, sipping tea or coffee, (or, rarely, milk), shutting out the bustle around us, we would put our thoughts together and string a paragraph that had more than one, two or three words in it. Some people chewed their pencils, some stared in to space, some hummed a tune. Some just wrote, frantically, because advertising copy is all about meeting deadlines. Oh, this was before everyone had access to the computer.
Yes.
There was a time, dear reader, when every desk didn't have a computer on it. The whole copy department shared two computers.
One department, two computers.
That's why I began this story with the words 'long, long ago'.
But I still use the lessons I learnt then, about controlling the flow and pace of the piece by starting a new paragraph exactly where it is needed. I wonder if I've succeeded.
Let me know!
- Sonali 
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My first Short Stories Newsletter!
Hope you enjoyed it!
- Sonali |
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Short Stories: December 16, 2009 Issue [#3438]
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