Sentence Length & Complex Sintax

From Ursula K. Le Guin’s Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew

1. Write a narrative paragraph of 100-150 words in sentences of seven or fewer words.

In the beginning, he slept. In fact, all he did was sleep. All he could do was sleep. But then randomly, he woke up. Rising from a fog, his eyes adjusted. They took in their surroundings. Where am I? He thought. Finally, fimilarilty struck. Terror took him and he panicked. Noises approaching, Reggie scrambled out of bed. His eyes adjusted. Before him stood a winded man. He spoke, but Reggie charged past desperately. “Come back!” Called a voice behind him.

2. Write up to 350 words which is all one sentence.

The night was still young, but he was already falling asleep, waiting, as he was, for his friend to pick him up – for he had no car of his own and they were going out that night – and he recalled the memory of how a bad habbit he’d picked up recently of playing videogames late at night often raged his blood pressure, inhibiting his ability to get a good night’s sleep, for his pumping blood thudded in the prime enginge in his chest, drumming itself into the night, preventing rest and consigning Franklin to tossing and turning, fluffling and flipping, and rising and reseting, during which he’d do a calming activity such as reading or writing; the prime difference between these two is that reading is already an established habit, whereras writing is a conscious choice that Franklin was committing to – all this is to mean that reading is, more often than not, the chosen activity because it is the easier, more immediately pleasurable activity.