Writing one sentence per line

Brilliant! Simply Brilliant advice. As a writer/editor always looking to simplify, I can see this making both jobs so much easier. Thanks.

Thanks for this advice, I'm going to try it!

Thanks for simplistic yet powerful advice. Golden words for lovers of writing (did I say markdown? :p)

Thanks so much, Derek!

Time to give this a shot!

How does Markdown support combining two sentences with an empty line between them as a single paragraph?

I thought the default was to make them separate paragraphs.

The book called 'Several Short Sentences About Writing' by Verlyn Klinkenborg suggests writing one sentence per line. The book is actually typeset like that as well to make the point. And DS has notes on the book!

A Web search on 'semantic line breaks' leads to a number of resources and tools...

Awesome tip!

Especially for someone like me who write English as a second language.

Sometimes I like to use complex grammar and long sentences to ‘show off’ my English ability. However, it’s not reader-friendly.

Thanks for this and I’ll definitely use this trick to practise!

谢谢 🙏

Very interesting, makes a lot of sense (at least in theory) - time to test!

It works the same for LaTeX. This is good for academic writing too.
Bob mentions you cannot skip lines as the processor will break up the paragraphs.
LaTeX has a similar catch, but actually you can comment-out the whitespace.

what if the line composed from over 200 words, is it still a good idea to write one sentence per line
Yes — Derek

One more "perk" of writing one sentence per line has to do with version control.

Git (and other VCS) will display change sets as modifications *per line*.

Having each sentence on a separate line helps to show changes in a more clean manner.

(Pointed out by my friend Mark B.)

One of my current efforts is to working on improving my writing.

The first mechanical step I took was to move away from writing everything in Microsoft Word and, as Derek has suggested in several places, start writing using a simple editor in plaintext format. I was surprised at how much easier it was to focus on what I was writing now that I could no longer distract myself with presentation issues.

The second step was to try this 'one sentence per line' thing. I was skeptical. After a couple of days, I was convinced that it's better.

My conclusion at the end of my experiment was that plaintext Markdown and the single sentence per line was great but that every editor I tried was getting in the way. Even VI, which I've used since 1980 or so and is encoded in my brain at a reflex level, felt like it was getting in the way, not so much when writing but when reviewing and editing. So I tried a whole slew of different editors.

The one I ended up using is IA Writer, which has a 'focus' mode which helps you focus on single sentences (or paragraphs). Other than that, it's free of bells and whistles.

The secret here is to divorce the process of writing from the distraction of how the writing will be presented. We've been seduced by glossy wsyiwyg editors and Powerpoint presentation software into thinking about presentation during the writing process, and all that does is distract us from the work we're trying to do.

Write the text. Edit the text critically. Ruthlessly ignore presentation until you've got the words you want in the order you want. Once that hard work is done, presentation will be a trivial concern.

Thank God William Faulkner wasn't a coder!

This is great advice. I've been doing this and my writing. It helps me zoom out and see what I'm saying. It is also helpful when rearranging sentences within paragraphs. Thank you for sharing.

I sometimes go one step further and put a concept per line. Like, some sentences are quite complex with conjunctions and sub clauses. So new lines with indentation for those. Each new line with a character at the first position is a sentence.

In order to correct my paper, I need to repeatedly rewrite it. Good presentation (in MS Word) enables frequent rereading. I often fit sentences to lines and paragraphs to pages. The process takes awhile, giving time for more research.

@Bob Don't put an empty line between sentences. Just a single newline, not two newlines.

This makes sense for VIM as well. Long paragraphs makes it hard to move around.

I have also been doing this for years but my reason is different. It makes working with source code control systems like git better. Treating prose like source code allows the tooling to easily recognize changes down to the word or letter.

Could someone give an example of what the author is saying?
I know its basic but I just need it to "test" my understanding.

Anything like "Instead of this", "Do this"

Very smart!

This sounds familiar...

In section "Hints for Preparing Documents" of "UNIX for Beginners" (1974) Brian W. Kernighan wrote:

Most documents go through several versions (always more than you expected) before they are finally finished. Accordingly, you should do whatever possible to make the job of changing them easy.

First, when you do the purely mechanical operations of typing, type so subsequent editing will be easy. Start each sentence on a new line. Make lines short, and break lines at natural places, such as after commas and semicolons, rather than randomly. Since most people change documents by rewriting phrases and adding, deleting and rearranging sentences, these precautions simplify any editing you have to do later.

-- end quote--

I got the quote via rhodesmill.org/brandon/2012/one-sentence-per-line/ :)

Great tip, I'll need to practice this. Thanks!

Actually, I find the "source" example easier to read - and for it to make a clearer impact, too - than the "first words [...] and verbs" rendered hodgepodge ☺.
At least on mobile in landscape - and presuming proper linewrapping on overlong lines.
Thank you for this thought seed!

@22."example pleas":

I'm not sure if the formatting will hold so I'll use "^" to denote the start of a line and "$" for the end of a line. (i.e. after the typing the chatacter in front of the $ you would press the Enter key and then the character following the ^)

When you look at the screenshot at the end of the article, that's the way the author suggests to type:

^First words punch.$
^Last words linger.$

And don't do this:

^First words punch. Last words linger.$

(with both (or more) sentences on one line)

To re-format the gist of the article's advice:

^New sentence?$
^Hit [Enter].$
^New line.$

HTH

I just refreshed my CV and this tip would have helped. Time to update the orig. Thank You !

I use Vim and a git repo, so this is a brilliant idea. Tonight I added to my .vimrc:

autocmd FileType markdown imap .

Now I can write my sentence and double space to add a period and return, keeping each sentence on it's own line.

We’ve been doing this in our documentation with AsciiDoctor for 12+ years.
My late colleague Anders Nawroth introduced the concept back then to me.
It helps with diffing, moving sentences, detecting long sentences and repetition.

The AsciiDoctor team also added it to their documentation.
asciidoctor.org/docs/asciidoc-recommended-practices/#one-sentence-per-line


It was great advice technically and you added important linguistic aspects.
Thanks a lot.

Derek to the rescue. I believe you just helped to resolve an issue that I’ve been trying to put my finger on lately. Thanks!

I love your writing style!
I read a book by Stephen King on writing. It said- you have no time to write, if you have no time to read.
Now I know why

I received a compliment on my writing after shamelessly copying your 'writing one sentence per line style :)

I didn't understand this part:
> Not publishing one sentence per line, no. Write like this for your eyes only.

Isn't How to Live almost 99% one sentences per line? How do you decide when to publish with single sentences only?

I've noticed this thing.
When I overdo the line.
It sounds like a crappy Haiku.

But it has a catchy effect that is lost when I write in paragraphs.
I would love to know your opinion on where you draw the line, heh.
Ah, my book How to Live is a different story. I'll write about that more, soon. Thanks for reminding me. — Derek

Another nice thing if writing one sentence per line (related to the point about version control that was already mentioned) is that it makes collaborating much smoother.
From my experience writing technical papers with people with different writing styles, the ability to add comments or questions after each sentence or commenting one out without having to mess with line breaks can save a lot of time when there are many back and forth iterations.
Or even, when working with people who, for one reason or another, are reluctant to use Git or another version control system, introduce a proto-vetsion control in the document by keeping (commented) previous versions of each sentence while keeping the source somewhat readable.
(Of course, I would still advise using proper version control whenever possible!)

I love this. I never really thought about it. But now, I can see the truth!
Writing in Markdown for the last 10 or so years I was always writing everything in a paragraph style.
But this is so genuine.
Why has nobody see this before?
Why haven't I seen this before for myself?
And yes, it will make version control also much much easier.

Thank you

@Paul Butzi

If vi is too much, try ed (the Unix standard editor)

http://www.larrykollar.com/technology/2017/06/27/distraction-free.html

Have fun

I see the advantages of writing one sentence per line, and I've tried it in some sub-1000 word essays. I liked it, but not always.

Well, it does focus more on the basic element of prose: a sentence.
It makes the line length (in words and characters) more obvious.
And it is much more convenient to see the changes per line in a `git diff` between two versions.

But in writing in this manner, I also sense the breaks between sentences in the paragraph much more. It delivers fluid thoughts in discrete units, and I don't like the 'jaggedness' of the text. It feel like boxing instead of dancing. Punching words and sentences - not gently sliding thoughts across. I feel like being a drummer, not a violinist. It's like stacking bricks instead of kneading dough.

OK, enough with the metaphors. But I stopped writing in this manner.

I'm always surprised as how many novel ideas you've had! I wish I've had your creativity. Thanks for sharing.

Read the Donald Barthelme short story "Glass Mountain" that uses this as a technique to great effect:

http://jessamyn.com/barth/glassmountain.html

How do you come up with your thoughts?
how long do they generally simmer?
do you think you have habits like lack of screen time, just staring at a blank page or meditation that help them to emerge?
Great questions. Big answers, each deserving its own post some day. — Derek

Use block style editors like Notion to simplify moving sentences.

Awesome post. Found out about you from Pieter Levels on the "My First Million Podcast"!

Will be following your blog, amazing domain btw.

This is a very useful and helpful advice!
It's my best read for this week.

Well, I'm about to find out if this old dog can learn a new trick! I'll try it.

Very good advice.
Minimalism, elegance and simplicity.

Awesome view points.

I write my emails with one sentence per line.

And I double space between lines.

It helps me be critical about each line — it's then easy to take out any "fluff."

I've also started applying the principles of Smart Brevity.

• Help the reader by organizing your message with indented bullets.

• Ask, "How do I make message crystal clear?"

• It's my job to take the time so that my boss understands the message; doesn't misunderstand it; and won't need to email me back with questions.

Brilliant!
I am going to practise this.
Many thanks.

Love this!

I got into this habit when writing emails, which are frequently to (or include) those who speak/write English as a second (or third?) language.

It definitely helps me stay concise, and I feel that it has to help the audience understand the message.


(See what I just did there? ;0)

Thanks a lot.

A great advice.
Easy to remember and to apply.
It is as if I have learned to breath.

I’ve always done that in email, to make it easier for the reader to read, and also to keep emails to no more than five lines, if possible.

(It’s like a throwback to an old telegram way of writing.)

Great advice — thanks — here’s to visual elbow room in writing drafts.

Excellent suggestion. My workplace is trying to make writing in Plain Language the norm.

This is game-changing!

Please share more things like this.

I'm a novice vim user and couldn't figure out some of the other suggestions here for using this technique in vim.

Here's what works for me.

I prefer to keep my fingers in neutral place on the keyboard so I have already mapped 'jj' to be the escape key to avoid the awkward reach to the upper left hand corner of the keyboard.

In keeping with this I added a new mapping that adds a period and enter for 'kk"

If you'd like to adopt either of these, add these two lines to your ~/.vimrc and you're set to go:

imap jj <Esc>
imap kk .<CR>

I did this while writing a long qualitative dissertation for a Ph.D. in Psychology in the mid 2000s with a focus on depth and Jung. Thought I'd invented it. Haha. It was a life/sanity saver. Every single sentence in the 400+ pages was subjected to it. Honestly, I don't think I could have written such a long piece without it.

Love this mate.

First words punch, last words linger!

I've got a new little community called Signature Sound, we help each other find our voice and my favourite part is offering editing guidance to tease this out.

Telling them to break out their thoughts and ideas is one of my favourites, along with destroying conventions around line breaks to keep folks guessing. This adds more potency to what I've been sharing.

Thanks again mate,
Benny

Wonderful outlook on things, Derek

This will be considered(heh, already practicing)

Cheers.

Hi Derek,

This has been the single most effective strategy in improving your writing?

I don't find it difficult to belive.

How long did it take for you to notice the improvement?

Thank you for putting out content which is insightful and useful.

Best regards.
Dinesh

A really helpful post.
I had never thought of editing this way.
I'm going to do this going forward.

Mike

Reminder to fellow readers:
Derek likes to present just one side for us to ponder.
Besides writing sentences with style and grace, it can be a nice "learned skill," over time, to see in terms of well crafted paragraphs.

As for sentences, there is an old copy editor's trick of holding a card to cover the page and moving it up one line at a time to catch things your eyes would otherwise skim over.

In my case, I sometimes read upwards one full sentence at a time, checking for grammar and rhetoric, as I am thereby moved to tinker with my sentence.

And hey, as for people who dislike the word "rhetoric": Where would we be without Abraham Lincoln's use of "... government of the people, by the people and for the people..."? Rhetoric is a tool that both north and south can use; folks with a noble cause may use it better.

Great advice for a starter like me. Thanks.

Very useful! I'm doing it now since I started blogging again recently.

This sounds like an amazing tip and I look forward to trying it out!

This is gold!

A nice piece. Looking around at the wider world...

Do you enjoy reading and writing?

Reading these happy blog comments, I understand better why the stats for screens, back in the days before social media, showed that most reading (measured by hits) was done during working hours. I suspect people merely skimmed, "reading" for practical reasons—I never saw them share something moving.

Like a bookseller being surprised that most people bypass the classics, I am surprised that most people bypass reading leisurely communications. Such as, say, a magazine essay. My own screen reading is over a steaming tea at a cafe after work, or at my home on weekends.

My hobby-writing is similarly intended to be read by others, at their leisure, as part of a good life. My imagined readers would never resent reading. They would never be reading a page or tablet while watching television. Multi-tasking doesn't go with tea.

I have been doing a similar thing for two years, and I must admit that I felt the need to revisit it. This is when I stumbled upon your blog, which has given me another view of how to write prose. Particularly because I write prose in text format.

Thank you for these tips!

This is a great idea that I've been doing the past couple of months. Thanks :)

This single essay has helped my writing so much.

It's more considerate for the reader too in my opinion.

Especially when reading something online.

If I open up an email or blog post and see huge blocks of text with no breaks in between I just can't get myself to read it.

Books are a different story though.

You're the best Derek!

This is great advice, feels like half the people on LinkedIn read this instruction but forgot the part that says "don't publish one sentence per line."

Sounds a lot like the classic "[Semantic Line Breaks](sembr.org/)" that has been used for ages in the Unix world—Brian Kernighan recommends it in his _Unix for Beginners_ (1974). It differs slightly, also suggesting breaks at clauses.

As an added benefit, if you keep your source documents in version-control, it's a lot easier to read `diff` output when lines are short, isolating to just the clause/sentence that changed. If you hard-wrap arbitrarily or do whole-paragraphs-per-line, one little change can produce voluminous `diff` output.

It works well with most markup languages—HTML, Markdown, LaTeX, reST, AsciiDoc, mandoc/troff, DocBook/XML, etc.

And if you use `ed(1)` to edit text (I'm the dork behind the @ed1conf accounts), it's a lot easier to edit text with semantic line-breaks :-)

Writing one sentence per line is an interesting idea, and I will try it.
I wonder if writing one sentence per line will affect my flow.
I have to stop and hit enter after each sentence consciously.
I hope I'll remember.

Love this. Truly love.

"First words punch. Last words linger."

This will be my new mantra.

From your corner,

a n d r é s .

I like that writing style too.

I also use custom script to make wikipedia pages to be like that

ma-zamroni.blogspot.com/2024/10/make-wikipedia-pages-easier-to-be-read.html

as a verbose person; this was great advice, thanks!

I've been writing one sentence per line for as long as I can remember, but I never knew why until I read this. It was just easier, like texting or thinking out loud.

I do this even in Word docs, not just code editors. It makes rearranging sentences, swapping them between paragraphs, and fixing punctuation feel effortless. I often start with three lines and end up with 5,000 words. It's also how I catch repetitions and play with first/last words in poetry.
Thanks for putting in words. I just had to write on it too sdavidprince.com/journal/writing-in-singles/

Love this one too.
I’ll use it right away.
Today in fact.