One thing about sentences I would like to interject here is something I will borrow from poetry that also has limited (though important, as you will see) application to our dilemma here.
When you write a sentence, the way it looks upon the page itself can convey meaning. Contemporary poets on American college campuses love doing odd things with line breaks and word placement just to convey a little visual effect along with the literary effect. While in most cases it is just showing off and silly, it does shed light on something. The appearance of a sentence can be shaped so as to convey meaning along with the words in the sentence.
For example, in the previous sentence, I used itallics to emphasize two words. We all "know" that itallics implies emphasis, yet it is purely a visual cue. You can, theoretically, do the same thing with entire sentences. Short, chopppy sentences appearing individually in sequence as separate paragraphs will give meaning to a scene even by virtue of their placement upon the page.
But here's the real kicker to the whole thing. The Internet is a very visual medium. We have all be trained to accept more visual cues from a webpage than from, say, the Riverside Complete Works of John Milton. If the reader is already trained to be looking for visual cues, take full advantage of this. Just preview your post to make sure it looks right before posting it.
On another note, I would express extreme caution in using fragments in your writing. Fragments can serve an important purpose, but they are easy to abuse, much like longer sentences that have two independent clauses, a dependent clause, and a prepositional phrase or two. I would suggest the following guidelines for using fragments. First, I would restrict their use to either dialog or thoughts of the characters. (After all, most people speak and think in fragments, even if they don't realize it.) Second, if you are going to use it in the narrative, use it in a single, pivotal way. For example (with an apology to Tolkien for raping his work briefly):
The goblins have taken the bridge. The dwarven warriors cannot get out. They can hear the drums closing in around them, as they ready their axes for the final stand. Drums of the deep, getting closer...
Letting this passage end with a fragment, and then going to a completely new chapter, implies all sorts of meaning. The use of a fragment here implies a sort of finality; an ending, if you will. It is a sudden, clipped ending that implies all sorts of nasty, evil things happening to the dwarves. Without saying anything directly, the key use of a fragment tells the story without words. But using this device often will ruin its impact.
Also, one other thing. All bets with fragments are off if you are doing a first person perspective narration, especially if in the stream of conscious vein.
When you write a sentence, the way it looks upon the page itself can convey meaning. Contemporary poets on American college campuses love doing odd things with line breaks and word placement just to convey a little visual effect along with the literary effect. While in most cases it is just showing off and silly, it does shed light on something. The appearance of a sentence can be shaped so as to convey meaning along with the words in the sentence.
For example, in the previous sentence, I used itallics to emphasize two words. We all "know" that itallics implies emphasis, yet it is purely a visual cue. You can, theoretically, do the same thing with entire sentences. Short, chopppy sentences appearing individually in sequence as separate paragraphs will give meaning to a scene even by virtue of their placement upon the page.
But here's the real kicker to the whole thing. The Internet is a very visual medium. We have all be trained to accept more visual cues from a webpage than from, say, the Riverside Complete Works of John Milton. If the reader is already trained to be looking for visual cues, take full advantage of this. Just preview your post to make sure it looks right before posting it.
On another note, I would express extreme caution in using fragments in your writing. Fragments can serve an important purpose, but they are easy to abuse, much like longer sentences that have two independent clauses, a dependent clause, and a prepositional phrase or two. I would suggest the following guidelines for using fragments. First, I would restrict their use to either dialog or thoughts of the characters. (After all, most people speak and think in fragments, even if they don't realize it.) Second, if you are going to use it in the narrative, use it in a single, pivotal way. For example (with an apology to Tolkien for raping his work briefly):
The goblins have taken the bridge. The dwarven warriors cannot get out. They can hear the drums closing in around them, as they ready their axes for the final stand. Drums of the deep, getting closer...
Letting this passage end with a fragment, and then going to a completely new chapter, implies all sorts of meaning. The use of a fragment here implies a sort of finality; an ending, if you will. It is a sudden, clipped ending that implies all sorts of nasty, evil things happening to the dwarves. Without saying anything directly, the key use of a fragment tells the story without words. But using this device often will ruin its impact.
Also, one other thing. All bets with fragments are off if you are doing a first person perspective narration, especially if in the stream of conscious vein.
