Am I going insane? Are these all the sentences in existence?
Hey all! I'm 30k deep in a fiction project (my day job is as a content writer, so the style is very different), and I feel like I can't choose more than, like, three types of sentences. Surely there are more:
He \[blanked\], \[blanking\] his/the/whatever \[blank\] (e.g., "he stood, pulling his jacket from the chair")
He \[blanked\] and \[blanked\] (e.g., "He snatched the papers and slammed them on the table")
With a \[something\], he \[blanked\] OR, similarly, he \[blanked\] with a \[something\] (e.g., "With a chortle, he accepted the shoddy drawing" OR "He tossed the paper in the trash with a huff")
There's... more, right? Like why does it seem like these are the only sentences that exist? (I mean yeah, there's your basic "He did X" and "Y happened" and a couple variable phrases you can start with, e.g., if \[blank\] and while \[blank\], etc.). But how do you break out of the patterns to see other phrasing options when, obviously if you saw them, you would be using them? I've tried scanning through other fiction.
I guess, does anyone have recommendations for authors with varied prose that works well (aside from the obvious Le Guin) and isn't leaning super hard into lit fic? Am I just overthinking this?