Sentence Length

I have heard a myriad of reasons for using long sentences and short sentences. My belief is that there should be a good mixture in your regular prose. For more technical pieces of information, such as world building, magic or technology, it is best to use short sentences, especially if there are multiple new words. This is from my experience as a technical writer. You can always show off your amazing writing skill later in the story, but if your reader doesn't understand the important facts from the beginning, the likelihood of them finishing the story is small.

At a conference I went to recently, one of the panels talked about reading levels. The longer the sentence is, the higher the reading level. The same goes with syllables in a word. Generally speaking, if a word has multiple syllables, it is on a higher reading level. Most of the time when we think of writing books for an older audience, we think of making sure we have a higher reading level. This means longer sentences and more complex words.

While having a higher reading level can be scholarly, that doesn't necessarily mean that is what the readers want. Most people read books to escape and if they have to look up every one in ten words, they could get discouraged. Ernest Hemingway is known for his short succinct sentences. While we don't have to be quite as succinct as he was, maybe we can learn from the fact that his story Old Man and the Sea is technically at a 4.3 grade level. There is nothing wrong with having short sentences so long as it fits with the story and flows well.