Brevity and depth–that’s what you can expect from this post if you reflect.

It would seem trivial to call “sentences” essential bits of story. Part of this comes from people who assume that writers toil for words. Photographers use photoshop, but they toil for photos. Graphic designers use illustrator, but they toil for graphics. Writers use words, but they toil for stories. The medium of a writer is story-essence, not words. Because of this, I ask one thing today: what do stories teach us about sentences and what can sentences teach us about stories?

Three key parts of a sentence follow:

1. Subject
2. Verb
3. Ending

That sounds stupid, but hang with me. We’re building off of what we assume. By “ending” I don’t mean “object.” I mean what word ends your statement? Sentences are microcosms of story. Your understanding of how they work reflects your story-consciousness. The most important part of the story is the subject, or the protagonist. The second most important part of the story is the verbage, the escalation of conflict, what the subject chooses to do. The third is the climax and resolution. What goal is the protagonist working toward? Do they succeed?

In a sentence, the microcosm of story, we direct the reader with micro-surprises. They are the shortest of stories: protagonist, action, ending. Let’s assume our main character stumbles into another room inside some dungeon. In front of him hibernates a grizzly. We, as the writer, know our character makes it past without a scratch. Hypothetically, which reads better?

Jack tiptoed past the tip of its nose. The bear snarled as it snored. Bad dreams.

or

Jack tiptoed past the tip of its nose. Snores were interrupted by snarls. Nothing happened.

Focus on the second sentence of both examples. They say the same thing, but the micro-story is different. In the second, the protagonist of the sentence is the snore. We watch from the snore’s perspective as it passively allows snarls to interrupt. From the snore’s perspective, we disconnect from Jack–the main character of our MAIN story. In the first micro-tale, the protagonist of the sentence is that bear. Bear does two things, it snarls first but its snarls conflict with one resolute snore. Snore beats snarl, but we didn’t expect that at the start of the sentence. Who knew snores could entertain?

When we think of sentences as protagonist, action and climax, we create micro-stories that propel the reader through scenes.

PS> Know any micro-stories?