Why Write a Line a Day?
How to Write Sentences As More Than Just Words
There’s a Latin phrase, a favorite of writers: Nulla dies sine linea. It means, “No day without a line.” It was quoted from a visual artist, but it translates to writing as well. Yes, it’s good to have a daily writing habit, and having a simple low-barrier threshold like “a single line” makes the habit more sustainable. But there’s another great reason to write a single line each day.
Sentences are actually kind of interesting.
I noticed this when I started reading Robert Bresson’s book Notes on the Cinematograph.
Images and sounds like people who make acquaintance on a journey and afterward cannot separate.
The book is sparse. Each entry a single sentence or, at most, a paragraph. They feel like notes jotted into a notebook, because they were just that. Bresson collected these notes into a book, but kept the breathless brevity. Because of this form, the reader treats each sentence like a puzzle to be deciphered. The pattern is: peruse, pause, and ponder.
When I write, I often find myself connecting ideas in a way that leaves the sentence formless, like a tube sock stuffed with billiard balls. My sentence flops onto the page. A good sentence is fit to purpose. Its form follows function. And that brings us to another good reason to write a daily sentence.
We can write a line a day as a way to learn the diverse forms of the line.
Our brains are full of interesting sentence structures each with their own function, but most of us haven’t learned to produce these sentences when we write. We’re focused on capturing the idea with words, we overlook the sentence as a unit of discourse. I rarely see this diversity explained by other authors. In his book, Consider This, Chuck Palahniuk suggests adding instructions and exclamations to writing alongside description. Good advice, but it doesn’t go far enough.
Consider this example from Alex Hillman’s book Tiny MBA.
An inability to cope with boredom kills more successes than any kind of competition.
Wow! That is page 37 of the book in its entirety, and it says everything needed. If Hillman had written more, it would have diluted the idea. But the sentence stands on its own and causes a reaction in the reader to pause, perhaps even debate. Am I too worried about competition? How does my own restlessness cause failure? Do I sabotage myself by focusing on the fun, sexy stuff that everyone else is doing? The sentence acts as a truth bomb. The statement feels true at the outset, yet has such a vague interpretation, the reader must stop to ruminate.
Compare that to a transition like, “From here, the argument takes a stranger turn.” This sentence holds a door open and invites the reader to pass through from one passage to another.
Notice I’m not talking about the grammatical structure of the sentence, like the periodic or the cumulative sentence. Writers have written entire books celebrating the cumulative sentence. We’re looking how a sentence functions in the text and how it affects the reader. Structure is part of that, but not all of it.
If writers unpacked their brains, they could probably find hundreds of forms sentences can take, each fit to a different purpose. And we can likely invent hundreds more. That’s why I’m posting a line a day to a few different places, and I’m inviting you to join me in this exploration of the single line.
Writing Streak/Notes on Substack: Follow this newsletter and watch for my daily notes.
Mastodon #lineaday: Post using the #lineaday tag to group posts together.
r/lineaday on Reddit: Visit the subreddit as a place to post and discuss individual sentences.
But wait, there’s more.
In preparation for this project I’ve researched what makes a good line, and found examples of great lines from literature. I’ve also studied frameworks like George Gopen’s reader expectation model, and Bill Schley’s micro-scripts. So far I’ve come up with a list of 20 types of sentences you can use as a buffet to pick from when you want to write a line and study the form.
5 Epistemological Sentences
A question: Pose a question, even if you know the answer
Truth bomb: Write a short, significant message that feels profound
A rule: Create a concise rule or aphorism for a specific domain
Overextension: Take a well-known phrase and add an unexpected extension to it
The jotted down note: Write a sentence that feels hastily written but potent
5 Storytelling Sentences
First line/final line: Write a single line that could compellingly start or end a story
A story in a line: Compress an entire story, scene, or character arc into one sentence
The pitch: Create a one-sentence slogan or pitch for a book, movie, or product
The punchline: Write a clever caption for an imaginary image
Transition: Construct a sentence that bridges two unseen passages
5 Stylistic Sentences
Wordplay: Create a pun, joke, or other clever play on words
Aesthetic text: Focus on the sound and structure of the line using poetic or rhetorical tricks
Creative constraint: Write a line that must follow a specific, unusual rule (e.g., only monosyllables)
Pure nonsense: Write a tongue-twister or a sentence that is interesting without making logical sense
Synthetic synesthesia: Write a line that fuses together two senses
5 Conceptual Sentences
Definition: Redefine a common word or invent a new one to reveal a hidden truth
Imperative instruction: Write a command or an instruction to the reader
Defamiliarization: Describe a common object or concept as if seeing it for the first time
Fill-in-the-blank: Create a sentence with blanks for the reader to fill in
Author model: Craft a sentence in imitation of a recognizable writer’s style
See the full list with more detailed descriptions and examples on Reddit.
Until then, I’ll sign off with a favorite line from Peter Falk in Wings of Desire.
You take a pencil and you make a dark line, then you make a light line, and together it’s a good line.
