How to David Foster Wallace-ize a Sentence

This week bloggers recirculated the instructive essay, “Growing Sentences with David Foster Wallace” by James Tanner. The ten-step post works like a master-level class examination of the author’s signature style.

While gently teasing David Foster Wallace for his sprawling sentences, the essay was written out of frustration that ‘How to Write’ handbooks never show aspiring authors how to play with the tools of postmodern stylists.

Here’s an excerpt from the essay: “5. Paralell-o-rize your structure (turn one noun into two): It’s obvious someone helped with the script, but Mario did the choreography and the puppet work–his arms and fingers are perfect for the puppets–and it was, without question, his shoes on the pedal, the camera mounted on a tripod, mops and buckets moved out of frame. STOP HERE IF YOU ARE A MINIMALIST, WRITING COACH, OR JAMES WOOD.” (Via Bookninja)

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