maybe, baby. please?

getting down the rhythm of your sentence variation is definitely one that comes with time, so my overarching advice (same as it always is, basically) is to simply keep writing! but as you keep writing, there are a couple things you can keep in mind.

editing

firstly, i’d like to note that there are so many things you can fix in edits, and this is one of them! i often find that when i’m writing it’s best to just get the initial words down on the page first, and then i’ll go back and look at things like the beginnings of my sentences (one thing about me: i’m gonna start 50 sentences in a row with ‘satoru’ or ‘suguru’ if no one stops me) and the general rhythm of the piece.

typically, as i write, i’ll highlight any repetition, such as too many sentences that start the same back-to-back or words that i’ve unintentionally repeated right next to each other. then, when i’m editing, it’s easy for me to go back through and scan over the highlighted portions to see what needs changing.

how to start a sentence

when it comes to starting sentences, you have a few options! i’ll list them out below and provide some very basic examples from my own works.

start your sentence with a pronoun (he/she/they/it)

one of the easiest options and therefore one of the most overused options (including by me!) also, can get confusing when you’re writing m/m fics and both your characters use ‘he’, so it’s important to change it up. however, i will note that you don’t always have to change it up! sometimes it makes sense to use a pronoun, and sometimes it even makes sense to use the same pronoun to start two sentences in a row. if you’re going for specific repetition, you can start more than two the same, but three or more back to back is where it starts getting noticeably repetitive, so that should be an intentional choice.

He needs to get himself off again before Suguru gets here or he’s going to do something embarrassing, like have a screaming orgasm in front of his best friend.

crossing oceans and jumping puddles

start your sentence with a noun (Satoru/Tokyo/cigarette smoke)

another relatively simple option! you have a little more wiggle room here, because there are simply way more nouns than pronouns. that’s, like, why they invented pronouns. i think.

Suguru walks into the bedroom with a much smaller towel slung around his waist; he does not share Satoru’s affinity for the big fluffy towels, so this one’s just barely covering what it needs to cover. 

master of my domain

start your sentence with an adverb (carefully/frantically/sneakily)

i know adverbs are not everyone’s favorite. they’re not even my favorite. if you overuse adverbs, you’re not going to sound as smooth as if you deployed them a little more strategically. but they do have their place! and sometimes that place is at the beginning of a sentence!

Objectively, Suguru is hot.

an astute observation

include sentence fragments

this is probably my favorite method to use, because not only does it break up sentence openers, it also breaks up the flow of your paragraph. i love a long sentence, so throwing in some really short ones helps my writing feel less monotonous. i often use it for voice/style in my humor fics, and sometimes i’ll place a couple of fragments in a row for emphasis.

Okay. So maybe [Utahime]’s highkey mad about the wagashi thing. Well. Once again. Not Satoru’s fault.

master of my domain

start your sentence with a preposition (During/with/at/from)

beginning with a prepositional phrase lets you provide context, reasoning, emphasis, contrast, etc. there’s a good long list of these you can use. besides just providing variation to your sentence openers, it also helps provide variation amongst your sentences themselves so your writing sounds better overall.

For a rut this intense, though, [Suguru] should probably be getting, like, good nutrients or something.

sharing is caring

Start your sentence with a Conjunction (And/but/because/if/while)

there are few different ways to implement this one! conjunctions can be broken down into two types: subordinating and coordinating.

subordinating conjunctions include words like if, because, though, unless, and whenever. i often like to use a subordinating conjunction to indicate a reason or a comparison, although those are not their only two uses. i can go in more depth about this if anyone’s curious but i suspect it’s a little granular.

Since he technically already has permission, Satoru does, in fact, take his dick out, because it is, in fact, hard.

an astute observation

there are seven coordinating conjunctions in the english language, and you may possibly remember the FANBOYS acronym from school. kind of funny in the context of this post! they’re most often used to connect clauses, but you can use them to start a sentence in the name of flow/voice. i love to do this!

But now they’re both shirtless in Satoru’s bed, something Suguru thought would literally never happen, and Satoru is so fucking hard, dripping all over his flat stomach.

contact high

start your sentence with an action (Jumping/yelling/crying/reaching)

by including simultaneous actions, you open up a whole world of words to use. i would keep in mind that two sentences started like this may not technically use the same word, but they will read similarly, so i’d personally avoid using this structure more than once in a row — the reader isn’t as forgiving as they are when you use a pronoun twice in a row.

Peeking his head through the arch, Satoru tries to see if there’s anything inside the tree trunk, but all he can see is darkness.

infra

start your sentence with a description (Bright/loud/rough)

apparently this is not one i use very often, but it’s definitely worth including! you have to work a little bit (in my opinion) to get this type of sentence to flow smoothly, but it’s another one to keep in your back pocket if you’re starting to feel like you’re repeating yourself!

Comfortable silence washes over [Satoru and Suguru] as they finish their food.

sharing is caring

start your sentence with an article (A/An/The)

there’s only three of these little guys, so you may want to watch out for overuse here. usually, if i’m overusing an article, it’s ‘the’, but much like pronouns, i do think you can get away with using it twice in a row if you need to. any more than that and it sticks out, so i’d personally make sure it’s intentional at that point!

The whole world goes black for a minute, and, like, shit, maybe [Suguru] did die for that blowjob.

infra

okay, there are probably more openers than what i’ve listed above, but this should be a good list to get you going! as you write more, you’ll get more comfortable switching between these, and it won’t be something you have to think about as often.

i’d also highly recommend reading books (i’m always recommending reading books) because those have been professionally edited and someone has gone through to look for repetitive sentence openers. as you internalize what you read, the variation and structure will become more intuitive, and it’ll get a lot easier to do on your own! i’ve made lists of my book recs here, but any books you like to read will do!

if you made it this far, hopefully you found something helpful in this post. please feel free to send me any other writing-related questions!

xoxo, em