Tredinnick exercise - go to your window or door; in three sentences of different lengths, describe what you can see going on out there.
The egg-shaped leaves on the cumquat tree glisten transparently in the dappled afternoon sunlight. They quiver slightly as the wind gently touches them. The tiny orange fruit dangle sporadically like Christmas ornaments.
I chose this exercise because I think that often I try to fit lots of long, convoluted sentences into a paragraph to convey a really vivid image. This exercise allowed me to be vivid by using 3 relatively short sentences instead. Also it meant I looked up from my study and computer ha!! I know that the sentences do not differ that much in length, but it was still a good exercise for me to have a go at.
One piece of advice that I felt helped my writing - where you can, choose for for those key parts of every sentence words short and clear and vivid.
I find this helpful as it reminds me that a sentence doesn't need to be long with lots of unnecessary words to convey a vivid picture of something.
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