I've written before about drawing inspiration and technical tips from great writing. The other day I came across this sentence from Alec Wilkinson's article, Cape Fear, about white sharks in New England's waters:
White sharks roam the ocean the way unspecified urges and figures roam the psyche -- liable to appear abruptly, often destructively, and whenever they decide to, on their terms, not ours.
What I like about this sentence is its phrasing (note how the punctuation drives the rhythm), it's word choice ("unspecified urges", "abruptly", "destructively"), and its voice, which sounds just a little apprehensive.
I read this sentence Saturday, and like the aforementioned sharks, urges and figures, it's been tailing me ever since, inspiring me to do better in my own writing. How 'bout you?
(Photo taken at the real Cape Fear in North Carolina)
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