Think of your reader when doing a line by line of your story or novel. On the kitchen table was a knife and the knife was on the kitchen table convey the exact same meaning. But the latter is the better choice in most cases. Moving the subject to the beginning of the sentence enables readers to understand its meaning more quickly. One might argue that the milliseconds it takes to compute the difference is negligible, but remember, how your sentences are formed, affect how readers form the movie of the book in their mind. The same goes for prepositional phrases.
In the kitchen, on the table next to the door, was a knife.
This might seem to read pretty well all by it's lonesome, but story is not a single sentence. Usually. Also keep in mind, where you place the verb or how many prepositions you use can speed up or slow down your story. If your hear feedback that your story has everything rocking but just feels slow for some odd reason, this might be why.
Challenge: Can you re-write In the kitchen, on the table next to the door, was a knife with the subject at the beginning and subtract one prepositional phrase? Feel free to post your solution in the comments.
In the kitchen, on the table next to the door, was a knife.
This might seem to read pretty well all by it's lonesome, but story is not a single sentence. Usually. Also keep in mind, where you place the verb or how many prepositions you use can speed up or slow down your story. If your hear feedback that your story has everything rocking but just feels slow for some odd reason, this might be why.
Challenge: Can you re-write In the kitchen, on the table next to the door, was a knife with the subject at the beginning and subtract one prepositional phrase? Feel free to post your solution in the comments.
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