Creatures of Consequence: Model Sentences from Zadie Smith

Three sentences to study by the author of White Teeth, NW, and Swing Time. Plus, quotes about writing groups, a balanced reading diet, and more.

Photographed by Sebastian Kim

Zadie Smith writes like a mind on fire. Her writing is sharp, lyrical, and curious. Her style lives within the tension between intellect and emotion and mixes philosophical insight with street-smart observation.

Whether she’s crafting a novel or an essay, Smith’s sentences sing with rhythm and bite with contradiction. Reading her work feels less like being told a story and more like being invited into a conversation about what it means to be human.

Let’s explore her writing style and thoughts on a balanced reading diet, the horrors of writing groups, and her thoughts on what it feels like to write a novel.

Three Questions to Ask When Studying Sentences

1. How is the sentence structured, and why does that structure work?

2. What literary or rhetorical devices are being used, and how do they enhance the sentence?

3. How does the sentence create emotion, and what techniques contribute to that effect?

---

Three Sentences by Zadie Smith to Study and Imitate

Sentence #1

You must live life with the full knowledge that your actions will remain. We are creatures of consequence.

White Teeth

Practice: Try this sentence frame using a topic from your writing.

You must [verb] with the [adjective + noun] that your [plural noun] will [verb]. We are [plural noun] of [abstract noun].

Here’s an example I came up with.

You must create with the unbridled certainty that your creations will matter. We are animals of imagination.

Sentence #2

I was fourteen: the world was pain.

Swing Time

Practice: Try this sentence frame using a topic from your writing.

I was [age or marker of time]: the [noun] was [abstract noun].

Here’s an example I came up with.

It was winter: the world was dead.

Sentence #3

Happiness is not an absolute value. It is a state of comparison.

NW

Practice: Try this sentence frame using a topic from your writing.

[Abstract noun] is not an [adjective + noun]. It is a [noun] of [relationship or quality].

Here’s an example I came up with.

Beauty is not a universal truth. It is a perception of fantasy.

Your Turn: Use the model sentences and frames to craft your own sentences and post them in the comment section below.

---

Two Quotes by Zadie Smith on a balanced reading diet and writing groups

Quote #1

“I think of reading like a balanced diet; if your sentences are too baggy, too baroque, cut back on fatty Foster Wallace, say, and pick up Kafka as roughage.”

Journal Prompt: Using food and cooking as a metaphor for reading and writing is common and appropriate in a deeply primordial way. Playing with this metaphor, how is reading and writing like eating or making food?

Quote #2

“I never attended a creative writing class in my life. I have a horror of them; most writers groups moonlight as support groups for the kind of people who think that writing is therapeutic. Writing is the exact opposite of therapy.”

Journal Prompt: What does Zadie mean that writers groups are support groups? To what extent do you agree with her that writing isn’t therapy? Have you ever joined a writer’s group or attended a creative writing class? If so, can you relate to Zadie’s remarks?

---

One Cool Thing - Zadie Smith on that “crafty feeling”

For those who desire to write a novel some day, this lecture given by Zadie at the New York Public Library on the feeling of writing a novel is a treasure trove of golden nuggets of writerly wisdom. Taken from her book, Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays, Zadie reads sections of an essay called “That Crafty Feeling.” Take from it what you will, but the sentence “Magical thinking makes you crazy and makes everything possible” will be pinned on the wall next to my writing text for as long as the tape holds to the stucco wall.

---

Help Spread the Word

If you found this newsletter helpful, here are three ways you can help:

Option #1: Leave a comment below about what you like from this newsletter and any tips for making it more helpful.

Option #2: Click on the Subscribe button:

Option #3: Share this newsletter to a friend who writes fiction.

---

My Mission

To help aspiring writers build their confidence, find their voice, and write damn good stories.