My first indication that food was something other than a substance one stuffed in one’s face when hungry—like filling up at a gas station—came after fourth grade in elementary school.

This is opening of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, and it’s a great example of how to control rhythm on the page.

Let’s keep reading, and see if you can pick up on a subtle trick he’s doing that you can use in your own writing. It’s in this next part; see if you can spot it.

It was on a family vacation to Europe, on the Queen Mary, in the cabin-class dining room. There’s a picture somewhere: my mother and her Jackie O sunglasses, my younger brother and I in our painfully cute cruisewear, boarding the big Cunard ocean liner, all of us excited about our first transatlantic voyage, our first trip to my father‘s ancestral homeland, France.
It was the soup.
It was cold.

Do you see what he did there?

This is an example of a beautiful descending pattern.

You’ve got two long sentences that are painting a picture of this wonderful memory. A family vacation, a boat, France.

And then he lands here:

It was the soup.
It was cold.

After ALL that buildup, you get two short sentences that punch you in the face.

That is CLASSIC Bourdain.

This is what makes his style so fun. He writes so visually and descriptively, but then he’ll smack you on the head with those abrupt lines just to rope you back in.

So the big takeaway here: try descending patterns. Write a few long sentences in a row that carry the weight of a full idea, and then follow it up with something short and sharp to really stick that landing.

Watch the video for the full visual breakdown 👇

For more deconstructions, follow on TikTok – and if you want to play around with Writhm, sign up for a free account. It’ll help you improve the flow of your writing.