Studying an example

Here's that snippet from Gone, but with a pattern highlighted:

One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone.

There.
Gone.

No “poof.” No flash of light. No explosion.

Gone(2008)

Notice that highlighting doesn't tell you everything that is interesting or useful in the snippet.

For instance, the highlighting doesn't specifically call out the way the snippet uses sentence fragments to create a rapid, punchy pace.

So any highlighted pattern is just one of many possible ways of looking at a snippet.

But here's an example that follows the pattern:

It was an ordinary Sunday afternoon when a full blown tyrannosaurus walked past the kitchen window.

Not a robot.
Not a costume.
A real-life dinosaur.

One minute there was an empty backyard. Then a t-rex, strolling past like it was nobody’s business.

Then the empty backyard again.

Notice how the example follows the pattern, but it's also different.

For example, the 'summarise for effect' section has three lines and uses longer sentence fragments.

This is important: the point of modeling a pattern is not to copy; it's to learn.

Sometimes you need to copy a pattern rigidly in order to understand how it works.
Sometimes all you need is inspiration, and the pattern is something you can adapt.

What's the right approach in a given situation?

It depends on the lesson. For example, Writelike grammar lessons are rigid, but genre remix lessons are very loose.

Ultimately it's up to you: patterns can only take you so far, and you always need to be prepared to think for yourself.

So you want to try it?

Let's write a variation.

How to Writelike