Writing tip #27: Watch the chronology

There’s a trap many authors fall into when trying to vary sentence construction. Consider this sentence:

       Packing her bag, she ran out the front door to the taxi.

The way it’s written implies that she packed her bag and ran out the door at the same time. This is not feasible and it could be rewritten simply as:

       She packed her bag and ran out the front door to the taxi.

Consider these other examples:

       Brushing his teeth, he spat into the hand basin.
       Kissing my daughter goodnight, I tucked her in and turned off the light.

The chronology’s not quite right because those actions are not occurring at the same time. That sentence construction is fine, however, as long as the actions are actually simultaneous. Here’s an example of one that does work because the actions could be simultaneous:
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       Singing at the top of her lungs, she ran out the front door to the taxi.