/lit/ - Literature

Okay guys.
Thanks.
For the help,if you can tell me some books that will help with orator skill,I would really be grateful.
But even if you don't.
I am satisfied,the mods can close,or delete this thread.

Hi /lit/ I didn’t study English to any professional degree and I find that when I am trying to write I experience massive crises about sentence structure. I could write the same sentence a million times, it seems, and I have no idea how to choose one over another which means that instead of writing stories or chapters I just end up re-writing sentences and paragraphs over and over again. Is this due to me not understanding some basic grammar rules - is there something I can read to help with this, or do I need to become less autistic and picky and just run with what flows first time?
Let me show you the kind of basic sentence that can hold me up for hours:
The fighting had stopped in the city centre and it had gone quiet, except for the occasional shot fired off in the distance as skirmishes carried on in the outskirts.
The fighting in the city centre had stopped and it was quiet, save for the occasional sound of shots being fired off in the distance – skirmishes carrying on in the outskirts of the city.
Occasionally there was the sound of shots being fired off in the distance, as skirmishes continued on the outskirts of the city, but the fighting had stopped in the city centre and it was quiet.
Although skirmishes continued on the outskirts of the city, but for the occasional sound of shooting far off in the distance, the fighting in the city centre had stopped and it was quiet.
It was quiet, save for the occasional shots fired off in the distance. The fighting in the city centre had stopped but skirmishes continued in the outskirts..
There’s five versions but I’m sure there are many more. When you break it down there are several things which can be variable:

· Whether you begin the sentence with the fighting, the shots, the quiet or the skirmishes (am I missing a basic rule here?)

· Whether/where you put the word ‘occasional/occasionally’ in relation to the shots

· ‘Except’ versus ‘save’ versus ‘but for’

· ‘The outskirts’ versus ‘the outskirts of the city’

· Use of commas, etc.
Now I know this is real OCD level analysis but I feel if I can grasp some basic rules I might be able to get over this? I am hoping there is a simple explanation as to how to write sort of a basic sentence which I have somehow missed?
For example, I wouldn’t even know whether to write “The dog jumped over the wall, stopped, and barked” or something like “Jumping over the wall, the dog stopped and barked”. English is so confusing to me!