ignores this is the writer who writes for himself, not with the reader in mind. He will not be a commercial writer, or plot oriented, but prose oriented, interested in nuances of style —but to a fault.
EXERCISES
• Choose a sentence from your work that might be confusing to the reader, or perhaps too open for interpretation. (If you can't find such a sentence, then give your work to outside readers, and ask them to point one out.) Can you add any commas to provide clarity? Can you apply this principle to other sentences throughout your work?
• Choose a section of your work where the pace feels too quick, or too choppy, or where there are a series of short sentences that are not very substantial. (If you are unaware of any such section, give your work to outside readers and ask them to find one.) Can you connect any of these sentences with a comma? Can you apply this principle to other sentences throughout your work?
• Choose a section of your work where the pace is too slow, or feels cumbersome, or where there are a series of long sentences. (If you are unaware of any such section, give your work to outside readers and ask them to find one.) Can you remove any commas? Can you apply this principle to other sentences throughout your work?
• Choose a scene that is pivotal for your characters, perhaps where they exchange crucial dialogue. Pick a revelatory moment, one that needs to be slowed and emphasized as much as possible, where every word counts. Can you add a comma to help emphasize a point that you don't want readers to miss? Can you apply this principle to other scenes throughout your work?
• Choose a page from your work and remove all qualifications or asides, along with their commas. For some writers, who rarely use
these, this will have little impact. For others, it will make a tremendous difference. How does it read now? Can you apply this principle to any other sentences throughout your work?
• Begin a new piece of creative writing. Write for an entire page without using a single comma. How does it affect the writing? The story? The character? Can you incorporate any of this into your greater work?
• Begin a new scene between two characters, giving each long stretches of dialogue. Don't allow any commas. How does it affect how they speak? Can you incorporate any of this into your greater work?
• Step 1: Look at one page of your work and count the number of commas per sentence. What is the average? Does the number of commas per sentence vary? Now count the total number of commas per page. What's the comma count? Read the page aloud. Remember how it sounds.
Step 2: Double the number of commas on the page. Now read it aloud. How does it read? What's the difference?
Step 3: Remove every comma on the page. Now read it aloud. How does it read? What have you learned from this exercise that can be incorporated into your greater work?
BETWEEN THE comma and the period you'll find the semicolon. Pausing more strongly than the comma, yet dividing more weakly than the period, it is a mediator. The semicolon does not have as many functions as the comma, yet it has more than the period. As Eric Partridge says in You Have a Point There, "By its very form (;) [the semicolon] betrays its dual nature: it is both period and comma." As such, it is best thought of as a bridge between two worlds.
The primary function of the semicolon is to connect two complete (and thematically similar) sentences, thereby making them one. But when and how to do that is open to interpretation. The semicolon has been overused (Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse) and questionably used (Herman Melville's Moby-Dick) throughout the centuries, and has been the subject of endless debate. Compounding the debate is the fact that, grammatically, the semi-
colon is never necessary; two short sentences can always coexist without being connected. Artistically, though, the semicolon opens a world of possibilities, and can lend a
EXERCISES
• Choose a sentence from your work that might be confusing to the reader, or perhaps too open for interpretation. (If you can't find such a sentence, then give your work to outside readers, and ask them to point one out.) Can you add any commas to provide clarity? Can you apply this principle to other sentences throughout your work?
• Choose a section of your work where the pace feels too quick, or too choppy, or where there are a series of short sentences that are not very substantial. (If you are unaware of any such section, give your work to outside readers and ask them to find one.) Can you connect any of these sentences with a comma? Can you apply this principle to other sentences throughout your work?
• Choose a section of your work where the pace is too slow, or feels cumbersome, or where there are a series of long sentences. (If you are unaware of any such section, give your work to outside readers and ask them to find one.) Can you remove any commas? Can you apply this principle to other sentences throughout your work?
• Choose a scene that is pivotal for your characters, perhaps where they exchange crucial dialogue. Pick a revelatory moment, one that needs to be slowed and emphasized as much as possible, where every word counts. Can you add a comma to help emphasize a point that you don't want readers to miss? Can you apply this principle to other scenes throughout your work?
• Choose a page from your work and remove all qualifications or asides, along with their commas. For some writers, who rarely use
these, this will have little impact. For others, it will make a tremendous difference. How does it read now? Can you apply this principle to any other sentences throughout your work?
• Begin a new piece of creative writing. Write for an entire page without using a single comma. How does it affect the writing? The story? The character? Can you incorporate any of this into your greater work?
• Begin a new scene between two characters, giving each long stretches of dialogue. Don't allow any commas. How does it affect how they speak? Can you incorporate any of this into your greater work?
• Step 1: Look at one page of your work and count the number of commas per sentence. What is the average? Does the number of commas per sentence vary? Now count the total number of commas per page. What's the comma count? Read the page aloud. Remember how it sounds.
Step 2: Double the number of commas on the page. Now read it aloud. How does it read? What's the difference?
Step 3: Remove every comma on the page. Now read it aloud. How does it read? What have you learned from this exercise that can be incorporated into your greater work?
BETWEEN THE comma and the period you'll find the semicolon. Pausing more strongly than the comma, yet dividing more weakly than the period, it is a mediator. The semicolon does not have as many functions as the comma, yet it has more than the period. As Eric Partridge says in You Have a Point There, "By its very form (;) [the semicolon] betrays its dual nature: it is both period and comma." As such, it is best thought of as a bridge between two worlds.
The primary function of the semicolon is to connect two complete (and thematically similar) sentences, thereby making them one. But when and how to do that is open to interpretation. The semicolon has been overused (Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse) and questionably used (Herman Melville's Moby-Dick) throughout the centuries, and has been the subject of endless debate. Compounding the debate is the fact that, grammatically, the semi-
colon is never necessary; two short sentences can always coexist without being connected. Artistically, though, the semicolon opens a world of possibilities, and can lend a
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