Today is the first Wednesday in April, which means it's time for Insecure Writer's Support Group. My topic for today is...have you ever?
Have you ever sat down and studied why you write and where you write the best? Do you like music playing or silence? Do you write long hand or type? Do you write sequentially or piece stories together from random chapters?
No matter which way I turn, I hear the small insistent voice of my high school English grammar teacher raising sand because I'm using commas wrong, or writing in sentence fragments. How do you explain to a memory that writers today have more freedom to ignore the rules than they did 30 years ago?
I confess, I do follow the rules more than many. I like the semi-comma. I like using it; it has merit. But I recently had a critique who told me the semi-comma died years ago from lack of understanding. Just use a comma, or a separate sentence. I don't like that. So do I buckle to peer pressure or keep using an archaic punctuation symbol because I know its power?
If someone won't publish a story because of a semi-colon, maybe I am in the wrong profession. That seems trivial; which means it's probably true.
Happy April everyone. I am not participating in the April A to Z Blog Challenge this year - too many personal things going on, but I should have a book coming out this month. Stay tuned for more details!
Oh gosh, I've seen plenty of semi-colons in novels I've read! (Recent ones.) ;) Don't worry about it. Many people get away with not using them, but I don't think that's a new rule. :)
ReplyDeleteNot publishing a story because of a semi-colon is really silly.
ReplyDeleteTotally on your side. The semi-colon is FABULOUS and should always be the choice separating two complete, but very related sentences! I analyze a lot, but have just come to accept that I have a comma, ellipse, and em-dash fetish... see, I speak SLOWLY, so how else will I slow down my narrator to have MY voice? But most of my editors remove a good deal of them...
ReplyDelete