He’d never thought much about the possibility of leaving Earth; had never dared think much about it.
Current word count: 15,871
New words this session: 1,109
Percentage of novel completed: 15.8
Note the semicolon. A writers’ listserver I was on recently had a long discussion about semicolons, with some writers proclaiming that semicolons had no place in fiction. To which I say (and did say) “Pfft!” (or words to that effect).
A semicolon is a tool, and sometimes, it seems to me, it is the only tool for a job; it creates a pause that just feels…right.
Oh, yeah…I like ellipses, too.
Not so fond of ampersands & stuff, though.
And I sometimes think that–though they’re useful, there’s no question–I occasionally overdose on those–what do you call them?–oh, yeah–dashes.
Question marks? The ones that make everything sound like a question? Because that’s kind of their function, you know? Well, they’re OK in their place, but you can’t use them everywhere, right? Because, that would be just silly, wouldn’t it?
Periods. Nice, sane, staid and stately periods. Perfect to end a sentence with (even if prepositions aren’t). Can also be used for sentence fragments. If you’re given to that sort of thing.
And while we’re on the subject (which we are, or were, in the last sentence) parantheses can also be useful (though they can be mis- or over-used) in places where commas (or other options, such as dashes) simply don’t seen appropriate (such places are more common than you might think).
Colons: more definite than semicolons, less final than a period, able to set off long lists with a single mark.
A comma is, of course, probably, maybe even definitely, the one punctuation mark, even taking into consideration some people’s dislike of semicolons, that is most mis-used, or over-used, I think.
Unless its apostrophes’, which tend to creep into place’s where theyre not wanted while failing to show up for duty in the places where a writers need is greatest.
“Quotation” marks, “of course,” as noted in a post “a few days ago” are also subject to “abuse” by “writers” who can’t let them “alone.”
And then there’s the exclamation mark! A fitting ending to my little rant, because nothing! NOTHING! Says “Rant!” like an exclamation mark!
UNLESS IT’S ALL-CAPITAL LETTERS!
THE END!!!!!!
2 comments
You forgot to mention/berate the slash mark.
I loved it but I’m non-committal