Continuing from here but this post will be shorter,
promise.
Recently I paid attention to how I use commas because it
seems to me that many people overuse them. And I noticed that in early drafts
of chapters and blog posts, I do it too!
And I realized that typing while I think is the culprit. I
go along banging words out as they occur to me and when my thought process gets
stuck, I stop typing--but first, I add a comma. It's like I have to capture
every nuance of thought, even the pauses. For a first draft, that's absolutely
fine. Now we're back to proofreading: okay, you've gotten a bunch of ideas down
kind of as they formed. Great, you've got coherent thoughts and you want to
tell people! Go for it.
Just proofread before you press “publish” or “send”, okay?
It doesn't take long and it's not as annoying as flossing. Here's a tip from a
copy editor I briefly worked with: Start with the last sentence, read that out
loud, then move on to the second-last sentence, and keep going backwards. It's
best to have another person follow along on their own copy because they catch
things you might miss, but even doing it alone helps.
You can even do it between paragraphs. Whenever you
temporarily run out of ideas, read over what you have so far. Once you get in
the habit of proofreading it becomes automatic. Your first drafts and
off-the-cuff posts will have fewer mistakes. More people will smile at you.
Too many commas can slow readers down. That’s exactly what
you don’t want in scenes with
fast-paced action or somebody’s hyped-up, tumbling thoughts. Even in blog
posts, too many commas make me feel like I’m riding a cantering horse: bouncing
up and down.
Commas. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, some are necessary and some
are like those spiked strips cops throw across the roadway to catch speeding crooks.
I don’t normally pontificate like this but some things just get in my craw and I
have to snap about it.
Rant over, really. Feel free to disagree with me, it’s fine.
Won’t be the last time, no doubt :D
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