tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post5395681652121810427..comments2023-09-05T12:51:25.656-05:00Comments on edittorrent: On Punctuation GimmicksEdittorrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-49756432211460403202011-05-24T21:45:10.646-05:002011-05-24T21:45:10.646-05:00Here is a belated thank you since I asked the ques...Here is a belated thank you since I asked the question and then ended up offline and didn't even see it answered. And yes, you did answer it.<br /><br />Here's the funny thing, I read Cold Mountain and didn't even pause at the punctuation. The same goes for some of the other books (and techniques) you mentioned. In those cases, they just seemed to be an integral part of the writing.<br /><br />That, I guess, is the real test - if it jumps out at you it needs to go.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-53337240124948307082011-05-22T16:11:42.640-05:002011-05-22T16:11:42.640-05:00Sorry Cool and T. Can't handle Cormac McCarth...Sorry Cool and T. Can't handle Cormac McCarthy's lack of punctuation. Yeah, he's got a Pulitzer and I don't. And if his writing is so tight, how was the film able to condense his first seventy pages of ALL THE PRETTY HORSES into three minutes and not lose anything? His novels make great movies (except THE ROAD which was rather thin), but maybe that's because the film makers add valuable things like attributable dialogue.<br /><br />WesAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-85845961839806971252011-05-22T15:38:15.463-05:002011-05-22T15:38:15.463-05:00I must have missed Alicia's post first time ar...I must have missed Alicia's post first time around - I found it confusing. After most of a book of it, I probably wouldn't take much notice, but why make it harder on the reader? <br /><br />Magdalen, what you want are em-dashes (the long ones) - and I agree, they enrich text.green_knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16499896006012152260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-54505681909125860622011-05-22T09:29:02.894-05:002011-05-22T09:29:02.894-05:00@Magdalen. Okay, but people don't speak in pun...@Magdalen. Okay, but people don't speak in punctuation marks. What you're talking about is cadence, which is best be achieved through diction. Commas convey pauses, as do periods, without the distraction of non-grammatical punctuation.<br /><br />TEdittorrenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-83846410580785091022011-05-22T09:26:42.144-05:002011-05-22T09:26:42.144-05:00@coolkayaker1 Cormac McCarthy. Great example. He w...@coolkayaker1 Cormac McCarthy. Great example. He writes highly stylized prose, very tightly controlled in every aspect. I personally thought his punctuation choice was related to the way he was manipulating point of view, something he did masterfully in All The Pretty Horses. It was a deeply internal book, and the way the first person narrator responded to events and dialogue was all tied to that deeply internal style. It all worked together. Great writing, and a great example of how a punctuation choice can work to enhance the overall style of the book rather than detract from it. <br /><br />But yeah, it was kind of irritating, even if it was brilliantly done.<br /><br />TEdittorrenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-40101080112147632632011-05-22T01:33:06.222-05:002011-05-22T01:33:06.222-05:00http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Cormac-McCarth...http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Cormac-McCarthy-on-James-Joyce-and-Punctuation-Video<br /><br />I greatly enjoy the writing of Cormac McCarthy, and his body of work over 40 years--including National Book Award winning All The Pretty Horses, and Pulitzer Prize Novel 2007 The Road--do not have punctuation. At all. Oh, sure, an occasion comma, but no quotations, no apostrophes, nothing. <br /><br />The link above (if works, otherwise cut and paste) is his only video interview--ever!--and he agreed to do it after Oprah selected The Road for her book club choice. In it, he specifically explains his reasoning for lack of punctuation, which "blocks up the page."<br /><br />Two personal points.<br /><br />I emulate Cormac, to some degree, as we all mime those authors we love in our own way. But, after careful thought, I have elected not to use his punctuation style. If even every other agent, editor and contest judge dislikes the style, then I lose half of the readers for my piece based on a stylistic decision alone. Not good for a budding writer.<br /><br />And, second, Picasso is an example of the artist pushing limits once the skills are evident. His most revered works are those with Cubism--you know, the 3-D images of faces and people that are very stylized, almost like cut-outs and layered abstracts to form a face and all its images on a flat painting (that's the theory, anyhow). Well, early Pablo Picasso paintings are traditional, realistic humans in real life settings. If one were to know only his more "famous" Cubist designs, the early stuff doesn't even seem to be Picasso. Ah, but it is, it is. A proficiency is revealed first, then came the "artsy stuff" that made him legend. <br /><br />We can all learn from Cormac and Pablo about when, and when not, to use certain styles. I appreciate this original post and the links to past posts on this subject.Coolkayaker1https://www.blogger.com/profile/16480679419271233314noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-3047470217896437152011-05-22T00:38:06.507-05:002011-05-22T00:38:06.507-05:00If I pick up a book with a lot of punctuation gimm...If I pick up a book with a lot of punctuation gimmicks I won't read it. It might be a wonderful story but it is so difficult for me to wrap my head around that I don't bother. I love historical fiction but Cold Mountain irritated me. So I didn't finish it. <br /><br />If you are going to use so bling in your writing make sure it doesn't affect the flow of your writing or the reader's ability to understand your prose. After all clarity is what is most important.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-71488387059551218392011-05-21T16:23:59.705-05:002011-05-21T16:23:59.705-05:00avoid this kind of bling dialogue punctuation beca...<i>avoid this kind of bling dialogue punctuation because it's a distraction without a purpose.</i><br /><br />Yep. And that's exactly my stance on it, especially when I put on my big girl Reader Shoes and not my writer shoes. As a reader I don't have to want to <i>guess</i> what I'm reading. Confusion is the kiss of death. If an author confuses me and makes me tired while reading, it's work, and I work enough during my normal day. Reading should be entertainment/relaxation time. I should enjoy it, not want to hand-feed the book through my shredder.<br /><br />JTJulie Harringtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02880895598847092028noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-48071814531315266082011-05-21T13:52:08.488-05:002011-05-21T13:52:08.488-05:00Someone in my writers' critique group, where I...Someone in my writers' critique group, where I'm the only romance writer, said that he only wanted to see quotation marks, periods and commas. (I'll assume he meant to include question marks, but his position on exclamation marks may be different.)<br /><br />"Ah, c'mon, Joe -- you gotta let me have en-dashes," I protested.<br /><br />Here's my problem. I want my dialogue to convey speech. Not real-life speech -- where people use "um," "like," and "you know" as so much filler, like bread crumbs in sausage -- but speech the way people speak it in real life. And in real life, some people taper off at the end of a thought, while others finish a sentence so crisply you're in no doubt they've finished talking.<br /><br />I understand that the semi-colon looks too dry, too professional, too evocative of a college term paper. I understand that parentheses have to be used sparingly, lest they over-do that sense of one thought being tangential but imbedded in another. I understand that the colon is altogether too strange a beast for genre fiction.<br /><br />I will try to get rid of as many gimmicks as I can, but I have to be able to convey a pause -- because that's just the way people roll.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com