Do we need quotation marks? Who needs punctuation? Times are a-changing. One of the signs punctuation marks are in flux is the air quotations people make with their fingers when using words ironically. In print, we’ve seen the rise of single quotation marks around sarcastic words or phrases, even though the standard rule for single quotation marks are for use inside double quotation marks to indicate someone speaking is quoting someone else. Another sign of the changing times is the omission of periods at the end of text messages. Where did all the Oxford commas go? I notice the subtitles on my TV rarely have punctuation and never use quotes. Poets and playwrights are notorious for their disregard of style rules regarding punctuation, especially quotation marks. With instant messaging, even letters are omitted, words shortened: r u, lol, rotfl, omg. Historically, quotation marks were one of the last types of punctuation to appear, according to David Crystal in his book, Making a Point: The Persnickety Story of English Punctuation (St. Martin’s Press, 2015). In the beginning of the written word, the only spaces between letters came when space ran out at the end of the line. Written words were used to record information, not to be read aloud. Religious and philosophic communities were the first to want stable texts that could be read, and read in a particular way that would indicate authority and knowledge. Spaces appeared between words, often to indicate reading cadence, breathing and tonal guidelines. Punctuation was…
When you write a book length manuscript you need to keep the story moving forward. Every scene, every sentence, every word should serve to advance the storyline. When editors talk about “pacing,” they refer to the narrator’s ability to keep the reader turning the page. Have you ever heard someone tell a joke that went on for so long by the time the punch line… [Read More]
Filed Under: composition, dialgoue, flashback, foreshadow, pacing, Punctuation, rhythm, tempo, varied sentence length
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I recently read about a writer who gets up at 4 am to write. She says she is flooded with ideas at that time of day and glad to have a computer because she is not able to write fast enough by hand to get all her thoughts down on paper. It is also the only time of day when she has free time to… [Read More]
Do you tell yourself you need a couple of days when your calendar is free from distractions before you can sit down and start to write? Then when the weekend arrives you sleep late, catch up on correspondence, watch a movie, and maybe make time to stare at a blank screen. In a block of eight hours without any other commitments, you’re lucky if you… [Read More]
Filed Under: #amwriting, E. L. Doctorow, Ernest Hemingway, sprints, Stephen King, time poverty, write longhand
Each summer, the University of Iowa offers dozens of writing workshops open to writers at any level through its Iowa Summer Writing Festival — this year in its 30th year. The university, of course, is known for housing the nation’s premier MFA program in creative writing. The summer festival brings some of the same top-notch literary talent to the table, offering a taste of that… [Read More]
As a writer, you may assume you will have the copyright of your book when it is published. If you write for magazines or newspapers, you may need to negotiate rights over your own written material — one time use — but these days, once you write something, you are assumed to own the copyright from that moment on. Although historically there were some European… [Read More]