The Comma, aka. The Writer's Headache

Ah, the comma. This little punctuation mark has caused more than its fair share of headaches to writers of all skill levels. Whether it's using too many commas or not enough, most writers struggle with learning exactly when they should use this illusive punctuation, and often, their final drafts suffer because of it. The major problem for most writers is keeping all of the rules straight. For example, the Modern Language Association has eleven total rules, and even those eleven are open to interpretation. With such loose rules, it's no surprise that all writers struggle with the comma.

In my work with Grammarly, I study how people write, and the tools they use to write better, and I've found a few tips that will help most writers overcome their struggle with commas. Remember that there is no substitute for good old-fashioned studying and practice, so if you want to perfect comma usage, the best thing you can do is put your nose to the grindstone and learn. If you need some quick and immediate help, remember the following tips.

●     Learn the Big Rules – As previously mentioned, there are multiple comma rules with many open to interpretation. The best way to start improving your comma usage is to learn the major comma rules, the ones which are pretty firm. I've found the following four to be the most important:

○     Use a comma to separate like items in a list of three or more. The choice to use the last comma – the Oxford comma – is up to you as the writer.

○     Use a comma before a conjunction (“and,” “for,” “but,” “or,” “nor,” “yet,” and “so”) when you're connection two independent clauses. Remember that an independent clause can stand alone as its own sentence, so it must have both a subject and a verb.

○     Use a comma to separate the main clause of a sentence from an introductory clause or phrase that precedes it.

○     Use two commas in the middle of a sentence to offset unimportant information.

●     Avoid Unnecessary Commas – Many writers, when faced with a situation when they aren't quite sure whether or not to use a comma, opt to err on the side of caution and go ahead and use the comma. What this creates is a sentence filled to the brim with commas, most of which aren't necessary. When you aren't sure whether or not to use a comma, read the sentence again and ask yourself if the sentence is clear without a comma. If the intention of your sentence is still clear, and there's no confusion when reading it, the comma is most likely unnecessary.

●     Commas Indicate Soft Pauses – Regardless of the rules, sometimes a writer just needs to force the reader to pause for a split-second to let something sink in. If that's the case, feel free to use a comma to indicate this pause. Be sure not to confuse the soft pause with some of the longer pauses caused by semi-colons and dashes.

●     Proofread, Proofread, Proofread – No matter how good you get at comma usage, you will always benefit from some proofreading. Start by proofreading your own work, and then give your piece to a second reader you trust to go over it. Lastly, consider using one of the many online services to catch any stray comma errors you or your readers may have missed. For example, over at Grammarly, we offer one of the most sophisticated grammar checks on the Internet. We'll check over your text for over 200 grammar errors, including comma errors, essentially becoming a third set of eyes for you.

Comma rules are difficult, but they certainly aren't insurmountable. With a little bit of studying and practice, you'll soon find that even the loosest comma rules will come to you quickly and easily. And, with that, you'll find your writing life mostly headache free, often wondering what it was about commas that ever gave you those headaches in the first place.

By Nikolas Baron

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Bio:

Nikolas discovered his love for the written word in Elementary School, where he started spending his afternoons sprawled across the living room floor devouring one Marc Brown children’s novel after the other and writing short stories about daring pirate adventures. After acquiring some experience in various marketing, business development, and hiring roles at internet startups in a few different countries, he decided to re-unite his professional life with his childhood passions by joining Grammarly’s marketing team in San Francisco. He has the pleasure of being tasked with talking to writers, bloggers, teachers, and others about how they use Grammarly’s online proofreading application to improve their writing. His free time is spent biking, traveling, and reading.

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Grammarly's Own Nikolas Baron Explains Different Types of Editing

Hey all, 

I'd like to take a sec and welcome the wonderful Nikolas Baron to the blog. Nikolas works at Grammarly, so feel free to comment on the post and he'll answer any questions you may have. Oh, and don't forget to enter to win a FREE 3 month trial of Grammarly. Personally, I love the thing! You'd not believe how many errors it catches beyond anything that your word processor does. 

Copyediting vs Proofreading vs Editing: What Exactly is the Difference?

“The sad man was crying very loudly? and new the end was nearing. “ 

I know exactly what you are thinking. Yikes. Yes, well, welcome to the world of editing where your nightmares are my everyday reality! Hello, my name is Nick, and I am writing this piece today to educate the world at large about the basic differences between proofreading, copyediting and editing. For my work over at Grammarly, I spend my time studying writing habits, and from experience I can tell you not enough people are familiar with the definitions below.

So, a client emails you with his first ever novel that he wants “edited”. You took AP English in high school, and you are certain you can handle whatever is thrown at you. At least you think this until you open the novel and realize it would take a small army to clear the grammatical errors, let alone make the book actually readable. But alas, you were tasked with “editing,” and as you sit there wondering what to do next, you really wish you had pushed the client to explain exactly what he meant.

It is obviously important for one to understand exactly what the client is expecting, which means being informed enough to educate your client if necessary. Keep in mind the following definitions are more like guidelines rather than concrete definitions.

Proofreading:

First we have proofreading, or line editing, and yes, it is exactly what you think—meticulously mulling over the text and correcting spelling, punctuation, typos and other obvious mistakes. Proofreading takes a very well-trained eye that most do not have, which is why almost every writer can benefit from a thorough proofreader. Proofreading is now most often done using a word processor, but there is still a demand for good ole’ fashioned pen and paper proofreaders.

Copyediting:

A copyeditor’s job involves all the work of a proofreader, as well applying their vast knowledge of style.

Copyeditors produce works that are stylistically consistent throughout and free of errors. This process usually involves going over the text multiple times to ensure consistency, which can mean addressing things like names of states are treated the same.

Further, copyeditors more often than not act as fact checkers. This can be as simple as checking historical facts, determining the plausibility of a certain character's heritage, or perhaps even verifying the population of certain towns.

A good copyeditor ensures that sentences make sense through clarification of ambiguity and poor wording.

Editing:

The job of the editor is to improve the flow and quality of writing—without a doubt the most difficult job in the editing world. This means having the power to omit and rewrite entire sentences or paragraphs for one to correct unnecessary wordiness, or just any obvious errors. An editor though will not necessarily proof or copyedit. Further, the text will have to be proofed again after being worked on by an editor. Generally, editing is more costly than both proofing and copyediting.

As with all things, becoming a proficient editor of any kind takes time and practice. The more you do it, the better you will become, and who knows, maybe one day you will become a big shot editor. There are tools available to every young editor in training aside from The Chicago Manual of Style.

For example, most word processors have excellent tools with which to track changes and that can clearly highlight and fix the problem without altering the text. There are also several high quality websites now that can do more than just proofread. Specifically, a site like Grammarly.com is an excellent tool as it can also provide stylistic edits, as well as proofread, check for plagiarism, as well as apply contextual edits based on the style of writing.

By Nikolas Baron

A Little about Nikolas

Nikolas discovered his love for the written word in Elementary School, where he started spending his afternoons sprawled across the living room floor devouring one Marc Brown childrens’ novel after the other and writing short stories about daring pirate adventures. After acquiring some experience in various marketing, business development, and hiring roles at internet startups in a few different countries, he decided to re-unite his professional life with his childhood passions by joining Grammarly’s marketing team in San Francisco. He has the pleasure of being tasked with talking to writers, bloggers, teachers, and others about how they use Grammarly’s online proofreading application to improve their writing. His free time is spent biking, traveling, and reading.

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The Plea-ssure of Being a Writer

I often hear writers talking about their creative lives. We both love and hate this ceaseless obsession. It can be one of the most pleasurable parts of our existence. The chance to create worlds and characters with no more than a flicker of imagination is a journey few people experience. And having an outlet to express your dark, whimsical, or insane side is a gift ... but it can also be a curse.

So much pressure surrounds the lives of writers. There are the ever-looming doubts that swirl around in our minds. The fear and likelihood of rejection. The pressure to live up to some (spoken or unspoken) expectation. Not to mention the fact that we see other writers who seem to have their crap together while we're out scraping around for our last few morsels of sanity. It hardly feels fair at times. 

So, why is it writers struggle? Why do we end up suffering over our desire to create? It causes so many to give up on something they love to do, and that's just wrong. I've seen it time and time again. They get beaten down and lose their passion.

Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of Eat. Pray. Love. Here she gives a speech about writing, inspiration, and actually enjoying the process without suffering the fear of failing. It's a little long, so watch it when you have time to sit and really digest what she's saying. It's very eye-opening. Enjoy!

Kleypas Mania!

  
Last summer, Rennie (AKA Italia Trent, or better known as the ren in Chirenjenzie :- ) and I had a discussion about male leads in romances. At the time, it seemed that the men in books were stereotyped. In YA, the all-knowing bad boy seemed to dominate. Contemporary ran with the experienced as well, but these men had serious baggage. And then there was the men of the historical romance. These are virile men who know their place, and kept their woman right by their side.

A lively discussion ensued about creating one character that held great traits of each genre. It would be interesting, wouldn't it?

I hadn't read historical romance in years, but what I did remember of them I didn't like. The brutish you-are-my-woman type didn't appeal to me, but Ren insisted that I read a historical romance or two to broaden my understanding of the male psyche. I balked at first, hating the idea of sifting through pages of submissive English waifs being used as doormats. But I had to fly to Chicago that weekend, and so, determined to keep an open mind, I picked up a Lisa Kleypas book from the airport bookstore.

I almost missed my flight. :-)

Oh, mylanta! While Rennie was right about the complexity of the male leads, I didn't fall in love with the genre, I fell in love with the writing!

Kleypas has a way of bringing well rounded characters to life. She uses subtle inflections and mannerisms to make each character distinct, naturally weaving their personality into each paragraph. The stories move at a leisurely pace, but not so slow that the reader becomes bored. Descriptions are woven in at just the right times as to not become tedious, but what I really love is that after reading over twenty of her books, she has the ability to make each story fresh.



And so, my posts in the month of January and February are going to be dedicated to Kleypas's Wallflower series, and her Bowstreet series. The first will be posted in a few days, so be sure to check back!

Chi

A Review by Any Other Name...

 Book reviews. We've all read them. Most of us have written one at some point or another, but what we aren't taught as authors is how to handle them. You write a story. You love it into existence, and then you beat it into sparkly-clean and concise submission. You follow whatever route best fits your goals for the book, be it agent, publisher, indie, or self-pub, till finally release day comes!

Reviews and ratings begin to trickle in. And as any author can vouch, this will create freaking havoc in your life. Good reviews cause pressure and stress to live up to expectations on an unrealistic level or force you to create simply to please your reader. Bad reviews make you want to curl up in a moldy cellar and give into the I-suck-so-muchness. Neither of these things are ideal, yet we all experience them all the time!

But in the words of the brilliant Ray Bradbury, “You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.”

Writers shouldn't write because they want to please someone. If you do that, you'll never be a success in your eyes or anyone else's, because you can't make everyone happy. It's just not possible. If it's in your heart to be a writer, to create characters and mold worlds out of bits of imagination, then don't let anyone rain on your parade ... OR be your pink prancing poodles! And by that I mean, the awesomeness behind you that you've now come to rely on for affirmation.

"But what happens when I get a bad review? How do I deal with that?" you may ask.

In short, my answer is this: quietly. I know, I know. That's not fair. Trust me when I say the first time I received a rating that didn't exactly light the galaxy with wonder, I wanted to email the person (who hadn't even left a review!) and ask them what I'd done to not even elicit a response from them. I mean, it took me longer to grow the story than it did my child. They couldn't even show enough courtesy and respect to let me know why?

But you can't do that. 1) It simply isn't allowed. Goodreads would kick you off if you responded to a negative review. 2)You're bigger than that, right? Commenting on a negative review/rating just tells the reviewer you need their affirmation. But why? You're writing for you, remember? 3) It won't change the reviewer's opinion, so why draw attention to the situation. Likely, you'll start a peeing contest that results in everyone walking away wet, smelly, and non-victorious.

And this, my dear writer friends, is the hardest thing you'll deal with. Trying to understand and accept the fact that not everyone is going to dig your work. But you can't understand it, because we'll never really understand people in general. Opinions are impossible to predict and everyone has them. The best we can hope for, and offer ourselves, is respect. We need to respect the the time and energy put into a project and accept that as long as we are enough in ourselves, that's enough!

Be confident in your work and write from your heart!