Read to Write #1
Wednesday Writing Weekly No #76
The key to being a good writer is to be a good reader.
In any craft, you must sample what you produce. A chef must eat, a film director watches movies, and actors go to the theatre. How can you create a story if you are not familiar with the material before you? What inspires your work?
In today’s weekly, I am doing something a little different. I was reading I’m So (Not) Over You by Kosoko Jackson; I wanted a light-hearted, soft read. But I found a far more nuanced style full of punchy sentences and a tangle of well-crafted clauses. Jackson has a mastery over punctuation that makes this delightful story all the more exciting to read.
I will be sharing quotes from Jackson’s work to provide you with excellent examples of punctuation.
Using Source Material
When I read to improve my writing, my eyes get snagged on any colon, em-dash, or impactful ellipses. Punctuation is something to use sparingly. The more you use, the more water downed your intent. But, if you are selective about what you put into your story, the more powerful those choices are.
When I am editing work for my clients, I have a select service called “line-edits.” These are edits where I am reading their work not only to check the fluidity of the story, but I am stopping to double check every comma, parentheses, semi-colon, ellipses, paragraph break, hyphen, and more. Editing isn’t just reading a work. It is breaking down the sentences into words and every part of your book into the typed characters you chose.
Reading different examples of punctuation is a great way to see how punctuation can be used. Take this opportunity to reflect on your own work and usage!
Colons and Capitalization
When you use a colon, be careful about your capitalization.
If you are introducing a simple list that does not start as a brand-new sentence (when on its own) it will be lower cased.
Example: “To make chicken soup, I need: chicken, broth, carrots, and cabbage.”
If you think about it, you can write the above sentence without the colon, and it is all the same sentence. That is why it is lowercase.
Here is another example:
“As a lawyer-in-training, she should understand why I need to meet with Hudson: to process what happened, to close that chapter of my life, and to seal it shut with a glue made of truth.” (p.2)
If that colon was removed, this all would still be one sentence, hence the chosen capitalization. The colon here is used to sort out and draw attention to this statement.
Now, if you are expressing a full sentence within your colon usage, you will capitalize the beginning of that sentence.
Example: “Sure, there’s the second tsunami wave of emotions that hit to disrupt that joy: What if he spiked the drink?” (Jackson p. 21)
In this second example, we are told about a particular emotion (aka thought) in the first clause. After the colon, we are given the example of that emotion and thought, as a complete sentence. If the colon was removed here, you would have two separate but complete clauses.
The Semi-Colon
The semi-colon conjoins two separate, but related, clauses into one sentence. This one is best learned by reading examples!
“That confident façade is pushed far back into the closet; a place I haven’t been since middle school.” (p.5)
“He’s seen me spiral like this before; multiple times in college when I had too many assignments due and I didn’t know where to start.” (p.7)
“She’s an English major; romantic misfires interest her far more than they should.” (p. 17)
“Hudson has never been one of those brazen, over-the-top rich boys; though he most certainly has the clout to be one.” (p. 22)
Clause Connectors
Have you ever written a sentence and needed to expand on what you were saying? You’ve probably set those additional ideas off by a set of commas, like this: “Julia went to the market, the stinky one on the west side, to buy some coffee.”
When you need to add additional information to a sentence, information about the market, “the stinky one on the west side,” can be plopped into the middle of your pre-existing clause, “Julie went to the market to buy some coffee.” This helps to not only add information but give some variety to your sentence structures. Instead, you could have said, “Julia went to the market to buy some coffee. She went to the stinky one on the west side."
There are three kinds of punctuation to achieve this:
Commas: As seen above, use this for the simplest or non-flashy inserts.
Example: “So, whatever you want, let’s get this over with, yeah?” (p.7)
Parentheses: If you need to plug something in that is important to detail or expand on your ongoing statement, but it is a little farther from what you are writing here, use parentheses.
Example: “With his perfect warm Southern drawl, high-end (but comfortable) clothing, and the right amount of…” (p.13)
Example: “…my phone pings. “I pull it out of my pocket without looking, expecting another (well-deserved) quippy barb from Divya.” (p. 3)
Em-dash: The Em-dash is the boldest choice for the most dramatic or impactful of inserts. In this example’s case, it can be the most sassiest as well.
Example: “Doing something stupid like waiting for the boy who broke my heart—who is now seven minutes late—and starting at the e-mail that could change my career?” (p.4)
While you can technically use either one for whatever kind of insert you would like, it is better to use the quieter, less noticeable inserts and expansions with the commas, and then work your way up by correlating impact to the other types of punctuation. Parentheses are bigger and louder and the loudest is the em-dash. Use the em-dash sparingly, never as much as you would use a comma—that’s overkill!
Jackson has a wild example where all three are used in one sentence:
“And being the secret bleeding heart that Jamal is, Emily’s boyfriend, Todd—an entrepreneur trying to open a brewery that specializes in using flowers as the flavor base (aka broke)—is here for the free food.” (p.17)
What makes these a complete sentence and not a run on are the complete and focused ideas within that have a clean ending and contained explanation. This sentence is listing out the reasons a group of friends is hanging out at a restaurant. The main clause of this statement is, “And being the secret bleeding heart that Jamal is, Todd is here for the free food.” It is a comparison between the two while giving us more information about the new character, Todd.
Todd is a character being introduced to the readers for the first time. Because of this, the author plugged in that he is “Emily’s boyfriend,” within the commas’ insertion and further, “an entrepreneur…” gives us a little more information about him. When you have so much plugged into one sentence, varying the punctuation helps the reader know what information is detailing what. Imagine if this was all commas instead… that would be confusing!
Conclusion
Next week, I have more I want to share from this lovely work. We will talk about how to attach actions and descriptions to the dialogue tag, formatting your ellipses, and I’ll share a selection of wonderful similes and metaphors. In the meantime, happy writing!