Friday Speak Out!: My Name is Jocelyn, and I’m a Punctu-holic, guest post by Jocelyn Kasper

My Name is Jocelyn, and I’m a Punctu-holic

by Jocelyn Kasper

I’m on week four of a six-week WOW! Young Adult Novel Writing workshop with author Bonnie Hearn Hill. She’s got me on a no-exclamation-point diet. Bonnie says I’m in rehab.

F. Scott Fitzgerald said that an exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke. It’s a substitute for a lively little remark, added to the end of a perfectly good sentence, such as, “Isn’t that special?” Some people would substitute the word amazing to get the same effect. But I hate that word.

Bonnie says I need to use words, not punctuation, to express ideas and feelings. I told her I will lay off the punctuation brew and instead grow my language skills. I think my sentences are actually funnier, friendlier and smarter without exclamation points.

But sometimes I worry someone will think I’m drier than I mean to be. So I’ll add a colon and shift+zero, which, after a thoughtful tap of the space bar in a properly working Word program, turns into a smiley face, which is just as bad. I’m trying to get used to the new me.

Bonnie says get rid of colons and semi-colons in fiction. They’re too authorial. Let the reader get swept away by the writing, not by the writer. I want my readers to fall in love with my characters on their own and not notice there’s an author hanging around telling them how to feel about it.

Punctuation feels like music notation to me. In fact, like interpretation of music notation, it’s almost spiritual. A comma or em dash signals a musical rest of particular length and temper. Question marks and periods convey vocal inflections. But putting a word or phrase in italics or quotation marks (orphan quotes) for emphasis is off limits. Bonnie says not to think of myself as an actor, singer or composer, but as a writer. Again, use words.

This whole anti-punctuation thing is really just what the doctor ordered. You see, punctuation can make me feel like a smart person, even if I’m not. Like all those books on all those bookshelves do, which I haven’t read in years or ever.

Except for when I type smiley faces. I don’t feel so smart then. Just because I like to doodle, I shouldn’t scribble faces, parentheses, dots and other flyspecks all over my manuscripts to prove I’m smart. Or artistic.

Thanks to Bonnie, I’ve thrown my Punctuation Princess crown all the way across the valley. And still, I hear a million echoes of shattering glass, as it bounces from mountain to mountain.

It might seem like I’ve only learned junk about punctuation from Bonnie Hearn Hill. Or that punctuation is junk—on many levels—or both; but that wouldn’t be accurate. Oops. There goes a semi-colon.

I’ve been learning so much more. But you’ll have to wait for another blog day to hear about all the rest. In the meantime, use your words.


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Jocelyn Kasper loves to write. In her spare time, she teaches people how to sing. She lives in Nashville, TN with her husband, three dogs and one cat. Read more at www.KasperMusic.com.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!

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