Skip to main content

5735 Commas

Yup. After thinking I was done editing Game On for the 327th time, I did a comma count and found 5735. Now, I don't know if it's just me, but that sounds like a hell of a lot!

I have always had a problem with commas. I know how to use them correctly, but I still overuse them by sticking them into sentences where they don't belong. Sometimes they slip in by mistake, some of them are left over from when I've removed or changed words and forgotten to take the commas out, but mostly it's just because I have a weird tendency to hit the comma key like it's my keyboard version of a security blanket.

Please tell me I'm not the only comma whore in the blogosphere!

Today will be the last day of me not commenting on blogs. I will be back to normal tomorrow, I hope you understand that, with the endless amount of editing, I just haven't had the time to keep up with everything and I want to make Game On the best it can possibly be before I let it out into the world!

Thanks for all the good wishes for England's match last night - we won! The game was one of the most boring I've ever seen, but a victory is a victory, and we march on to the quarter finals of Euro2012! W00t!
Labels:

Comments

  1. A. K. Fotinos-Hoyer20 June 2012 at 12:56

    Comma whores, unite! I've been editing this past week and am amazed at some of the more bizarre places I've included a comma, haha.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Iain20 June 2012 at 13:00

    Maybe I missed it, but how many words are there in your MS? I think this will make a difference on how many commas you count.
    Peronally, I think that so long as you have most of the commas in the right place, then the odd one will be weeded out when you get to an editing stage.
    Congratulations on getting to the end of another round of edits!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Clare20 June 2012 at 13:07

    *waves hands* I'm a total comma whore. Like you they're my writing security blanket!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Juliana Haygert20 June 2012 at 13:33

    I am! I am! That's one of the things I check my CPs' manu for too hehehe Ask them. I insert a thousand commas or more ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rachel Schieffelbein20 June 2012 at 13:49

    I do that too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dani20 June 2012 at 14:00

    Yup... Comma junkie! I thought it was just me. I wonder if there is a Comma AA we can join.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Suzi20 June 2012 at 14:10

    Wow. I've never thought of counting my commas. Okay, so I slipped to the story I'm querying to count.

    Commas: 2563 - I guess I'm not a comma whore. (That's in 55,000 words.)

    But trust me, there's a lot of other things/words I overuse!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jennifer Joyce20 June 2012 at 14:30

    I've never counted my commas. Maybe I should...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Rebecca Alexander20 June 2012 at 14:53

    I either use too many or too few. I can go days without using one, that have a day when all the stored up commas leap onto the page. I'm an adverb junkie. I put 'ly' into find on my 100k word novel and came up with OVER 1000 adverbs. I'm so ashamed...really, awfully, crushingly ashamed...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Daisy Carter20 June 2012 at 14:54

    HAHAHA! Just reading your title made me smile because i have way too many commas, esp. in my first drafts. I, comma, like, every other word.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Tobi Summers20 June 2012 at 14:55

    Ahhh, that's me! Sometimes I put a comma in when I pause in typing, even if there's no actual pause in the sentence. I wrote a sentence the other day that had 5 commas in it. I think they were all technically correct, but it was a messy, ugly little sentence. But, if it makes you feel better, the latest draft of my Capitoline Hill Chronicles has 5433 commas. So almost as many.

    ReplyDelete
  12. M.J. Fifield20 June 2012 at 15:02

    I've been doing searches for words like "nodded" and "then" in my WIP. It never occurred to me to search for commas. I can't even imagine how many I use.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Victoria Smith20 June 2012 at 15:54

    I'm the exact opposite. I don't use commas!!! D: Unless it's obvious ones. I will only put them in if I know it's the correct use thereby leaving out neccessary ones on accident, haha

    ReplyDelete
  14. Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader20 June 2012 at 16:42

    There are reviewers out there who are savage about commenting on your commas usage and/or lack thereof. Do your best in managing them. That's all one can expect. You will always draw the ire of someone, even if you are J.K. Rowling (she has one-star reviews too). So my motto is, use the best punctuation that you are capable of.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous20 June 2012 at 19:20

    God I do the same thing! My punctuation is terrible in drafts, and I hope I can get better at it. Do the best you can with it, but there are also editors out there can help with it :) What have critic partners said about your comma usage? Maybe it's not as bad as you think :P
    I've been so bad at commenting on blogs and being involved with the blogosphere at the moment, I'm hoping that will change soon :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Krista McLaughlin20 June 2012 at 19:20

    I'm a comma whore too. I always use too many. Hopefully you can get them sorted out! :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Annalisa Crawford20 June 2012 at 20:23

    Curious at that number, I just counted the number in Cat and the Dreamer - which is 22,000 words - and came up with 1457, so I don't think you've got too many, just the right number! Unless I've got too many too...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Sylvia20 June 2012 at 20:30

    I am a commaholic too! Half of my editor's job for my novella was fishing out commas :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Dianne K. Salerni20 June 2012 at 20:50

    In the most recent round of editing on my next book, the copy-editor stripped out countless commas! I can't give you a count because this was done on a paper copy. (Paper! Can you believe it?)

    I know the rules, too. Or at least, I thought I did.

    But the copy-editor would have stripped both commas out of that line above!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Rebecca Barrow20 June 2012 at 21:43

    Yes, I feel like I'm obsessed with commas!!! It drives me nuts!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Dana20 June 2012 at 22:03

    I ♥ commas! No, really...I do! ;)

    Good luck with the editing!

    ReplyDelete
  22. jaybird20 June 2012 at 22:19

    I think I throw commas in whenever I pause. And I tend to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over and over..I also love elipses...basically I'm an editing hot mess! Keep your head up and I'm glad your team won.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Kelley Lynn21 June 2012 at 05:10

    That goes sound like a lot I guess. I have a little over 2,000 in mine 'completed' MS. Maybe that's not enough!! Ah! haha

    Yay for England!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Misha Gerrick21 June 2012 at 06:24

    No I'm not, but for some reason I have this insane desire to combine words ending with t with the words after them. I think I catch them immediately, but I always worry that I don't.

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  25. VikLit21 June 2012 at 16:57

    Oh goodness I hadn't thought to count commas - I am nervous to do it as I quite sure I'd have a lot!

    I wish you luck on your journey to publication. Am a new blogger seeking out other blogs to follow/connect with as I too take the journey to publication (I hope) which is a long winded way of saying: am following you.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Christine Rains21 June 2012 at 19:22

    A lot of people us a lot of commas. I try to avoid them unless I have to. I'll cut up a sentence and make two short ones first.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Unknown22 June 2012 at 04:43

    I have this problem too. So much! And apostrophes. I love all those little marks. You're so not alone on this one.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IWSG: Performance anxiety

Welcome to the August edition of IWSG, hosted by the amazing Alex J.Cavanaugh ! So, as most of you know by now - because I haven't shut up about it LOL - my first novel, Game On, has been released. The blog tour officially starts next week (YAY!) but I find myself becoming increasingly nervous. A blog tour not only highlights my book, but me. What if people don't like me? What if my guest posts suck, and everyone thinks I'm boring? If I can't engage people in 300 words on a blog, they probably aren't going to pick up my book. And then there's the "what happens next" question. I plan to make Game On into a series, which feels a bit arrogant of me. I don't know how many people are going to like the first book, should I really be planning to keep the series going? So far, Game On has actually been incredibly well received. I've had great reviews, so maybe I shouldn't worry about people not liking it, but what if Book Two isn't as goo...
81 comments
Read more

IWSG: Am I doing it right? And does anyone care?

Happy IWSG Day! This genius idea created by Alex J. Cavanaugh is a place for all of us insecure writers to gather together to talk about our worries, and cheer each other on. Check out the full list of participants here ! Think right now about your favourite writers. How do you feel when you know they have a new book being released? It's usually something like, "HURRY UP, I CAN'T WAIT ANYMORE!" right? And also, think about when one of your super talented blog buddies announces they've got a book coming out soon. That is even more exciting because it's someone you know, someone you may have seen struggling to reach their goal of publication. Someone you've seen go through the rough times, and have finally made it to where they want to be. I can tell you that when Jolene Perry, or Nyrae Dawn announce a book release - I bounce up and down like a crazy person! These two awesome ladies are writers I absolutely adore for their ability to write so natural...
98 comments
Read more

GUTGAA Meet and Greet!

Oh, I have SO been looking forward to this!! But, before I start, I need to send a huge apology to Emily R.King and Melodie Wright. I signed up to their What I Did Last Summer Bloghop , but it looks like I'm not going to have the time to participate. :( I've never backed out of a bloghop before, but as you may have noticed, I've been kind of out of the blogging loop for a while and now I'm struggling to catch up! Please go and check out Emily and Melodie's hop, though - it's fun! :D NOW, onto GUTGAA! This amazing blogfest was put together by Deana Barnhart , and was designed to help writers in their quest to find an agent, plus help form connections between writers. The idea is genius and I am so excited to be a part of it! So, I am going to begin with the meet and greet questions, and I'll be hopping around to other blogs later! :D Bio : Kyra Lennon was born on the South coast of England, and to this day, still lives by the sea. Fiction wr...
119 comments
Read more