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!
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!
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.
ReplyDeleteMaybe 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.
ReplyDeletePeronally, 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!
*waves hands* I'm a total comma whore. Like you they're my writing security blanket!!
ReplyDeleteI 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 ;)
ReplyDeleteI do that too!
ReplyDeleteYup... Comma junkie! I thought it was just me. I wonder if there is a Comma AA we can join.
ReplyDeleteWow. I've never thought of counting my commas. Okay, so I slipped to the story I'm querying to count.
ReplyDeleteCommas: 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!
I've never counted my commas. Maybe I should...
ReplyDeleteI 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...
ReplyDeleteHAHAHA! 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.
ReplyDeleteAhhh, 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.
ReplyDeleteI'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.
ReplyDeleteI'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
ReplyDeleteThere 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.
ReplyDeleteGod 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
ReplyDeleteI've been so bad at commenting on blogs and being involved with the blogosphere at the moment, I'm hoping that will change soon :)
I'm a comma whore too. I always use too many. Hopefully you can get them sorted out! :)
ReplyDeleteCurious 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...
ReplyDeleteI am a commaholic too! Half of my editor's job for my novella was fishing out commas :)
ReplyDeleteIn 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?)
ReplyDeleteI 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!
Yes, I feel like I'm obsessed with commas!!! It drives me nuts!
ReplyDeleteI ♥ commas! No, really...I do! ;)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the editing!
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.
ReplyDeleteThat 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
ReplyDeleteYay for England!
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:-)
Oh goodness I hadn't thought to count commas - I am nervous to do it as I quite sure I'd have a lot!
ReplyDeleteI 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteI have this problem too. So much! And apostrophes. I love all those little marks. You're so not alone on this one.
ReplyDelete