voluptuary_manque
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2007
- Posts
- 30,841
A . . . punk . . . wedding? Sheesh!
Underutilized punctuation
- Thread starter only_more_so
- Start date
A . . . punk . . . wedding? Sheesh!
Rumple Foreskin
The AH Patriarch
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2002
- Posts
- 11,109
Not trying to change anyone's style, but it's my understanding semi-colons are not favored these days by fiction editors. The theory appears to be that with the every decreasing attention span of the average reader, shorter is better than longer for both sentences and paragraphs. It follows, therefore, as night doth the day, that fiction agent/editor types tend to prefer two short sentences instead of one long one with a semi-colon.
That said, and IMHO, no writer should hesitate to use a long sentence with a semi-colon if that's what the story needs. But it'd probably be best to keep 'em to a minimum.
Rumple Foreskin
voluptuary_manque
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2007
- Posts
- 30,841
Not trying to change anyone's style, but it's my understanding semi-colons are not favored these days by fiction editors. The theory appears to be that with the every decreasing attention span of the average reader, shorter is better than longer for both sentences and paragraphs. It follows, therefore, as night doth the day, that fiction agent/editor types tend to prefer two short sentences instead of one long one with a semi-colon.
That said, and IMHO, no writer should hesitate to use a long sentence with a semi-colon if that's what the story needs. But it'd probably be best to keep 'em to a minimum.
Rumple Foreskin
Interesting theory. Tell us, have any of these theorists bothered to do some quantitative studies to prove it one way or another? Or is this just one of those things that everyone in the Chattering Classes just knows is true?
sr71plt
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2006
- Posts
- 51,872
Not trying to change anyone's style, but it's my understanding semi-colons are not favored these days by fiction editors. The theory appears to be that with the every decreasing attention span of the average reader, shorter is better than longer for both sentences and paragraphs. It follows, therefore, as night doth the day, that fiction agent/editor types tend to prefer two short sentences instead of one long one with a semi-colon.
That said, and IMHO, no writer should hesitate to use a long sentence with a semi-colon if that's what the story needs. But it'd probably be best to keep 'em to a minimum.
Rumple Foreskin
Sounds like it should make sense (other than your shouting part), but I can't say that any of the publishers who send me fiction books to edit have said anything about cutting down on semicolons. And I don't really try to mark them out as long as they are employed correctly.
Rumple Foreskin
The AH Patriarch
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2002
- Posts
- 11,109
Not shouting, 71, just recovering from eye surgery. The larger type makes it easier to double-check my posts. It was even worse when I first came back on the AH. In those days I was using size four instead of three.
Manque, I've heard this from agent/editor types at a couple conferences and read it on writing boards. As 71 said, it makes sense but to the best of my knowledge, there's been no analysis of semi-colon use in modern fiction.
Rumple Foreskin
sr71plt
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2006
- Posts
- 51,872
Not shouting, 71, just recovering from eye surgery. The larger type makes it easier to double-check my posts. It was even worse when I first came back on the AH. In those days I was using size four instead of three.
Manque, I've heard this from agent/editor types at a couple conferences and read it on writing boards. As 71 said, it makes sense but to the best of my knowledge, there's been no analysis of semi-colon use in modern fiction.
Rumple Foreskin
Oh, OK. I get it. Carry on
voluptuary_manque
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2007
- Posts
- 30,841
Not shouting, 71, just recovering from eye surgery. The larger type makes it easier to double-check my posts. It was even worse when I first came back on the AH. In those days I was using size four instead of three.
Manque, I've heard this from agent/editor types at a couple conferences and read it on writing boards. As 71 said, it makes sense but to the best of my knowledge, there's been no analysis of semi-colon use in modern fiction.
Rumple Foreskin
Hot Spit! Another doctoral thesis just crying to be researched and written . . . by someone else!
G
Guest
Guest
Rumple Foreskin
The AH Patriarch
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2002
- Posts
- 11,109
Hi ya, Sweet One. It's good to be seen.I was going to say- don't pick on the Rev!
Good to see you around, Rumple!
[threadjack]Saw where Kansas was ranked #13 In the USA Today pre-season poll. LSU is fifth, but IMHO that's a stretch.[/threadjack]
The Right Rev Rumple Foreskin http://bestsmileys.com/religous/1.gif
G
Guest
Guest
sr71plt
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2006
- Posts
- 51,872
Football starts soon, Rev!
(Hold that Tiger!)
Starts soon? Excuse me. The Redskins played (and won) last night.
G
Guest
Guest
sr71plt
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2006
- Posts
- 51,872
College ball. OUR colleges, actually.
And I know - preseason pro is on.
Ah, so. Go UVa! (Although I prefer away games, as Scott stadium is just down the road from me.)
starrkers
Down two, then left
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2006
- Posts
- 10,427
'Scuse I, just pulling the thread back on topic for a moment
Nothing that I'm aware of - the unreal editor I use is myself and sometimes the cat. Hence my rampant misuse of commas et al.
OK, I'm done now, go back to your football
Nothing that I'm aware of - the unreal editor I use is myself
and sometimes the cat. Hence my rampant misuse of commas et al.OK, I'm done now, go back to your football
Last edited:
only_more_so
Man
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2005
- Posts
- 2,678
Not trying to change anyone's style, but it's my understanding semi-colons are not favored these days by fiction editors. The theory appears to be that with the every decreasing attention span of the average reader, shorter is better than longer for both sentences and paragraphs. It follows, therefore, as night doth the day, that fiction agent/editor types tend to prefer two short sentences instead of one long one with a semi-colon.
That said, and IMHO, no writer should hesitate to use a long sentence with a semi-colon if that's what the story needs. But it'd probably be best to keep 'em to a minimum.
Rumple Foreskin
I actually only use the semicolon maybe once or twice per story/chapter (which are in the 5000-7000 word area). I'm a write as you speak kind of author, so while my sentences can get long, they are generally relatively simple. Sometimes two thoughts don't deserve to be separated by an "and" or divorced by a period.
G
Guest
Guest
sr71plt
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2006
- Posts
- 51,872
Get kind of loud on game day, does it?
We mute the TV and just listen to the stadium announcer. And the traffic . . . We don't drive down the hill on those days at all.
When I went there, you could just meander into the game at any point and have a whole row of seats to yourself--of course then we had our victory parties the night before so that we wouldn't be disappointed.
G
Guest
Guest
voluptuary_manque
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2007
- Posts
- 30,841
Oh, no!
Huh! My school didn't bother to have victory parties 'cause the only people who knew whether we'd won or not were the athletes and their girlfriends. No one else ever went to the games.
G
Guest
Guest
voluptuary_manque
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2007
- Posts
- 30,841
Band people never missed a game.
(or a party)
We only had a concert band and I'm not aware that they ever threw parties. My best man was one of the best reed players and he never told me about any.
Actually, my university was a geek school before anyone even knew what a geek was.
Similar threads
