The Punctuation Game

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moderntimes
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Re: The Punctuation Game

Post by moderntimes »

No, I knew you weren't saying I was emulating Child. Some of the texture of any modern thriller writer will be much the same -- Hemingway-ish short paragraphs and sentences, common words. Other parts of my stories, however, are more Faulknerian. When I set out to create a "new" private detective, I stayed away from the tough-guy fists-and-gat stereotype. My PI is highly educated and intelligent, urbane, at ease in modern society's tech, and so on. It's then that he gets sucked into the nastiness of the Chandlerian "mean streets" and part of the overall story arc is how he deals with such horror and violence in his soul -- he's not at all the old-school slouching trench-coat w. pint of rye. So my books have a varied rhythm, as Zelda can attest -- she's read the newest, 3rd novel.

And Zelda's right -- I change my characters, not just my protagonist but others around him -- they are human after all and my novels are highly realistic (or are meant to be) and so flat stereotypes just aren't part of the books. I surround my PI with characters who are as authentic as I can make them. My protagonist's no hero, either (no Jack Reacher) -- he's vulnerable and makes plenty of bad mistakes, can get his butt beat up and so on. If you PM me, Dennis, since you enjoy thrillers, I'll give you my website which explains the books further.

But back on subject, punctuation is absolutely used to vary the rhythm of a story line. Some authors use semicolons whereas I would use separate sentences. But regardless, a writer can adjust the speed of the narrative by commas and such. For example, if I want to denote a "rushed" and panicky tone, I'll write deliberately run-on sentences without the normal commas. That increases the pace.

This is intentional and crafted by the author. A newbie writer might tell a story line nicely, get all the facts and description and so on, but the reading will be flat and featureless, and if that same style is used throughout the book, it quickly becomes boring.

The only way to learn otherwise is to study great writers within the style or genre which you're working. For me, I find much of the popular fantasy unreadable -- the characters speak as if they're giving a written, prepared speech and the story narrative is stuck in the 19th century. Fine for fans of this but not for me.

I am a modern American crime novelist and so I learn from the experts in that field --- Robert Crais, Bill Pronzini, John Sandford. And I learn from the greats: Hemingway, Faulkner, and more lately Cormac McCarthy and a few others. Then I work and rework and rewrite over and over until I get precisely the rhythm I want. And punctuation is part of that. It's hard but then when the publisher buys your books? Hey, success!
"Ineluctable modality of the visible..."
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