While going through my story for a third time, I have notice my tendency to place a , instead of actually ending a sentence. I think I deleted hundreds of commas from my book already.

I couldn’t tell you why I am in love with the comma. It’s much more dramatic to use a period over a comma, but I can’t seem to stop using it. I think I need to go to comma rehab. Do you have a love affair with a punctuation mark? If so, which one?

I must break this habit immediately if I want to become a better writer, but even as I write this sentence I cannot give up the comma. Oh, whatever shall I do?

Below I have listed some rules for the comma just to clarify to anyone who may question if the comma is truly needed. I have found nine times out of ten that I had to get rid of it.

Rule 1. Use a comma to separate three or more things like bed, shoes, and dog.

Rule 2. Use a comma to connect two independent clauses, but don’t make the sentence too long, so it doesn’t confuse the readers.

Rule 3. Use a comma when you want to include an add-on, which would make the sentence better.

Rule 4. I think this one is used the most during writing. Before a quote, “I would add the comma.” Or “I could add the comma at the end of the quote,” this amazing person said.

Rule 5. Use a comma, to avoid confusion.

Okay I am only posting five rules. There are many rules to the comma. It would probably take me all day to list them all, which I just don’t have time for. Why must you know these rules, so you know when you can break them, of course!

I apologize for the lateness of this post. I had some technical difficulties. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to talk about for this blog post. In between the Internet deciding to work and now. I read an amazing book. The Fault in our Stars by John Green.

If you have not read this book I recommend that you do so immediately. It is about a girl dying of cancer who meets a boy. Inevitably they fall in love. A book like this can have no happy ending, but it does have some lessons to be learned. For instance, how strong is love? Does true love exist? These are questions that are asked in this book. I don’t think the questions are necessarily answered, but the way he goes about describing the sentiment of love is interesting.

I am not going to lie to you; this book made me cry. I don’t think I have cried so hard in a long time. Let me just quote a passage from this book and you can decide for yourselves what you think of his writing:

“I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I’m in love with you.”

If you don’t love this paragraph then this book isn’t for you, but if it spoke to your heart the way it did mine, then please check out this book. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

In lieu of Valentine’s Day I will post a list of some of my favorite literary couples. These couples are the reason I love to read and also why no real guy will probably ever live up to my expectations. (Warning: some spoilers if you haven’t read Bloodrose, or the Hunger Games.

1. Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice)
2. Clary and Jace (Immortal Instruments)
3. Patch and Nora (Hush, Hush)
4. Magnus and Alec (Immortal Instruments)
5. Meghan and Ash (Iron Fey Series)
6. Sam and Grace (Shiver Trilogy)
7. Ron and Hermione (Harry Potter)
8. Katniss and Peeta (Hunger Games)
9. Sonny and Kelley (Wondrous Strange)
10. Rose and Dimitri (Vampire Academy)

With every great couple there is a person left behind, so let’s pay tribute to some of these poor souls.

1. Ren  (Nightshade)
2. Damon (Vampire Diaries)
3. Adrian (Vampire Academy)
4. Gail (Hunger Games)
5. Eric (House of night series)

Here’s one more list for those famous ill-fated couples who loved too much and lost everything.

1. Romeo and Juliet
2. Tristan and Isolde
3. Lancelot and Guinevere (Queen of Camelot)
4. Heathcliff and Catherine (Wuthering Heights)

I didn’t include any unresolved love triangles because we will have to wait and see who will get their heart’s desire and who will be left behind. Happy Valentine’s Day!

I would like to make something clear. I am very grateful for all the friends and family who are supporting me on my decision to write. The last post was in no way about any of you. I love you all and I thank you for your support.

Writing for a career is in a way choosing to isolate myself. It is not always easy. In fact there are days I want to throw my computer out the window. I have doubts and fears. It’s long hours and little pay, but I love it! I have always been a writer. I always knew I wanted to write. I am a writer heart and soul. I feel like there was never any other choice for me. My family has always encouraged me to follow my dreams. Even when they don’t agree or understand; I have always had their support. They are the reason I have the strength to go for what I want. So to my friends and family I just want to say thank you for being there for me. It means the world that I have your support.

In other news:

I have four chapters to edit before I begin editing all over again. I sent my story to my aunt who has been sending me great feedback on word usage, plot, characters, etc. It has been a huge help. I feel like I finally have someone reading my story who understands the critiquing process. I still plan on sending it out by this spring and I think it should be ready by then, so I am still on track.

Writing is a profession. It may not make a lot of money and I may have to work another job to support myself, but writing is a job. I am working towards a goal. I write for myself right now and yes, I have dreams of seeing my work published.

I feel like people just don’t get it sometimes. When you ask me what I am doing with my life, I will tell you every time that I am writing a book. It is my passion and my life. I have put countless hours into this project. I don’t feel like it’s a waste of time. I feel like it has potential. I like having a job that pays the bills, but also leaves me time and energy to work on my writing.

I don’t have fancy things. I’ll be honest I am sleeping on an air mattress right now and I am lucky that I can pay my bills every month. Who isn’t struggling right now? They don’t call it a starving artist for nothing.

It makes me angry and sad when someone asks me when I am going to find a real job. I wish they would understand. I don’t have a 9 to 5 job, nor do I want one. I don’t want to waste my energy trying to achieve something that I don’t really want because I have done that. I feel like that’s time and energy that can go towards working on my dream. I won’t be in this position forever, but for now I am content.

If someone questions your dreams, just tell them life is too short to do what other people want you to do. I want you to know I understand how it feels. I can only speak for myself, but I think most writers would agree with this sentiment. So if you are a struggling artist, hang in there and never give up!

I mentioned in a past post about how reading is a learning tool for me. There has been something that has been bothering me, so I thought I would discuss it with you today. Is there a right or wrong writing style?

I am driving myself crazy revising my first draft. I want the punctuation to be perfect, but is there such a thing as perfect punctuation?

For example, I feel the use of fragments is very gray. I was told never start a sentence with and, so, or but. I was also told always write a proper sentence; no fragments allowed. I took a class where the professor threw all those strict rules out the window. He said fragments can be written as a form of style. And it was okay to start a sentence like this. It’s more of a personal choice. Kaye Dacus, romance writter, wrote a great blog about when you should or shouldn’t use fragments. You can read it here.

I think it depends on the meaning of your sentence. What are you trying to convey to your reader? Does your punctuation truly made sense or do you think it just looks good that way. You can call me a nerd, but I love reading grammer books that show you how puncuation can change the entire meaning of your sentence. A really good book is Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.

If you think punctuation doesn’t matter, well look at this sentence and tell me if you can detect the difference in the meaning:

A woman without her man is nothing.

A woman: without her man is nothing.

This example came from Eats, Shoots & Leaves. There are all kinds of examples like this in that book. I recommend you pick it up if you have not read it yet. But to get back on target, I don’t believe there is any one right way to use puntuation in your writing. As long as you can spread your message the way you intend then I say break all the punctuation rules you want. It worked for Emily Dickinson —with the long breaks at the end—of her poems.

Thanks to a lot of caffeine in the past week, I only have seven chapters left to edit before I am finished with my first full edit. It took me a month and a half to write the first draft and it has taken me two months to get through my first edit. I am happy that I continue to make progress on this novel.

With the help of a large cup of coffee currently sitting next to me, I hope to finish two more chapters tonight. My last two posts focused on Fear and Doubt and I can happily say that for the moment both have decided to leave me in peace. After I finish my edit, I will have to go back through and edit again because I ended up changing some things half way through. It’s kind of tedious when you make a small change, like someone’s eye color and you have to go back and make sure the eyes remain the same color throughout the entire novel, but consistency is important.

I started researching literary agents and their companies. I have also read a lot of articles about the dreaded query letter, which I will discuss in more detail in another post. I can’t help wondering how do you know when you are ready to start querying. This could probably be another post in itself and I might turn it into one, but as I go through my edits, I know I have to reread at least two more times before it will be ready. After that I think I might just go for it and start querying. If nothing else, maybe I will get some feedback on the novel. I am happy to say that I feel like I am still on target for my new year’s resolution and my personal writing goals. How do you decide if your writing is ready to query?

As promised, this post is going to be about Fear. We all experience fear, but it’s how we deal with that fear that truly makes us who we are.

Last time I talked about Doubt and how its trying to hold me back. Well, Doubt is able to make me question everything, Fear has the ability to paralyze me if I let it. Fear of people not liking my book. Fear of never being published. Fear that my writing isn’t good enough. Here’s a little tip that I tell myself whenever Fear tries to get in my way: I remind myself that as of now all of these things could be true. I am not published and if I don’t try, I never will be. I won’t know if people like my book or writing if I don’t let them read it. My fears are irrational and I just have to keep telling myself that.

Sometimes, in order to push myself I will use my fear as a challenge. If I’m afraid of how someone will view my writing, I will give it to someone to read. I tell myself to keep going because I made it this far (i.e finishing the novel) so I might as well continue my editing. It is the only way I will know for sure if my writing is good enough.

It’s easy to let Fear take over and hold you back. I could give up on my writing right now and no one would be the wiser, except me. I am in that stage where I write for myself. I read a quote the other day that said, “Write what you want because no one cares.” I have this quote hanging on my wall as a reminder that I can do what I want. Now is the time to embrace my fear and just go for it because at this moment I have nothing to lose.

How do you get over your fear?

That demon has been creeping into my head again. I am sure all you writers know exactly what demon I am talking about. It slithers like a snake and whispers terrible thoughts into your ear. Making you question every word or idea you have previously loved. You feel like you are on the right track and then Doubt comes along and changes everything.

I am in the middle of revising my novel and Doubt has decided to take up residence in my mind. Doubting whether my writing will ever be good enough? Are my characters strong enough? Does my plot make sense? Will other people like my novel? I am finding it hard to fight this demon off. I have to remain strong and positive or I am never going to finish this novel, but Doubt is trying its best to kill my motivation. I worked on my novel all day on Friday and I reached a point where I had to turn my computer off and walk away.  

I am now fighting through another one of my chapters and Doubt refuses to leave my side. I get so frustrated that I want to scream sometimes. I refuse to let Doubt win. I am pushing through this chapter. I will win, I will win…win win win! This is all I can do to keep myself going. That and chant, “my writing matters to me.”

Have any of you had this experience? If so, what did you do to overcome it?

Next time I will talk about Doubt’s older, stronger brother known as Fear.

I was reading Sherlock Holmes on my nook when I realized it only had the first twelve adventures. I went to the book store today and I found a complete Sherlock Holmes edition with the original illustrations!

I know Sherlock Holmes is a classic, but I had never read any of the stories before. I have seen both of the movies, which were great in my opinion. The more I read about Sherlock Holmes, the more I can see Robert Downy Jr. He really makes a perfect Sherlock Holmes. He portrayed his cynicism and arrogant personality really well.

I love figuring out the relationship between Sherlock and Watson. Arthur Conan Doyle created two characters who will do anything for the other one. Watson always comes with Sherlock even when he knows it’s dangerous and I think Sherlock finds comfort in Watson coming with him. He always warns Watson of the possible danger, but I think he knows Watson will still come along. It’s refreshing to read a friendship that doesn’t get destroyed by a female, at least I don’t think it does. Sherlock and Watson might have possibly been the first “bromance” in history.

The details in his characters mostly come to life through their actions and dialogue. And the creativity that goes into these mysteries, amazes me. For example, a woman being killed by a snake, which has been trained to climb through a vent and down a rope…I can’t stop reading, wondering what the next mystery and solution will be. So if you’re in the mood to read a classic with a mystery, then I highly recommend you take a look at Sherlock Holmes.