Punctuation is your friend

Okay, this is a little late, but in honour of National Punctuation Day, here's a clever little article extolling the virtues of good punctuation and decrying the downturn of proper grammar in an age where communication is all about brevity and speed. No what I m tlking bout?

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Watching+your+language/2041864/story.html

Have you hugged a comma today?

How's the New Year? Shofar, sho good!

I could make excuses.

No, really, I could. I’m very good at coming up with excuses: my brother ate my homework; I’m pretty sure that cake was half-eaten when I bought it; and the ever popular evil twin excuse. But I don’t think I’m going to do that today. I’ve been away for awhile, which was not unavoidable, but it did make things easier. But now, finally, I hope, I’m back where I belong: spewing half-baked ideas across the Internet.

The Jewish New Year has come and gone, and tomorrow is Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, when I will atone for my sins, both the regular kind (coveting thy neighbour’s lawn mower) and the writing kind (bad grammar and run-on sentences). In the year 5770 (according to the Jewish calendar), I am hoping to accomplish many of my life’s ambitions. In an effort to perhaps motivate myself, I’ve decided to compile a top ten list in honour of the new year. So I now proudly present:

The Caboose New Year Writing Resolutions

1) Write every day- I’ve been lax at this, so this has to be number one. I don’t even have to write a lot; even just a couple hundred words a day would be fine. My hope is that if I make this a habit, I’ll be less likely to fall into a funk where I’m using life as an excuse not to write.

2) Improving my dialogue- I love reading conversations. Two quick-witted characters sniping at each other; characters exposing secrets to each other and the reader; I’m a sucker for good dialogue. Unfortunately, my dialogue (at least to my ears) sounds occasionally stilted and unreal. I want my characters to talk like real
people, so I have to make more of an effort to capture that real world inflection that might be missing from my own writing.

3) Be true- One of the aspects of the adoption process is to create a profile that introduces us, explains who we are and why we want to be parents. We worked on that text for weeks (and are still tweaking it), but it turned out to be one of the most “true” things I have ever written—honest, funny, touching, informative and without an ounce of fat. I want to put that in my writing so that readers know what they hold came not only from my imagination, but also from my heart.

4) Become a better self editor- I’m very lucky at work and in life to be surrounded by very talented editors who keep my writing succinct. I tend to ramble a bit when I get going. While it is wonderful to have that support, I have to learn to edit myself, to make sure that my writing is the very best that it can be.

5) Expand my horizons- One of things I have to try is to get out of my comfort zone. Read things that I wouldn’t normally read, write things I would never have dreamt of writing before and experience the world in a new light (and, oh yeah, go outside once in a while to actually SEE natural light).

6) Remember grammar without looking it up- Really annoying grammatical rules, such as hyphenation, that you just have to remember is always a pain. Some I can remember, others I have to look up each and every time. (In particular, you have no idea how #@$*&ing annoying it is when capitalization comes up.)

7) Keep a notebook close by- I often have dreams that have lead to really good ideas for books, characters, plot points, etc. Some of these ideas fall to the wayside; I forgot them by the time I actually got near a piece of paper to put it all down. So I will learn my lesson and keep my notebook close by.

8) Keep track of the books I’ve read- I’ve forgotten many of the books I’ve read in the last few years. Great for re-reading, but I’ve gotten curious as to how much I actually do read in a given year. By keeping track, I can see not only what I read, but what impact it’s had on my writing, because a really good book should add to my repertoire as a writer and a really bad book should teach me lessons of what no to do.

9) Expand my blog writing- It’s a heinous crime that I deny the Internet my brilliant wit and insightful views. A crime, I say! Alright, so I’m not that vain, but I am hoping that I can bring in new ideas, inspiring quotes and interesting links. And one can’t expand a blog if one doesn’t write in it, I am told. Also, I’m thinking I want to redesign the site; make it snazzy and hip. Jazz hands!

10) Finish my book- I started with a story that I really wanted to tell and have created an entire world to which only I have the key. I want to finish telling the story of heroes and villains, of good and evil, of love and betrayal that I started many months ago. This is a story that is worth telling and I am excited to lead it to its
conclusion and at the same time, see where it leads me.

Lucky you, a bonus resolution!

11) Never doubt my desire or ability to be a writer- Over the last few months I might have began to doubt my desire. A week without writing, a month without blogging, do I still want to do this? Why should I spend time writing when good books have already been written and are waiting for me to read? I started to doubt, but my imagination never stopped creating. I crafted a short outline for two other books, with characters that seem as real to me as any of the others that I have envisioned. And I never stopped thinking about the book that’s sitting perhaps a quarter of the way done. I knew that I had not finished telling the stories that I wanted to tell, the stories that I want to pass down to my own children. I am a writer and nothing will deter me, not even me!

I hereby and forthwith vow to follow these resolutions to the best of my ability. I know that I will occasionally slip and forget this list, but I will always be brought back, because to err is human, but to write is divine.