I think it might be because English my second laguage, I avoided em-dashes and semicolons until recently, after studying how experienced authors use them. I've also seen writers joke about using really long sentences with lots and lots of commas... I got a lot of feedback on sentence fragments.
I had to sometimes remind myself that advice that is useful to the majority (stop using so many commas in a sentence), might not apply in my case. I felt two clauses in a sentence a bit excessive when I first got serious about studying writing. I was wrong, the sentence should match the content.
Yes, The sentence should be what the character/story gives you. However, it's useful to know the effect shorter and longer sentences have an the reader (in any language). For just a brief example, a short sentence or fragment conveys a sense of drama. A longer, less punctated sentence conveys more emotion, and conveys it more strongly. Punctuation for Writers explains that and much, much more. Readersl aways respond to punctuation (or the lack of it) in predictable ways.
I agree. It's partly why I was averse to em-dashes and semicolons as well, I wasn't fully aware of the effect on the reader, so I stuck to safe and standard stuff.
I think it might be because English my second laguage, I avoided em-dashes and semicolons until recently, after studying how experienced authors use them. I've also seen writers joke about using really long sentences with lots and lots of commas... I got a lot of feedback on sentence fragments.
I had to sometimes remind myself that advice that is useful to the majority (stop using so many commas in a sentence), might not apply in my case. I felt two clauses in a sentence a bit excessive when I first got serious about studying writing. I was wrong, the sentence should match the content.
Yes, The sentence should be what the character/story gives you. However, it's useful to know the effect shorter and longer sentences have an the reader (in any language). For just a brief example, a short sentence or fragment conveys a sense of drama. A longer, less punctated sentence conveys more emotion, and conveys it more strongly. Punctuation for Writers explains that and much, much more. Readersl aways respond to punctuation (or the lack of it) in predictable ways.
I agree. It's partly why I was averse to em-dashes and semicolons as well, I wasn't fully aware of the effect on the reader, so I stuck to safe and standard stuff.
Absolutely. And there is very seldom a need for semicolons in fiction.