Punctuation the Music of Language? The ART of PUNCTUATION or A DASH of STYLE by Noah Lukeman

This post was first published March 9th, 2009.
Punctuation is not my strong point. I often hesitate before placing a comma in a sentence.

No, I mean ...

Punctuation is not my strong point and I often hesitate before inserting a comma into a sentence.

Or, maybe I mean ...

Punctuation isn't my strong point; I often hesitate before reaching for a comma.

I think you get my drift.

Here, Noah Lukeman writes almost lovingly about that set of signs and symbols, those indispensable marks, which, when inserted into a text, elucidate or obfuscate meaning and expression.

There are hundreds of books dealing with punctuation. What sets this volume apart is that it is aimed squarely at writers; as is set out in the introduction:

'This is not a book for grammarians ... This book is for the audience
that needs it the most and yet for whom, ironically, a punctuation book
has yet to be written: creative writers.'

When I read a (usually unpublished) writer declaring, 'Punctuation? No dealbreaker. The line-editor will correct it,' I often bring to mind a macho type, pointing Percy at the porcelain, missing the pot and saying, 'No worries, I'll have the missus clean it up.'

Laziness? Arrogance? Ineptitude? Or an uncouth mix of all three?

Setting aside apostrophes and slashes, Lukeman ably, and entertainingly, takes us through the most important marks, illustrating his points with telling examples, pointing up underuse and overuse, and setting us end-of-chapter exercises.

There's a lot of food for thought here:

'Why did Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver lean heavily on the full stop? Why did William Faulkner eschew it? Why did Edgar Allen Poe and Herman Melville rely on the semicolon? Did Emily Dickinson embrace the dash, Gertrude Stein avoid the comma? How could the punctuation differ so radically between these great authors? What did punctuation add that language itself could not?'

Such is tempered with practical, no-nonsense suggestions for improving one's work.

• Ever wondered what your use of paragraph and section breaks reveals about you?

• Do you want to know what F. Scott Fitzgerald said about the exclamation mark?

• Ever thought why Cormac McCarthy avoids commas?
  

Excellent stuff. Every writer of English and American English should keep a copy within easy reach of the desk.

The U.S. edition is titled:  A Dash of Style and is published by W.W. Norton & Co.
The U.K. edition is titled: The  Art of Punctuation and is published by Oxford University Press.

If you're curious to learn what Lukeman writes about the period (or full-stop) go here for Part One, here for Part Two, here for Part Three and, finally, here for Part Four of  an extract drawn from the U.S. paperback edition, posted on the very informative Writers Store website.

SUNDAY RE-WIND: The FIRST FIVE PAGES by Noah Lukeman

Aware you may not have read popular posts from 2009 I'll be re-posting stuff every Sunday. Here's the first - my thoughts on Noah Lukeman's The First Five Pages.

The author of this handbook, Noah Lukeman, is a literary agent, writer and editor. As an agent he's sold over 200 titles to publishers. His client list includes Pulitzer Prize winners, and his clients' titles feature regularly on the New York Times bestseller lists. Interestingly, one of his fiction clients is Gene Hackman, the well-regarded Hollywood actor.

You can find out more at his agency's website . But don't get too excited -- he's not currently accepting queries. But it's well worth checking out the site because you'll find two very useful downloads: How to Write a Great Query Letter and How to Land a Literary Agent, both of which I strongly recommend you read.

After you've written, and re-written, your novel, put it up on a crit site for feedback, and re-edited, re-structured, and re-written accordingly, there will come a time when you'll want to start shopping it around agents. STOP. Read this book first.

The First Five Pages -- A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile is an excellent handbook for all writers, not only novelists, at all stages of development.

In two words this book is focussed on word economy; every single word in those first five pages (or first five sentences) has to really work to earn its presence.

Lukeman methodically (yea, forensically) dissects and examines, giving examples of enfeebling prose, every aspect of the writing-reading experience. Reading the book is akin to having a sharp editor sat aside you at your desk, talking you through the process of skimming a slush pile.

Each chapter is topped with a quote from a known writer and tailed with a practical exercise.

I enjoy Lukeman's prose; it's clear, cogent, eloquent, precise and sincere.

There's a lot of information and opinion here, and Lukeman manages to get it across in digestible style. One could say his tone is a bit humourless -- but, hey, do you still need sugar with your medicine?

The only advice in this book which I would advise writers to seek more specific advice is on the method used to consign work to a targeted agent. Here, Lukeman advocates using FedEx, or other guaranteed-signature delivery method. This will have some agents, such as the legendary Miss Snark, climbing walls.

I'm aware some writers find Lukeman's tone to be superior, or condescending. For others he's overly precious. What do you think?

Next Sunday: Noah Lukeman's The Art of Punctuation.

TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER by Dwight V. Swain

No writer in his right mind writes by a set of rules. At least, not by somebody else's rules.

Not sure why, but mention of this very useful how-to book - the best I've come across - seems to provoke much agonised ire among some would-be paid and published writers on Authonomy.


There's some very useful stuff in here. And it works. Or, rather, it works in so far as you'll likely feel sufficiently inspired and motivated to try the techniques discussed.

Swain makes considerable effort to impress on the writer-reader that the tips, tricks and techniques discussed are simply tools - and the learning of how to deploy them is easily acquired over time. More importantly for Swain is that you, a writer, understand the why behind the techniques.

Before getting into the meat of how to build a story Swain tackles word choice and arrangement, including healthy discussion of adverbs, active verbs, meaning, denotation and connotation, vividness and brevity.

The essential building blocks of Swain's approach are Scenes and Sequels. Scene is followed by Sequel followed by Scene followed by Sequel, in a chain, from first to last page.

Scenes are units of conflict unified by time; built around Goal, Conflict and Disaster.
Sequels are units of transition that link scenes; built around Reaction, Dilemma and Decision.

Another key concept of Swain's method is the Motivation Reaction Unit. A character receives a motivating stimulus and reacts. The character's reaction breaks down into three chronologically ordered components: Feeling, Action, Speech. Each Scene and Sequel is built on a series of Motivation Reaction Units.

Essentially, however, Swain makes vital that the whole of a (selling) writer's endeavours need be based on feeling; without it you die as a writer. After laying out his position on feeling in the introductory chapter - Fiction and You - Swain uses the 47 pages of Chapter Three: Plain Facts about Feelings to discuss the importance of feelings for the writer, characters and the reader.

Without feeling he (the reader) won't care what happens in your story.
If he doesn't care, he stops reading.
And you're dead.

The book is packed with extremely useful fodder for reflection and action. Though the book does not contain any exercises, (Exercises excite no one. Palpably artificial, only tenuously related to the difficulties that beset you, they turn writing into drudgery for anyone. p.20), most honest would-be writers, I think, will find it difficult to resist trying out a few of the techniques.

Given the book was first published in 1965 some writers will cavil at Swain's references and examples, and perhaps, its sometimes antiquated tone. I find such very much part of its charm.

Editors' and readers' tastes, particularly with regard to word-count, pace and point-of-view (especially the modish Deep POV), have shifted since the book's publication -- but not so far as to undermine any of the excellent advice offered here.

A final few words from Swain:
So buckle down and forge yourself a kit of techniques out of the iron of your own copy. Each story will give you more experience to translate into literary process. Each trick mastered will free you just a little more from your feelings of inadequacy and frustration.
Finally, your excitement soars, unshackled, and to your own amazement you discover that somehow, in spite of everything, you've turned out to be a writer.

HOW TO WRITE DAMN GOOD FICTION - Advanced Techniques for Storytelling - by James N. Frey

Originally issued as How to Write a Damn Good Novel II in 1994 this handbook was re-issued in 2002.

As with More About How to Write a Mi££ion this is a follow-up. However, it's not more of the same.


The author James N.Frey (that N. is very important) uses the opportunity not to expand on or extrapolate previously aired discussion, but to challenge his own prior stated thinking regarding what he terms here as the 'pseudo-rules' and the effective principles of creative writing.

Frey disarms the reader with his honesty from the off:
'... pseudo-rules are taught to beginners to make life easier for the creative-writing teacher.
...
I believed in the pseudo-rules fervently, and in turn, years later, inflicted them on my students. Now, I realize there's a difference between pseudo-rules and effective principles ...'

So, how does the repentant Frey tackle his subject?

Well, he promises to demonstrate, 'how viewpoints can be switched effectively within a scene, how the author can intervene almost at will and how you can achieve total intimacy no matter which viewpoint you choose.'

Does he succeed? Yes, though he could have been more succinct getting there.

Frey writes with a muscular tone; very much like a hale and ruddied uncle, claw-hammer in one hand, a fistful of tacks in t'other, keen to share his experience of clumping a few bits of wood together to make a cabinet and enthusing his nephew or niece.

His love of the subject often leads Frey to deploy seven examples from actual texts when, perhaps, two or three would suffice. But his heart is in the right place - he just so wants you to get it.

His chapter headings, viz. Don't Promise a Primrose and Deliver a Pickle, are effective if affected - they do make you look.

It's a good book. There's a lot of good stuff in here. And it's an easy read with a useful bibliography.

I picked up a copy at a remainder store for 50 pence - but I would have paid more.

How useful is it day-to-day? Well, it's not in the toolkit, but I look at it about six times a year. It's earned its keep on the shelf.

Worth picking up if you see it in a second-hand bookstore.

More about HOW TO WRITE A MI££ION - The Essential Guide to Becoming a Successful Author by Wood, Reed & Bickham

Some writing handbooks are inspiring as well as instructive. Noah Lukeman's The Art of Punctuation is one such. After reading a chapter from the book I feel a need to write a few passages and play around with the placement of punctuation - to test how subtle changes can alter rhythm, pace, cadence, emphasis and meaning.

More About How to Write a Mi££ion is more instructive than inspiring.

Having said that it's still useful - in parts.

With a foreword by novelist Michael Ridpath (who was plucked from the slushpile by agent Carole Blake at Blake Friedmann) this is actually three books - Description - Revision - Setting - wrapped in a single cover, issued as a follow up to the original How to Write A Million.

I find the discussion of telling detail in Description useful.

Some of the stuff in the section Revision is useful - but overall I feel it a bit laboured. Most readers of this blog would, as the writer suggests, skip straight to Chapter Three: Kinds of Revision.

I did find a lot of the stuff in the Setting section very useful. And I have to say I believe my use of settings did improve after reading and studying it. Many readers/reviewers on YWO, for example, have commented positively on my ability to describe setting and atmosphere economically and convincingly in my novel After Goya.

The book reminds us that the same physical settings can have a radically different feel and appearance depending on the time of day and time of year. These changes in the mood of a place are often caused by local custom or byelaws, local geography and/or weather patterns; details often overlooked during research.

Here, in Barcelona, for example, most shops outside the tourist zones close every Saturday afternoon; and a good proportion of businesses close down for the whole of August. Visitors from the States and the UK find this difficult to understand; non-visitors likely assume commerce continues all year round. Any novel set in August in Barcelona would not ring true unless it alluded to the fact that Barcelona is very much a ghost of itself every August.

Again, on New Year's Eve in Barcelona the locals traditionally wear red underwear. You may be pressed to find that information in a tourist guide, but then maybe not. But you get my drift.

So, when visiting an actual location make notes on every aspect of civic and street life. If you've done your job properly you'll find a few telling details amid your notes (e.g. the colour of local taxis, the time of the last metro train, the fact that every other Tuesday in May, June and July the locals indulge some crazy custom, like slapping each other with a certain type of fish [but then, that is the sort of info you would find in a Lonely Planet guide]) that you can use to add not colour but verisimilitude to your work-in-progress.

The section Setting contains a handy chart to use when researching a place, with boxes to note your first impressions through to the political complexion of the local administration.

In summary More About How To Write a Million is worth a look at, if only for the section on settings. I picked up a copy for 50 pence in a remainder shop - so, I didn't feel ripped off - but I'm not convinced it's worth the 9.99 cover price.

Do you have any ideas for dealing with settings? How do you set about researching a place?

WRITING A THRILLER by André Jute

I can't remember precisely what prompted me to buy this book in 1995. I was working on a thriller - but why this particular book and not another handbook? I can't remember. But I'm glad I did.

It cost me a tenner - my MA cost me fifteen hundred quid - I wish I'd had this before, during or even instead of the MA.

First published in 1986 it's been through a few editions - I bought the 1994 edition - and was on sale at this years's BCNegra festival, so someone else must think it's worthwhile.

This book proffers good, no-nonsense basic advice that holds good for writing in any genre. However, its tone will irritate and alienate sensitive types. Tough love drives this book.

The book takes writers through the process of writing and publishing a thriller, from fleshing out the concept to checking the contract. The text is littered with anecdotes such as:

'A Nobel laureate once told me that, within a six-block radius of the bar we were in, there were a hundred better writers than either of us. ... The difference between us, as published writers, and them, as unpublished writers (perhaps not even knowing what fame they could be missing), was merely that we sat down and wrote a page every day or ten pages or some other immutable number, and didn't stop until we reached that number - and they didn't.'

Why do I rate this handbook as highly? Well, it gave me a kick up the arse when I needed it, and I found the chapters Breathing Life into Characters, Writer's Blues: breaching the blocks and The Power and the Pain: cutting and re-writing especially useful.

'A writer writes - it's axiomatic.'

I keep the book within reach and refer to it when I'm experiencing problems with flow or forward motion.

This book prompted me to buy André Jute's Writing Proposals & Synopses That Sell.

Do you have any how-to-write a thriller handbooks you would recommend? If so, please leave a note of them in the comments. Thanks.

Punctuation - the music of language? The ART of PUNCTUATION or A DASH of STYLE by Noah Lukeman

Punctuation is not my strong point. I often hesitate before placing a comma in a sentence.

No, I mean ...

Punctuation is not my strong point and I often hesitate before inserting a comma into a sentence.

Or, maybe I mean ...

Punctuation isn't my strong point; I often hesitate before reaching for a comma.

I think you get my drift.

Here, Noah Lukeman writes almost lovingly about that set of signs and symbols, those indispensable marks, which, when inserted into a text, can elucidate or obfuscate meaning and expression.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of books dealing with punctuation. What sets this volume apart is that it is aimed squarely at writers; as is set out in the introduction:

'This is not a book for grammarians ... This book is for the audience
that needs it the most and yet for whom, ironically, a punctuation book
has yet to be written: creative writers.'

When I read a (usually unpublished) writer declaring, 'Punctuation? No dealbreaker. The line-editor will correct it,' I often bring to mind a macho type, pointing Percy at the porcelain, missing the pot and saying, 'No worries, I'll have the missus clean it up.'

Laziness? Arrogance? Ineptitude? Or an uncouth mix of all three?

Setting aside apostrophes and slashes, Lukeman ably, and entertainingly, takes us through the most important marks, illustrating his points with telling examples, pointing up underuse and overuse, and setting us end-of-chapter exercises.

There's a lot of food for thought here:

'Why did Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver lean heavily on the full stop? Why did William Faulkner eschew it? Why did Edgar Allen Poe and Herman Melville rely on the semicolon? Did Emily Dickinson embrace the dash, Gertrude Stein avoid the comma? How could the punctuation differ so radically between these great authors? What did punctuation add that language itself could not?'

Such is tempered with practical, no-nonsense suggestions for improving one's work.

• Ever wondered what your use of paragraph and section breaks reveals about you?

• Do you want to know what F. Scott Fitzgerald said about the exclamation mark?

• Ever thought why Cormac McCarthy avoids commas?
  

Excellent stuff. Every writer of English and American English should keep a copy within easy reach of the desk.

CORRECT ENGLISH by J.E. Metcalfe & C. Astle

I often chance upon newbie writers in forums* calling for help with various aspects of the craft of writing.

If they need advice about punctuation I refer them to Noah Lukeman's The Art of Punctuation (A Dash of Style in the U.S.).

If it's grammar, spelling or syntax then I move on, leaving other writers to pile in with their helpful suggestions to consult Lynne Truss's remarkably successful Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

I hesitate to recommend Fowler's Modern English Usage for fear it may intimidate. If all you really want to know, right now, this second, are the correct uses of 'lay' and 'lie', then Fowler's is not your best immediate ally.

When using Fowler's you can be too easily sidetracked chasing up references. It's all very diverting, and very educative, but when you have a job to do, a deadline to meet ...

As in a street brawl - you need additional brawn, not brains, at that tense, eyeballing moment when you want to avoid a scrap. Fowler's is your trainer, your coach, not your sidekick. Fowler's will talk you through six rounds of a sparring bout, but will not come to your aid on Las Ramblas at 2.45 a.m. when confronted with a bottle-wielding drunk.

With Correct English you can get in, get it, get out, and get on with whatever is you're working on.

If you don't need a micro-treatise on a, b and c, and you need to know x, y and z, right here, right now, then Correct English is a guide to have within easy reach of the desk.

Unlike Fowler's, Correct English is unafraid to discuss regional variants; it contains a succinct couple of pages on "Scotch, Scottish, Scots", and examples of Yorkshire usage.

And, if you're keen to practice, Correct English contains a useful series of tests on grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary.

Do not be tricked by its lack of a respected colophon, or its seeming 'Ingerlish for Dummies' appearance, Correct English is a useful tool.

* forums not fora? Go here and here.

FROM PITCH TO PUBLICATION - Everything You Need to Know to Get Your Novel Published - by Carole Blake

I think we all have a bit of a twinge, bit of a cringe, when we recall our first efforts of getting our work onto a publisher's editor's desk.
Yes, publisher's editor, not literary agent. Because, before we knew any different, we didn't even query -- just composed a confident covering letter bundled it with our typescript (or handwritten ms) and winged it off to a publisher.*

Yes, we had the Writer's and Artist's Yearbook (first published in 1906), but it didn't offer many clues about prevailing markets.

Today, apart from publishers such as: Alma, Canongate, Constable & Robinson, Monday Books, Myrmidon, Macmillan New Writing, Snowbooks, and Two Ravens Press, we all know, personal connections notwithstanding, we need a literary agent to broker our introductions to commissioning editors.**

And, today, we can call on the generous advice of J.A. Konrath, Miss Snark, the Query Shark, the Frugal Editor, and the Evil Editor, and consult Noah Lukeman's The First Five Pages and How to Write a Great Query Letter, to help us craft a killer query. They are all useful, reliable and recommended sources. However, their expertise is in helping you with specific, technical aspects of the query process.

From Pitch to Publication by Carole Blake is a good, solid source of advice and information which discusses the query hurdle within the context of the whole process, from deciding what to write, through to deciphering royalty statements. It should be considered the standard work for U.K. based commercial fiction writers. And I'm sure a good many U.S. based writers will find it very useful. The index is excellent.

Carole Blake, co-proprietor of Blake, Friedmann Literary, TV & Film agency, (where singer-songwriter Dido once worked as an assistant) knows what she's writing about, and she's a popular speaker at several writers' get-togethers.

I know some writers cavil at some of her advice, such as: "You shouldn't send manuscripts [to prospective agents] that smell (As a life-long non-smoker I have sometimes reeled at the smoky smell given off as a manuscript is unwrapped from its envelope. I could never take a cigarette-smelling manuscript to my home to read, I would find it too unpleasant.)." But I regard that as useful information.

I will stress that Carole Blake's formula (p.31 in the 1999 edition) for an ideal submission (query) package is very much her own, designed to meet her needs when considering material -- you should always format and package your queries according to the wishes of the specific agent you are approaching. Always check -- even individual agents within the same agency have their own preferences.

* I did exactly this with a collection of short-stories way back in 1973 - and it worked - prompting dialogue with an editor at Macmillan which lasted several months.

** Browsing around I turned up quite a few (so far U.K. based only) publishers who will accept submissions from writers - so I'll research this, and post a list of links to publishers who will accept submissions from writers.