My Writing Tips

And Vs. Commas

Commas, ah yes- these little things: ,

This little period with a tail is a pause in your writing as if you were speaking. Commas link things together to combine long sentences, make lists, and add pauses for effect. (See what I did there?)

If you're making a list of attributes about your character or a list of items, you don't need to use 'and' between every word. Otherwise, it becomes too wordy and very repetitive. I'll let you judge which is better:

"What's your favorite color?"

"I like green and red and blue and purple and gold."

OR

"What's your favorite color?"

"I like green, red, blue, purple, and gold."

It reads much better, doesn't it?

For when you use 'and,' put it at the end of your list like I did in the example. Usually, you use 'and' between two nouns like, "cat and dog." But if you have three or more, then it belongs at the end with each noun being separated by commas: "Cat, dog, and bird."

If you're going to use a comma for a pause, don't overuse it. Think of commas like a temporary period. Commas are a bridge to connect other sentences, without it things would all blend together and create what's known as a run-on sentence. (And that's really difficult to read.)

Commas can also be used like parentheses (these things). By using commas as parentheses, which are generally used to inserting more information, you can give your readers a feeling that you've changed your writing voice.

Go read that last sentence one more time, see if you saw what I did.

When you use commas like parentheses, you create a piece of information that wouldn't change your story if you took it out. (Go read that underlined sentence one more time but take out what's between the commas.)

If you don't think commas make that much of a difference, go write a paragraph or two without them, they really do make that much difference for such a small thing.