I Have a Pet Named Peeved

They Exist!

They exist, they exist. I promise you, they exist!!

There are two little buttons that are on your keyboard, they're not mythical, they're not magical, but they do exist!

Commas and periods. See?

................................................................................ <-- periods

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, <-- commas

Run on sentences will forever die a tragic death if people would remember that the commas and the periods exist to stop them.

I have read several stories that continuously have run on sentences...there is a reason they're called run ons....they go on and on and on and on....and on...

It gets boring and when you have 3 sentences in one....my comment to that is: This is the one place where a 3-for-1 isn't a good thing. For every person that writes in English, I'm assuming you have a grasp of the basic functions of it. THAT INCLUDES commas and periods. So please use them.

For example, I might see something like this:

I came home and threw the keys on the table and went to the bathroom and then came back to the living room and decided to watch TV but before I did, I went and got a snack.

Obviously, this author has no clue that commas and periods would make that more interesting AND make the fluency better. If it were properly punctuated it might look something like this:

When I came home, I threw the keys on the table and went straight to the bathroom. After, I got a snack and settled on the couch in the living room. I finally decided to watch TV.

Wow! 3 sentences! See how the 3-for-1 deal doesn't work here? And see how I used more commas and periods?

Not only does a run on ruin the flow of your story, it gets sloppy. I'm not claiming that I'm perfect and don't have issues with run ons every now and then, but when it's obvious it's a run on, don't get offended if someone calls you out on it.

On the other hand, I've seen some stories have so many commas that it really interrupts the flow. I was taught that Commas = a pause.

So when ever I see something like this:

I went to the mall, and found, a pair of jeans, and some sunglasses, and...

Okay I can't even finish that sentence it annoys me so much. But you get the point.

Speaking of commas and periods...It annoys the hell out of me when an author that has shit grammar, punctuation and even spelling is on the What's Hot List. I've read very good stories without a million reads AND they have the added bonus of proper grammar, punctuation AND spelling.

When I read something like this:

i went so slowly but my car, a mercedes-benz still went into a tailspin. My passenger whos name is gracie was screaming in my ear the entire time. She said We almost died lucy!!!!! did you see that?!?!?!?!"

I want to gag, gag, gag, gag, gag. It makes me sooo ashamed of those kind of writers that someone with that kind of grammar get's onto the WHL AND those same people are encouraging even more horrendous writing by saying "OMG! this was soo good, please write more! I can't wait until the next upload!"

I have seen this countless times, and each time I want to beat my computer screen, screaming in an indecipherable language. If they were so great, they wouldn't have so many errors in their writing. And while you're at it, you're showing your ignorance of the English language, so please go back to first and second grade and relearn how to write. Now, for those learning English as a second language, this doesn't apply to you. And I know that I'm not exaggerating because I KNOW for a fact that some writer's have done this and have been on the WHL.

That paragraph up there should be written like this:

I went so slowly but my car, a Mercedes-Benz, still went into a tailspin. My passenger, who's name is Gracie, was screaming in my ear the entire time. She shrieked, "We almost died Lucy! Did you see that?!"

See what a difference that makes??

So I'm going to stop before I offend anyone else lol. Comment if you wish, vote if you want, and fan (or unfan me if that's case) because of this.