A Comma is a Quarter-note Rest

2024.12.20

Good morning, that wonderful way.

Daydreams, moonbeams and you.

How'd you do?

A colloquial start for your practical day.

Hope all is well.

On with the show.

Show don't tell, an old writer's rule.

The best ignore it.

Trust your voice and tell the story, is a better one.

It's the storytelling business.

Show business is for Hollywood and Broadway.

It really means let the reader make up their own mind as to what's going on.

Paint pictures with words, encourage and direct feelings and thoughts with tone.

But the act of discovery always has to be there. Otherwise it's just a creative essay.

"Writing about writing again, Ghos+?"

Yup. Artist doodles to get the pen moving. Scales for a musician.

The best way to learn anything is to teach it to another, imaginary or not.

The act of teaching requires a comfort and conciseness with the material necessary to know it well.

Learning something new?

Teach it to yourself, or your dog, or your friend, or your imaginary friend. He's always game for learning something new.

Language is interesting to teach; by nature it's so subjective.

My use of commas and semi-colons would raise some teacher's red pens for correction.

Others would call it style and correct.

Others would remember I've most likely been at this longer than them, and I'm a poet first; smile, wonder at why the choice, and read on.

It's rhythm. The tempo of each sentence sets the mood, determines the key signature and genre for the paragraph and piece.

A comma is a quarter note rest, a semi-colon a half-note, a colon a full-note, a period the end of a riff.

Some writers despise the semi-colon. "Use a period. Rewrite the sentence... etc.."

Because they do, and have for sometime, its become a great tool for shaking up the rhythm of the line, an awkward moment to make sure you remember you're reading, a waltz in the established era of four four Rock and Roll; it's a gong hit in a symphony.

Thanks for bad-mouthing the semi-colon; you increased its effectiveness.

Well, I could go on with writing on writing or have breakfast and write something more on something else somewhere else.

I'll go with the latter.

Take care, remember grammar is a canvas; not a prison, and have your better day.