I know, in my writing, I misuse punctuation at times.
, . – : ; / … ‘ “ () [] {} ?!
I write a lot. In one year… not too long ago… I filled 17 Journals. The average is about 9. What can I say, I like to write. I have wonderful fountain pens that I can write with endlessly, and never get writer’s cramps. There have been times in my life, when I wrote a lot of letters too.
People have told me my handwriting is very nice. And I hope easy to read.
BUT, I have developed my own use for some punctuation… to better suit the way I write – especially in my journals. Here are a couple of examples:
em dash – It’s that long dash like the one right before this sentence. I prefer it to show a significant connection between to (grammatically correct) sentences. They could be independent sentences, though one might not make a lot of sense. My point is to emphasize the connection.
ellipses… I use as an extra long pause. If you were reading this aloud, this is where you would take a breath. Though honestly, you are probably going to breath at other places as well. But that is what I use it for. Take a mental breath.
Whereas, I know people who would see this misuse as a sign of the coming apocalypse, I will continue to use it, and duck under my desk when I see your car.
And I have some new ideas as well… like… what ever happened to the interobang?!
And don’t get me started on Colons and Semi-Colons.
I use the…um…er…triple dot things like you. Also, I’ve never been able to figure out when to use a semi-colon rather than a comma, so I don’t. I used to know, well, I think I used to know, its hard to remember things sometimes.
LikeLike