Stinking Commas

There are so many aspects in regard to writing that it's sometimes very difficult to make sure that you cross every t, dot every i and place every stinking comma in the right place. I am starting to hate those stinking commas.

Here's the situation, I have this site that I've recently joined...okay, not so recently, I joined it in January. It's called FanStory.com and this is a site for writers to post their work and get review from other writers. It does help in pointing out what the problem areas are in your own writer, but let's be honest shall we? It's mostly an ego booster for writers. You know, a consistent flow of wonderful sounding praise of how wonderful and a great story it is. Some is completely BS of course, but there are the times when someone actually offers up good and practical advice and/or reviews.

In the process of those helpful reviews I have found the one chink in my writing skills. Those stinking comma placements! I usually don't use enough of them apparently, or I use them in the wrong place. And it's surprising that this is my problem. I mean, I've known that grammar isn't my strong suit. Why? Well that's easy, being a military brat has made getting a steady influence of proper grammar at a consistent level. This is of course annoying.

Making it worse is that apparently, surprising, creative writing utilizes a different grammar set of rules than normal writing for e-mails, essays and other forms of written communication. What we learned in school was more than likely are APA or MFA. Oh no, Creative Writing and novels in general are checked with the Chicago Style Guide which is a set of very complicated, very annoying rules that incorporate a hell of a lot more rules.

Why the hell do novels have to hold to a stricter code of grammar????

Sigh, I know the reality is that I can' change it. All I can do is make sure that I learn it. In the meantime I think I'll continue to moan, groan and growl at those stinking commas and hope that the rules will eventually sink into my brain.

Inspiration comes from the oddest of places

Today me and the kids had gone out shopping and somehow, I'm not sure what spurred it, but my 6 year old and I started talking about a city in the clouds. I think it began because we were talking about cars that fly or something like that. As it is with all six year old girls, the discussion about what would be in the city was grass, Unicorns, schools (yay) and so forth.

Then Raven asked me, "Would that city last forever Mommy?"

My answer, unbidden and totally unthinkingly I answered, "Until the power goes out."

I honestly don't know why that popped in my head, but this gives an idea of how my mind works. I had this perfect vision of my head of the City of Clouds in Star Wars falling to the planet all because the power went on the fritz. Imagine for a moment...blink, blink, darkness then screams as gravity takes hold and the whistling of the air as it streaks down to the planet. The whistle in the ears and the pressure of gravity pushing the human body against the floors which prevents anyone from moving beyond reaching out to the hand of the person next to you....

And I got all of this from talking to my 6 year old!

I'm not unused to the idea of my daughter, but usually she inspires my art. Very rarely does she ever inspire my writing though. Not that I mind, okay, I mind a little bit only because what came from the inspiration was one of violence, terror and what could be a horrible event if it goes to the eventual conclusion that could happen.

Oh well, it happens from time to time and since I have this mind that tends to twist even the most innocent of items to the most peculiar images. Remember, it always starts with just an idea then moves into something totally unique.