Ten writers for children. All with something to say.

11/17/11

On Your Mark; Get Set; Go! (Semicolons, commas or periods?



What you see here is an illustration by Salvador Dalí of Don Quixote de La Mancha translated by Peter Motteux. Poet David R. Wagoner gave me the book when he learned that I was writing about Dalí.What an honor!

That precious gift is forcing me to finish the Dalí biography by next spring. I also want to revise Late She Came to Know, the novel I had talked about here.

While working on both, I will study how to use the mechanics of writing--punctuation, capitals, italics, sentence structure, paragraph length, white spaces--to show the mood of a scene. All this time I have been concentrating on word choices. I won't stop. But it's time to pay attention to those commas.

6 comments:

David LaRochelle said...

That is a gorgeous book, Carmen!

And good, luck, navigating the CHALLENGING world of: punctuation and...Capitalization; it's a "tricky" business to use it EffEctiveLy!!!!

Edie Hemingway said...

Wow, Carmen, I never thought about how punctuation and all the mechanics of writing could affect the mood of a scene. What an interesting goal to pursue, and what a beautiful book!

Mark said...

Carmen, thanks for reminding us of the many salient parts of writing that can impact the final product. Good luck on finishing your biography project this winter!

Stephanie said...

Wow, that is so beautiful. And good luck as you continue with your projects, can't wait to read them:)

Anonymous said...

nice blog, good job done man! keep it up...

Lauren said...

What a beautiful gift! So inspiring~ it reminds me of how each books gathers its gifts- good luck with your Dali book. I look forward to reading it! And your novel as well. And thank you for the reminder of paying attention to punctuation!