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* * LOTS OF HELP for CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHORS—100 CONTACTS and Everything You Need To Know To Submit Your Children’s Book. Click this link to get our insider's tips and tricks: http://www.WritersReliefBlog.com/post/For-Childrens-Book-Authors.aspx.   

* * You've heard of the seven dwarfs. Now you've got SEVEN FUNDAMENTAL COMMA RULES at your fingertips.

* * Are you afraid to ask for help? Have professors or other professionals insisted that you do it yourself? Read DO YOU FEEL GUILTY IF YOU ASK FOR HELP?

* * THE SCOOP ON SENTENCE FRAGMENTS as per the grammar police.

* * Read about our NEWEST E-book, entitled UNTANGLING WEB SUBMISSIONS: ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO PUBLISHING YOUR WRITING ONLINE. http://www.WritersReliefBlog.com/post/Untangling-Web-Submissions-Essential-Guide-To-Publishing-Your-Writing-Online.aspx.

* * You won’t find a better list anywhere (AND IT’S FREE!) of upcoming ANTHOLOGIES, SPECIAL-THEMED JOURNALS, and CONTESTS. Visit: http://WritersReliefBlog.com/post/Anthologies-Contests.aspx.

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Commas have an essential function in creative writing. They indicate to the reader which words should go together in a sentence and which parts of the sentence are the most important. But this little punctuation mark often causes big problems for writers. When do you use a comma? Where does the comma go in a sentence? When do you leave out the comma? What are the rules for comma use?

The comma "rule" that many of us learned—to place a comma anywhere we think a reader should pause—often results in muddled, nearly incoherent sentences like the following:

When Susan was a child, she wanted to be an astronaut, or a doctor, or a banker, but when she graduated from high school, she decided, that she would like to become an artist, and live in a big, exciting, fun city.

This "rule" is, of course, not a rule at all, and following it made the sentence above very difficult to read. Are all nine commas really necessary? Let's check the seven fundamental comma rules.

Comma Rule 1: Use a comma before coordinating conjunctions that join independent clauses.

Coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet

Independent clause: a word group that contains at least one subject, at least one verb, and expresses a complete thought; also called a sentence.

Example: Tom enjoys writing poetry, and he has submitted several poems to regional literary magazines.

Comma Rule 2: Use commas to separate items in a series.

Example: She bought bread, milk, cookies, and juice.

Example: Of the three children, Becky is the oldest, James is the youngest, and Jack is the middle child.

Comma Rule 3: Use a comma after introductory words, phrases, and clauses.

Example: Quietly, she tiptoed past the sleeping child. (introductory word)

Example: Running quickly, Marjorie arrived at the bus stop before the bus pulled away. (introductory phrase)

Example: After he finished his homework, Brian read The Great Gatsby. (introductory clause)

Comma Rule 4: Use commas to set off nonrestrictive phrases or clauses from the rest of the sentence.

Nonrestrictive phrase or clause definition: a phrase or clause that adds nonessential information to the sentence. In other words, if the phrase or clause was removed from the sentence, the sentence would still retain its original meaning.

Example: Several politicians, lawyers, and business leaders attended the conference, which began at 2 p.m. (nonrestrictive clause)

Comma Rule 5: Use a comma between adjectives that modify the same noun.

Hint: If you can put and or but between the adjectives, a comma will probably belong there.

Example: Edgar is a tall, distinguished businessman. (Since we could write tall and distinguished, the comma is necessary.)

Example: When I was in college, I lived in a small brown house next to a filling station. (Since we are not likely to say that we lived in a small and brown house, no comma is necessary between these adjectives.)

Comma Rule 6: Use a comma to separate a direct address from the rest of the sentence.

Example: Becky, please go to the store and buy some milk.

Example: If we don't go soon, Barney, it will be too late.

Comma Rule 7: In direct quotes, use a comma (or commas) to separate the speaker from the quote.

Example: The teacher said, "Please pass your essays to the front of the room."

Example: "I want to go to Grandma's house," the child said.

Example: "Drive to the mall," Mother said, "and buy a new sleeping bag for your camping trip."

Learn more about commas and dialogue format.

Comma placement is not difficult if we follow these basic rules. So let's take another look at the first example: How many of the nine commas are necessary? If you said five, you're correct. Here's the sentence as it should be punctuated:

When Susan was a child, she wanted to be an astronaut or a doctor or a banker, but when she graduated from high school, she decided that she would like to become an artist and live in a big, exciting, fun city.

The first comma in the sentence follows rule 3: Use a comma after introductory words, phrases, and clauses.

The second comma follows rule 1: Use a comma before coordinating conjunctions that join independent clauses.

The third comma follows rule 3: Use a comma after introductory words, phrases, and clauses.

The fourth and fifth commas follow rule 5: Use a comma between adjectives that modify the same noun.

Check out our other articles on comma usage:

Serial Commas, Ellipses, and Em Dashes

The Common Comma

Writing News: Of Commas and Mice

Fragments and Run-On Sentences: Sentence Spoilers

Comma placement can be tricky, but if we follow the fundamental rules, it can—and will—become second nature. (Still unsure? Writer’s Relief offers proofreading for writers who want to submit their best work to editors and literary agents. Or sign up for our Newsflash, which delivers monthly articles to your in-box on the mechanics of writing and the ins and outs of the publishing industry. Best of all, it’s free!)

Hard as it is to admit, we all need a little help at times. We depend on doctors, lawyers, accountants, and even professional tree trimmers. Let's face it—life is hard enough without trying to do everything ourselves.

For writers, making submissions is a tedious, thankless process, one that many writers simply don't have the time to face. And they're not alone.

Many well-known authors ran the submission gauntlet, ending up rejected and frustrated. CS Lewis sent more than 800 manuscripts before he made a sale; Ray Bradbury, also around 800. Alex Haley received 200 rejections before reaching success with Roots. Robert Persig's classic, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, couldn't get started at 121 publishing houses. And e.e. cummings dedicated The Enormous Room, which he self-published, to the publishers who had rejected it.

Other famous authors who chose the self-publishing route—James Joyce, Beatrix Potter, Anaïs Nin, Mark Twain, Upton Sinclair (to name but a few)—probably did so out of sheer frustration with the submission process!

It's a well-known fact that Ernest Hemingway completely ignored the rules of punctuation, and spelling just wasn't his thing. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a notoriously bad speller as well, and in a letter of recommendation to his editor, he repeatedly referred to the as yet unknown Hemingway as "Hemmingway." W.B. Yeats and Hans Christian Anderson had the additional burden of dyslexia to contend with. And yet they were all gifted authors.

English spelling appears to be an illogical, often random affair, and there are plenty of confusing exceptions for every rule.

One study from Stanford found that more than 300 rules would be required to correctly spell half of our 17,000 most frequently used words! The English language is filled with such land mines as silent consonants (talk, yolk), double letters (vacuum, sapphire), plus a host of everyday words we've stolen from other languages (bureau, ballet, mayonnaise, omelets).

Then there are the purely unthinkable combinations that we pass off as words—choir, diphtheria, gherkin, pneumonia—and it's a wunder that anyone can spell anything correctly at all.

At Writer's Relief, our proofreaders do more than check for misspellings. We catch punctuation and grammatical errors that often slip past unnoticed. We flag problems with subject/verb agreement, dangling participles, and formatting errors; we double-check song lyrics, brand names, and quotes; if your character magically transforms from an earl to a lord, our proofers will catch it. We're hunters, tracking inconsistencies in plot, as well as those pesky little homophones that trip everyone up at times.

Writer’s Relief clients are intelligent, capable, and dedicated to their craft. We're here to offer a bit of moral support, a fresh set of eyes, and years of experience navigating the treacherous waters of submission.

That's the philosophy behind Writer's Relief. We handle the business side of writing—the submission process and all it entails—and give our creative writers more time to write. We can’t write your novel for you (although we can help with writing cover and query letters!), but we do offer a valuable service to writers who have talent, perseverance, and courage.

At Writer's Relief, we draw from years of experience managing our clients’ submissions to literary agents and editors. And we have a proven track record of success.

So, let us know if you could use a helping hand. We don't want your dreams to be nipped in the butt.

Sentence fragments pop up in everyone’s writing from time to time. For formal writing, it’s important to be able to write complete sentences: sentence fragments must be avoided at all costs. But in creative writing, fragments can be okay—if you know what you’re doing.

There are many situations in your creative writing when you will want to deliberately use a sentence fragment. Sure, your inner third grader might hear echoes of your teacher’s voice demanding that a sentence have a subject AND a verb. But with creative writing, those rules fly out the window.

Some examples of sentence fragments in creative writing:

Sentence fragments are often successfully used in poetry, such as this haiku by Basho.

an old pond-

the sound of a frog

jumping into water

Advertising agencies and copywriters also make frequent use of sentence fragments to add "punch" to their copy. It lends a conversational tone and makes the message more personal, less formal.

Cockroaches in the pantry? Try Roach-Away!

Silk sheets in all the brightest colors. Soft pastels in every hue.

Everything you need for spring!

Political slogans also make use of sentence fragments.

Bob Dole. A better man for a better America!

Creative writers often use sentence fragments in dialogue, as this more accurately depicts the patterns of our natural speech.

"Is that you, Mr. Jones? Why don't you pull up a chair and join me?"

"No can do. Too much work to do. Terrible, really."

"I see you're using sentence fragments. Aren't you afraid of retribution?"

"Hardly! Retribution from whom? My high school English teacher?"

To emphasize a point:

"Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!"

Or as an afterthought:

"I've searched everywhere," she said, defeated. "Except, perhaps, the drugstore on Main Street..."

The conclusion? Sometimes sentence fragments can be effective in creative writing (as opposed to formal writing). The important thing is to use fragments deliberately instead of accidentally, and to do that, a writer must be able to recognize the difference between complete sentences and fragments. 

Also, be careful to use sentence fragments sparingly—otherwise, your writing may sound choppy or, worse, you could face a visit from your high school English teacher.

REMEMBER TO CHECK OUT OUR LIST OF WRITING CONTESTS and ANTHOLOGIES! You won’t find a better list anywhere (AND IT’S FREE!) of upcoming anthologies, special-themed journals, and contests. Find it by visiting:
http://www.writersreliefblog.com/post/Anthologies-Contests.aspx