There's more to love than meets the eye. Give it wings and it will fly. Sow it in the richest soil. A tree burst forth with little toil. Hold it in the palm of your hand, mold it, shape it so it will stand. Drop it in the widest sea, it will flow through you and me. Make it an instrument and it creates song, carry you gently your whole life long. Release it to the fragrant air; surely it finds a heart to snare. Give it freely, if for no reason; it takes the form of the changing season. Breathe it in and it will seep, into your soul for you to keep. Plant it firmly within your heart, the seed of love will never part.
A thousand miles away I may be the love of my father sweeps through me. When storms they pass overhead; my father and I watched with dread.
We knew the storm held danger within but we stood there watching thunderheads spin. I looked up at him with childlike zeal knowing the lightning’s crash would peal.
Scared as I was I clung to his hip his arm on my shoulder, I was tight in his grip. The rain would fall in rapid procession, we stood amazed, the storm our obsession.
All through life I road many a storm knowing his love would keep me warm. I carry his arm wrapped round my shoulder with every storm as I get older.
I know he’ll love, protect and keep the storms at bay so I may sleep. In peace I’ll grow, his strength by my side for me he’ll always have arms open wide.
Though we don’t see each other too much you can rest assured I feel his touch. With every raging storm that goes by, I’m out there seeing him look in my eye.
A thousand miles away I may be, The love of my father always sweeps through me!
Many suffer from the incurable disease of writing and it becomes chronic in their sick minds. ~ Juvenal (AD 60-130)
The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say. ~Mark Twain
The expression "to write something down" suggests a descent of thought to the fingers whose movements immediately falsify it. ~William Gass, "Habitations of the Word," Kenyon Review, October 1984
Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum. ~ Graycie Harmon
When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence. ~ Samuel Butler
When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing. ~ Enrique Jardiel Poncela
I asked Ring Lardner the other day how he writes his short stories, and he said he wrote a few widely separated words or phrases on a piece of paper and then went back and filled in the spaces. ~ Harold Ross
The ablest writer is only a gardener first, and then a cook: his tasks are, carefully to select and cultivate his strongest and most nutritive thoughts; and when they are ripe, to dress them, wholesomely, and yet so that they may have a relish. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it 'the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.' The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of 'Artist.' ~ Edgar Allan Poe
Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space. ~Orson Scott Card
The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it. ~Jules Renard, "Diary," February 1895
When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can. ~Samuel Lover, Handy Andy, 1842
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster. ~Isaac Asimov
I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork. ~Peter De Vries
Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind. ~Catherine Drinker Bowen, Atlantic, December 1957
To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make. ~Truman Capote, McCall's, November 1967
For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain [and] the noise of battle. ~John Cheever
Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. ~Gene Fowler
Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher. ~Flannery O'Connor
Every great writer is a writer of history, let him treat on almost any subject he may. ~Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversation: Diogenes and Plato
Recently I have noticed the biggest problem for new writer’s is not getting the story out, it is keeping the story consistent.
Consistency in POV and consistency with tenses. Sure I see alot of grammatical issues being tossed out there as a new writer, but POV is one tough element of the craft that needs to be honed and mastered.
Mastering the POV will help in keeping the work consistent.
We, f2k, had an exercise this week in POV and when asked to shift pov, alot of people wrote the same exact paragraph and switched the POV from “He said” to “I said”. To me, shifting the point of view changes the perspective and the ‘who’ is seeing what and from whose point of view.
Here’s an example of something I’m working on: Two pov’s and different perspectives arise.
POV 1 ~ First person As I hover over my lifeless body lying below me, I wonder where I am. The aroma of a fresh garden surrounds me making me feel like a weightless cloud. I want to yell down to myself, but I can’t seem to communicate from here. I walk slowly toward the endless portal that awaits me. I float like a feather on an endless air drifting into the unknown. No claps of thunder, no bolts of lightning, just eerie warmth surrounds me. A gravitational pull sucks me like a huge non-existent vacuum of space and time. I turn away from the light and try in a motionless effort to reclaim the body I left. Suddenly, I awaken to the trickle of an ice cold shower that releases me from the warm safe haven. I scan the bathroom and wonder how on earth did I get in here?
POV2 ~ Third person Look at her, a lifeless form in need of assistance. She has left her body only to discover the realm of the unknown. The bright light that has hold of her won’t let her go. She can wriggle and worm all she wants but it is pulling with an endless flux of gravity. She knows this is the end of the line, the place she’s heard about but never wanted to be at the cusp of her youth. She's grappling with fear yet releasing herself without a fight, letting herself drift into the aromatic garden that waits. As moments pass, time is of the essence. She needs to be revived; it’s not her time. Wait; look; she’s in bathroom shower. How on earth did she get there?
The same paragraph but from different perspectives, and two different pov’s. This shift sometimes confuses new writer’s because they can’t see from anyone elses eyes. They are looking at the paragraph and thinking they need to write the exact same words but change *I* into *She*. When I shift pov, I see from someone else eyes.
I think we need to look at perspective as much as POV. Work on the POV, sifting through all the knowledge you can and retry the exercise and I can bet you’re perspective will change too. You’ll be seeing through different eyes in no time.
Joni sits at her desk, pencils, paper, stapler and paper clips surrounding her. A deep sigh leaves her mouth as she sits contemplating, ready to tap on the keys preparing to write today’s blog.
Aha! I think I’ll write about SHOW vs. Tell! In the first sentence I told you what Joni was going to do. In the second sentence I SHOWED you.
Showing is more specific in terms as it lays out the picture for you. General terms are good when you need to tell when something is happening that is brief in the story. Whereas, showing moves the story along from point A to point B.
To tell a story, one only needs to say, Mary went to the store. To help in getting the picture across to your reader you need to learn how to SHOW them the story. Mary grabbed her purse hurried out the front door to walk down to the corner store. The screen door slammed as her mother called from behind, “Don’t forget the bread.”
Think of yourself reading a book. You don’t start at the end, you begin at the first page. You take it slowly and read one page at a time so you can grasp the entire picture.
Taken out of context, you can speed read a page here and there but do you fulfill your journey of enjoyment? Showing and telling can give you the same information. But with the showing the reader gets to savor each and every morsel.
Creating a mental picture for the reader is important if you care for them to read to the end. Children love fairy tales where they don’t need a lot of the baggage that comes with imagery, they get picture books. But novels or short stories need to tap into the mental cinema of the reader’s mind.
Telling is fine for trivial things like it was a stormy day. If the storm is essential to moving the story along or part of the immediate scene then showing should be done. Don’t over do it with the imagery so no one says you’re padding your work. Showing should come as a natural flow to you.
I was sad when my dog died.
This is me telling you how I felt.
I was miserable when my dog died. It hurt so much I could just spit. I never expected him to die and now he’s left me alone and lonely for companionship.
This is me padding the telling. You read that my dog died, I hurt, and I feel alone.
Today I was distracted when the puppies in the park were playing frisbee, it reminded me of my Skippy. My friend for life or so I thought, until he contracted a deadly virus that took him from me. No longer do I look at his bowls the same way as they still sit on the floor near the door.
This statement gives more specific details, without telling how I “felt”. You can read in my words that I miss him. You can read my hurt without using the word. You can read that I miss my dog and that I’m hurting just by getting the longing feeling from, “No longer do I look at his bowls.”
The point of "showing" is not to drown the reader in a sea of details. Instead, you should pick out only those details that matter.
Give your reader something to hold onto. Give him a tale of beauty. Save the telling for the hairdresser.
He saw the setting sun at one time
gazed at the orb as if it was his last time.
With each passing day the sun set lower
and lower still until he could see it no more.
The moon rose and he saw it making shadows
with the branches of the trees waving in the wind;
every night the shades got dimmer and dimmer
he soon realized, the moon was the sun.
His eyes saw the breath of light dancing playfully.
A time came when the silhouette disappeared
he saw nothing. The beauty of the flower
gone, taken away in a span of time.
If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud. ~ Emile Zola
I can’t help but to write, I have an inner need for it. If I’m not in the middle of some literary project, I’m utterly lost, unhappy and distressed. As soon as I get started, I calm down. ~ Kaari Utrio
My purpose is to entertain myself first and other people secondly. ~ John D. MacDonald Writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted. ~ Jules Renard
The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can't help it. ~ Leo Rosten
There is more pleasure to building castles in the air than on the ground. ~ Edward Gibbon
Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them. ~~ John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)
“Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. Its the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors.” ~~ Rhys Alexander Writing Gooder, 12-09-05
The earth is ripe with glistening greenery new birth is lending my eyes great scenery. I gaze out over the expansive plain that breathes for release from the springtime rain.
I can not fathom all that has changed My routine life has been rearranged. I wake in the morning and inhale beauty My call to God’s land feels like my duty.
I tend the grass, my family, my home Out in the mid-west my soul can roam. I craved this lifestyle for many years through too much hardship and tons of tears.
Now I hold my dream in my hand. No longer confined, I’m tending the land Inhaling all that God wants me to see I rejoice in His love, He has set me free.
Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else. ~ Gloria Steinem
No one is able to enjoy such feast than the one who throws a party in his own mind. ~ Selma Lagerlöf
Writing wasn’t easy to start. After I finally did it, I realized it was the most direct contact possible with the part of myself I thought I had lost, and which I constantly find new things from. Writing also includes the possibility of living many lives as well as living in any time or world possible. I can satisfy my enthusiasm for research, but jump like a calf outside the strict boundaries of science. I can speak about things that are important to me and somebody listens. It’s wonderful! ~ Virpi Hämeen-Anttila
There are many reasons why novelists write - but they all have one thing in common: a need to create an alternative world. ~ John Fowles
The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word. ~ Catherine Drinker Bowen
The novel is an event in consciousness. Our aim isn't to copy actuality, but to modify and recreate our sense of it. The novelist is inviting the reader to watch a performance in his own brain. ~ George Buchanan
With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
Are we, who want to create, in some way specially talented people? Or has everybody else simply given up, either by pressures of modesty or laziness, and closed their ears from their inner need to create, until that need has died, forgotten and abandoned? When you look at children, you start to think the latter. I still haven't met a child who doesn't love - or who at least hasn't loved - drawing, writing or some other creative activity. ~~ Natalia Laurila
One nice thing about putting the thing away for a couple of months before looking at it is that you start appreciate your own wit. Of course, this can be carried too far. But it's kind of cool when you crack up a piece of writing, and then realize you wrote it. I recommend this feeling. ~~ Steven Brust
Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer. ~~ Barbara Kingsolver
Reading usually precedes writing and the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer. ~~ Susan Sontag
Like everyone else, I am going to die. But the words - the words live on for as long as there are readers to see them, audiences to hear them. It is immortality by proxy. It is not really a bad deal, all things considered. ~~ J. Michael Straczynski
I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another. ~~ Brenda Ueland
For me, writing is exploration; and most of the time, I'm surprised where the journey takes me. ~~ Jack Dann
Some helpful tips to get those keys on the keyboard tapping (or pen rolling)
1.Free-write without stopping.
This is where you pick a word, picture, idea, and start writing about the subject without stopping. You can write about your day, your mother or sister, your dog or pet, anything, just to write something.
2.Don’t make plans ahead of time
Just write the first thing that comes into your mind. Don’t debate whether it is a good topic or whether you’ll have enough to say, just keep writing.
3.Always keep tapping the keys on the keyboard. (Or keep the pen moving on the paper)
Don’t glance up to see if you’re making mistakes. (Or stop writing when you catch a mistake on paper.) Turn the internal editor OFF. There will be plenty of time for editing when you’ve written a few thousand words.
4.Sometimes it is helpful to have classical (or what ever you prefer) music to help you along.
If it becomes a distraction, turn it off and find whatever puts YOU in the mood. Is it complete silence? Is it background noise that helps? Maybe its rock & roll? Lit candles?
5.Make your workspace fun and enlightening.
Having yourself surrounded in tranquility can help those stressful days of no-writing and turn them into productive days of key tapping.
6.Write with confidence.
If you are a writer, then having the confidence of a writer means that you will accomplish something on any given day. We, as writer’s can not say, “I’m not good enough.” That shows lack of confidence in your writing. When you sit down in front of the keyboard, repeat after me, “I AM a WRITER!” Then write your heart out!
7.Study the craft
Make sure you have studied long and hard the craft that you are about to embark on. Roads have been paved for you, sure you can make your own paths, but if you lack the confidence of ever becoming a writer, it is for certain that you will NEVER become a published writer.
8.Step out of the box
You need to find a place where you fit in comfortably. Maybe you like non-fiction, spiritual tales, horror tales or sci-fi. Whatever the case may be. Don’t be afraid of stepping out of that comfort zone and trying on new clothes. Sometimes you might find a comfortable fit in sweats and a tee, but never be afraid of trying on that little black dress. Meaning, write what is NOT in your box for a change!
9.Show determination
If you are not determined to be a writer, how will you expect to ever become a published writer? Writing for family can be rewarding, but are they hearing what editor’s are reading? No, editors expect professionalism from you and it is your determination to strive for the best that will make the editor stand up and say, “Now THIS shows promise!” Give them your best!
10.NEVER GIVE UP!
I say this because there will come a time when you just feel like throwing your work in the trash, times when you wish you could curl up in a ball and wish this talent away. But I’m afraid to tell you, that if it is a true talent, it will haunt your days and nights like the ghost of Christmas past, present and future all rolled into one!
I was going to write my blog for today but you know, when you have a man and a son all vying for the computer at the same time, the writer in the house has a sudden inspiration, you kind of get sidetracked, give up the computer and move into a room with a pencil and paper.
We don’t push and shove one another off the computer; we try and show mere respect for one another. But by the time I’m ‘respected’ I’ve lost the inspiration that I initially had.
In this day and age with the computers at the hubbub of the writing world, it seems that the pen and paper has lost its luster. Snail mail is a term for your submissions to be sent via mail! Can you imagine, even the post office is considered obsolete these days. You do need to send mail don’t you?
I think of the men/women who penned lengthy novels all on paper. The determination and perseverance they must have had. No internal editor; no worrying if they spelled right; they just wrote! They never had a spell checker, they had editor’s. The days of pen and paper are gone, drifting off in some billowy cloud of smoke where I can’t seem to find it through the mire.
With my pen and paper, I can find a quiet spot, either inside or out, and write my to my hearts content. Sure my hand gets blisters, they also feel arthritic, but I persevere and move on like the writers of the past. I never did like losing sight of all that history has given to us. Now I need to regroup, take it all in and soar with my pen and paper.
Uh oh...I feel that inspiration churning. I better get outside under my shade tree and relish the morning sounds. With pen and paper in hand, I’m bound to get some writing done. No one will want to vie for THAT time. No one likes it under the tree but me and my critter friends scurrying about.
Remember, the pen and paper can be your best friends when you have a computer crash, a loss of Internet service, no connection to the outside world. You carry your notebook with you and when someone asks, “Hey, where you going?” You tell them, “I’m going to sit under the shade tree.” They’ll say, “Oh.” and think b-o-r-i-n-g!
But to you, it will be your meditative place to do what you love best and that my friends, is to WRITE!
Welcome to Quotation Saturday pic by: Adam (my son)
The generous Critic fann'd the Poet's fire, And taught the world with reason to admire. ~ Edgar Allen Poe
If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of empty pages. ~ElaineLiner
Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it's so hurtful to think about writing. ~ Heather Armstrong , Keynote Speech, SXSW 2006
I am a galley slave to pen and ink. ~Honore de Balzac (1799 - 1850)
Writing well means never having to say, 'I guess you had to be there.' ~Jef Mallett , Frazz, 07-29-07
The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the tissues and the blood. ~John Burroughs (1837 - 1921), The Snow-Walkers
Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them. ~John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)
Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money. ~ Jules Renard (1864 - 1910)
I take the view, and always have, that if you cannot say what you are going to say in twenty minutes you ought to go away and write a book about it. ~ Lord Brabazon(1884 - 1964)
There's always something to write about. If there's not then you need to live life more aggressively. ~Min Kim, Better Blogging Brainstorming, SXSW 2006
This is the challenge of writing. You have to be very emotionally engaged in what you’re doing, or it comes out flat. You can’t fake your way through this. ~Real Live Preacher
I never feel that I have comprehended an emotion, or fully lived even the smallest events, until I have reflected upon it in my journal; my pen is my truest confidant, holding in check the passions and disappointments that I dare not share even with my beloved. ~ Stephanie Barron, Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, 1996
Workshops: Many new writer’s need an outlet for their work. A writing workshop is the place for you.http://www.writers.com/ There are so many FREE Writing Workshops online that there is no reason that you’re not in one right now. (Well because you’re reading me, it is okay to be absent.)
A writing workshop will help with the struggles you’re having as a writer. The people from these sites are usually writer’s themselves and are seeking the same thing for their writing, someone to read their work and someone to tell them what they are doing wrong.
We can’t grow as a writer if someone is always telling us how good our work is. We need someone who will be brutally honest, not the the point of telling us our work stinks, but maybe a softly guided form where they head you in the right direction of what you are doing right and where you are going wrong.
If you understand the basic elements of writing and think that you know everything there is to know about writing, I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong. We writer’s never stop growing in knowledge and we can not ever have such an ego to think we don’t need assistance in bringing our work to completion.
We get published by having someone review our work and through many revisions (and I mean nail biting, cutting to the bones revision.) We think it’s complete and has gone through all the ranks and rigors but when we submit, it still gets rejected. What are we doing wrong?
Nothing! This is a dog eat dog world out here and writer’s are not exempt. Knowing the craft will aid you in becoming a published author, but what it really takes is persistence and perseverance!
Writing workshops, I believe, build the confidence up for you when you’re struggling through the revisions. Having that voice egging you further, having someone as a mentor of sorts with encouragement overflowing, this is what will aim you in the direction of publication. Being persistent in your goal of becoming published is what keeps you coming back to the writing craft again and again.
Listen to your writing peers, fix what is wrong, learn what you don’t know and give to the writing world what you always knew was right at the tip of your fingers all along, and that’s refined writing! Yes YOUR refined writing.
I’m a mentor with a Free Writing Course called F2K (Fiction2000 for those who are bound to ask what F2K stands for.) It is brought to you by Writer’s Village University and offered three times a year. A seven week course of some of the basic elements: voice, characterization, dialogue, POV etc. We offer a mentor (for a small fee) to those who want to upgrade and get that one-on-one indepth critique. It is a peer-to-peer course that remains a success in the writing world. Writer’s who completed the course keep coming back because they love the atmosphere it offers, but most of all, because they love learning!
Mark your calendars for May 20th. Registration is happening NOW! Write Right my friends and what better way to do that than WITH friends?
http://www.writersvillage.com/ (page is not currently updated) Author's note: You will not be able to login to f2k UNTIL May 20th.
I am not one to set goals or make plans for myself but as I get further into my writing career I realize their needs to be some discipline in setting goals.
I’ve been so entranced with life’s happenings that I haven’t had the time to set goals. I realize how important it is to set and KEEP goals. Maybe start off on a small scale of, “Today I’m going to write 100 words.” Then as you move onto the next week try 500 words, then a 1000. The goals are limitless!
Another trick for the brave, is to set your goals high! If you set them too low, all that you will accomplish is low achievement. Do we want low achievement? I didn’t think so. You want success! That is what we all want. Achieving success is not easy, it takes hard work and dedication. Commitment. Perseverance.
When we aim high in our goals, we are setting ourselves up to become all that we can be. Accept no less.
I set a goal many years ago of getting out of the city. Although it took close to twenty years, I am now sitting on a 40 acre farm. Sure I’m renting the house, but the 40 acres is attached to the homes on the property and when I wake up in the morning, I no longer hear cars bustling through the streets, music pounding making the windows tremble. No longer do I have neighbors thumping up the stairs and across the floor.
I hear birds, and horses, cows and wild turkey’s. I see miles and miles of land and I’m savoring all this beauty. Now I need to set my writing goals. As soon as I get settled in and unpacked, I’ll be focusing on my writing like never before. I’m going to obtain the unobtainable, I’m going to achieve the highest standards I can and accomplish everything I set my mind to.
Now what are you going to do? Are you going to set goals daily? Weekly? Monthly? Don’t just say it, DO IT! Get yourself a journal just for setting goals and then go after the goals like prey in a field, waiting to be devoured.
Stop by and let me hear your progress. We can do this together or alone, the choice is yours, but always know, you have an eye that is here to coax you along!
In writing, we are inundated with rules to follow and often times we get confused with what we’re supposed to do and what is right and acceptable to the editor/reader.
I have many links on the side of this blog on the “how-to’s” to writing but even as I scan through them, I get a little confused with what is right and wrong. One author says to use parentheses to set off a word or phrase, another says parentheses are ‘out’ and that we shouldn’t use them.
What is right? What is wrong?
My first rule of thumb is write it all out and get your story on paper (or on your computer.) Turn the inner editor off and write your heart out, keeping the flow moving along until you feel satisfied with your story.
Then you go back and revise and cut out those excess words that add nothing to the story; they just add redundancy.
Read what is said about proper punctuation, tenses, and structure. Look at your work and see if you’ve followed any of the rules. Hopefully you will have the basic knowledge, enough to get your story in order.
Post your story in a critique group and see what jumps out at them. Some may say, “This doesn’t work.” Don’t let that discourage you! You need to get your confidence built up, so plow ahead. Forge onward and upwards in your writing skills allowing all of the comments received to go in one ear and sink into that brain of yours.
If you get all negative comments, then you’re in the wrong critique group. A good critique group will point out the positives AND the negatives, but never be solely negative. Drink all the comments in like a good cup of coffee and go to work on revising your piece until you are satisfied that it is your very best.
When you show your story/article to the critique room, they will see that all of their advice was adhered to and you’ll get more positive feedback. Don’t bore a critique room with sloppy and unfinished work. A critique room is there for you, to help guide you in the right direction but they can’t do all of the work for you, nor should they be expected to; it is your work.
Now study to your hearts content and get the basics down. Read current author’s and see what they are doing. Notice all of the little subtlety’s, whether it is a comma, brackets or parentheses. See what is the accepted form now not what was used way back when. Things change and with time, elements of writing change. It is wise to know the here and now instead of redoing what was done in the past.
The number one rule in writing? WRITE! Worry about rules later. :-)
