I mean that I might. The interruption (without the and) is fairly abrupt, at least to my ear.
Really? I don't see there being any interruption at all, just a series of connected, fluid events.
I guess we disagree. I see punctuation marks as way too sacred for hard-and-fast rules. They're like word meanings. No dictionary can contain the meaning of a word and no style book can restrict the use of a punctuation mark.
I don't understand this at all. Dictionaries provide the meanings of words, that's why they exist. Sure, if you're trying to be philosophical or something, you can't write down the "essence" of what a word means, because that's going to be different for each person. But there still has to be a common ground. The word has to mean
something or else it might as well not exist. As far as punctuation, the style guides are there to provide a common ground. Commas are generally used to separate clauses and provide a brief pause where necessary. Periods are used to end a sentence and provide a full stop. Yes, there is some leeway. You can choose to add or subtract a comma to adjust the pace of your sentence. But you can't just stick periods or question marks anywhere you want, because then your writing would become unreadable.
Also, there's a saying: You have to know the rules in order to break them. Know the stylistic rules for punctuation and then you'll be better able to choose when to do something different.
Something like that is how I see it. Punctuation should be part of the creative process, in my view.
I agree that you should use punctuation to enhance your story, but you do need to be careful with it, because too much punctuation will grab the reader's attention and shout, "Hey! Look at me! I'm being stylistic!" It can distract from the story, which is more important than the writing itself. The writing needs to be good enough that it disappears, leaving the reader alone with the story. They want to focus on the characters and the exciting plot. They don't want to be pulled out of the story because the author went a little nuts with the exclamation points.
I don't know how long you've written, but in my experience, one's punctuation style develops as one goes along. Read the best writers closely. You may be surprised to see how much published work offends the heck out of the stylebooks.
You're right, punctuation style does evolve, just as your writing style itself evolves the more you write. Don't take this the wrong way, but in my experience, it's the amateur writers who go crazy with punctuation, because they feel it adds something to their writing style. They don't realize that it becomes a crutch. Once they realize that the story is more important than stylistic tricks, they settle down and allow the punctuation to do its job and disappear into the background.
When I first began writing, many years ago, my stories were rife with dramatic sentences that ended with ellipses. I also used em-dashes in every paragraph. I felt they were important, that they made my writing better. Interestingly, no one wanted to publish my work. Then I read a few grammar and style books and realized that I was overdoing it. I drastically edited out the punctuation and now my writing stands on its own feet.
Really, I hope you don't read me as condescending. I'm just trying to express my feeling about it as best I can.
I didn't think that at all. No worries. It's an interesting discussion.
