Am I overusing commas, or other punctuation, too much?

InsomniaShark said:

I can't for the life of me find the passage on his official website, but the whole response (to a reader's question) was copy/pasted here: http://nicemommy-evileditor.com/blog/2007/02/06/dean-koontz-on-exclamation-points/

Better start rationing your exclamation points. I wonder how many question marks we're allotted. Some people really overuse them too.

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Really? People overuse question marks? Are you sure? I'm not sure ... have I noticed that?
(Thanks for sharing the blog post--appreciated!) See ... lost another right there.

hopeful09 said:

Really? People overuse question marks? Are you sure? I'm not sure ... have I noticed that?
(Thanks for sharing the blog post--appreciated!) See ... lost another right there.

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XD!

I was thinking more of the the multiple question marks people use for emphasis. :]

Like, "YOU DID WHAT??????" (Or doubly using up their finite share of punctuation with "YOU DID WHAT!?!?!?!?!?")

I wonder if we have a limited supply of capital letters too.

Sorry for derailing the thread. =X

Writing is about communication with the reader, not about "voice", which has nothing to do with long or short sentences, or punctuation. Good communication means writing that is both pleasant to read, and easy to understand. It is not about the writer's "voice", but about the reader's enjoyment.

hopeful09 said:

I can offer an unlimited supply of semicolons in exchange for your exclamation points. I have plenty of those to spare.

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Done!

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but you could consider pacing and flow. In an action scene you should be using shorter and more concise sentencing. This makes the story move quicker in the reader's mind. But if you want the illusion of the story moving slower, you could use longer sentencing.

And, um, not to be too pedantic, but are you okay with overusing punctuation, but not with overusing it too much?

I am so glad this question was asked! I was editing a WIP last night. Found several places where I noticed too many run ons. Then of course added commas to other areas. I almost feel as if I just traded the craziness, but you have all been so informative. Thank you.

I personally think that parentheticals should be used sparingly, if at all. Why not just integrate it effectively into the narrative? If the information isn't important enough to warrant it's own sentence, then perhaps it's not important to include it at all. I just find them distracting and really weaken a sentence.