This week's Answer:
Counting
and Counting on Commas Yes,
T.B., you do. And not only commas, but watch out for those
periods and sneaky semicolons; not to mention those
exclamation points that will get you every time. And keep
your eyes trained up above for those quotation marks.
Single and double. And I'm not even going to
talk about the colon that will take you out at a moment's
notice. And definitely don't be "hooked" by a
question mark or you'll never get out alive. The
truth is you will need some punctuation to help the reader
understand your sentences and dialogue, but the comma is
disappearing and is being used much more sparingly in
screenplays (and novels) these days. The semi-colon is
almost extinct. A good rule of thumb for when to use
commas is, if you read a line of description or
dialogue and even you don't understand what
you just wrote... ...you
might need a comma. Doug
Herman Script
Advisor
My Weekly Offer: I'll read and consult on the last
page of your script for a r
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