Sunday 14 March 2010

In praise of the semi-colon.

I love the semi-colon; I freely admit it. I love the fact that I know how and when (and when not) to use it. But even I have been struck by how often I find myself using it in my current book; and that has started me thinking about the voice of my central character.

Clearly, the use of the semi-colon implies that he qualifies what he says a lot, that he's keen to back up his assertions, that he makes sure that we know what he's talking about. He's not a self-confident character but he has pretensions to being a thinking person.

And this got me thinking - what grammatical devices would other kinds of character use?

The gossip – parentheses (constantly remembering and inserting extraneous information) and lots of double inverted commas (reporting what other people 'honestly said'!!) And exclamation marks.

The bully – imperatives, statements, challenging questions. What do you mean, no they don't? Of course they do.

The chronically uncertain person – ellipsis.... probably. Because they don't want to impose.... they're not quite... sure...

The person who can't shut up – sentences strung together with and and but and then and so and because and if and when and so on and so on.

OK, your turn...

11 comments:

Frances Garrood said...

I totally agree, Alis. I love the semi-colon too, not least because like so much punctuation, so few people know how to use it, so it needs our support (I also love Lynn Truss's book, which says it all).

I was interested, though, by your attributing your use of punctuation to your characters' personalities rather than your particular use of punctuation.I use parenthesis a lot, but I think that's my style rather than anything to do with my characters. Or is it? It's certainly got me thinking.

Martin Edwards said...

And I very much agree, too.

Alis said...

Hi Frances - I think, if you're writing in first person, it's almost impossible not to have your sentence structure dictated by their thought processes. When I think how different the narrative would sound if it was told through the voice of the other major character, it's quite striking.

Hi Martin - nice to see you again!

Tim Stretton said...

Alis, I think ellipsis also works well for characters who like to leave things unsaid... either as a punctuational raised eyebrow or as a means of establishing complicity with the listener...

Alis said...

Hi Tim - yes, you're right, it can be a wonderful way for a character and the reader to share a moment of complicity.

Ellie said...

I lurve semis, too. They're so elegant when used properly.

Akasha Savage. said...

I too love the semi-colon; although I'm abit concerned by just how much I use it! Do you think you can use it too often?

Alis said...

Hi Akasha - I was wondering exactly that the other day when reading through a section I'd written the previous day. And I decided that, yes, it was possible to over use it. I think the resulting passage is stronger without quite so many semi-colons - it makes it more direct, less equivocal, I think.

Karen said...

I definitely overused the semi-colon in my first draft, and had to remove a lot of them; they're a great device though (see what I did there?!)

Alis said...

Hi Karen - maybe all of us are addicted to semi-colons. Maybe we're all writers because we're the only ones who know how to use them!!

David Isaak said...

I love semi-colons because they allow the architecture of a sentence to expand without becoming too baroque and Henry Jamesian.

I'm also very fond of the colon, although it's now widely considered to be a bit archaic for anything but lists (and I grant that it does have a rather Austen-era feel to it).

I'm also quite taken with today's word verification code, which is "dushdrab."