Trust each one of you had a blessed and thankful Thanksgiving and that family and loved ones filled your heart with abundant joy. Maintaining the tone of this wonderful celebration, thought I share a moment from three years ago when I became serious about writing and found things had changed since my school days. One afternoon in absolute despair I pounded off this dirge to my gypsy-lifestyle (as my mother called my art career) to embrace the title of author. Hope you enjoy my attempt at humor.
Happy Thanksgiving from the Gates family
It’s absolutely thrilling, a feast for my eyes, to see a page filled with dialogue, dressed for the dance in a plethora of punctuation.
I love punctuation! The curls, dots, and squiggles bring symmetry and texture to an otherwise boring page of border to border black and white.
Perhaps, had I been a writer first and then an artist, life would be easier for me. Artists are rarely minimalists, you see. We tend to have an outrageous view of all elements of life. Some may consider us extreme; but, I prefer to be identified as a butterfly—flitting here and there, from color to more color, fragrance to more fragrance, and texture to more texture!
When I contemplate the current trend in writing toward minimalism in punctuation, I must confess—I struggle! A little comma here, an exclamation point there, breaks the monotony. Throw in a dash or a semi-colon and I ‘m in heaven.
Alas, the rules have changed since the ancient decades of my schooling; but, now there springs a word that zaps spasms of fear and dread into my artist heart—CONFORMITY. Yes, if an artist wishes to write in this market, it is imperative, I’m told, to conform to the current rules of (sigh) punctuation.
I believe my swan song must be a painting of punctuation of every nature and description—stamped, embossed, and engraved on canvas. A montage, with two spaces after each period. Ahhh, the joy that would bring in the depths of my soul—commas, exclamation points, dashes, question marks, italics, parenthesis, et cetera, et cetera—dancing and twirling across the canvas for all posterity to remember.
Think I’ll take orders for the signed and numbered prints. Anyone interested? Then, I will go peacefully into the marketplace of the writer, still struggling a mite; but, albeit—conforming!
MOVING THE ANCIENT BOUNDARIES 
DiAne, I believe we share the same thoughts. I once posted a sentence concerning commas in a group of authors and editors and asked the correct way to write it. I had over forty responses, and the opinions were split in about half. It concerned the old Oxford comma rule. I began my writing career only four years ago, and I’ve had a lot of adjusting to do as well.
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Linda, I suspect there are many out there just like us. Since most of my blogs are quite serious I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to vent my fleeting frustrations with a little humor. Still thinking about that painting though. Thanks for reading and responding.
DiAne
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