The Cliché is Real... and Topics Worth Ranting About

Are You. supposed To write. like This!

So the day comes where I finally stop all the chit chatting and get down to business (to defeat the huns!) with the ranting. I thought why not start off with one of my BIGGEST pet peeves and also one of the most AVOIDABLE occurrences I find while reading stories on Wattpad. Read the short paragraph below and take a guess at what I am talking about:

She kept her gaze Towards the ground as. She was lead up Into the Square. Breathe in. Breath Out. Repeating this mantra in her head was the only way. She could Continue in front of the crowd without Her legs buckling From her Nerves. Finally she Got to where the stairs to the stage Were located. One. Two. Three. She counted the Stairs to take her mind Off of the Inevitable ending That was Nearing. Each Step had Her Moving her legs like she Was walking through quicksand. When she Reached the center of the stage the Bag Was placed roughly over her head. Next She Felt the rough rope against her skin. This is it. This is How I die. She knew what to expect, But what Happened in Actuality she would never have been Ready for.

Alright. I totally admit it. That paragraph up there is totally an over exaggeration of what I am used to seeing most of the time, but I kid you not I have seen this way too many times to count. If you didn't catch on to what I am talking about it is when authors have randomly capitalized words and random periods/punctuation. This just makes me cringe while reading. I get it. Not every mistake is going to be caught and HELL YES grammar is hard, but when you start capitalizing every third word there is something going on. Before you post a chapter you should at least reread what you have written down and look to see if the words after periods or explanation points are capitalized along with proper nouns. If you read your story out loud and make a pause, you probably need a period or comma. Otherwise, random periods/punctuation in the middle of sentences can totally change the message.

On a similar note stories with lack of periods/punctuation end up with the reading having similar misconceptions. I'm sure your corny English teachers have probably shown that ridiculous sentence that deals with grandma.

"Let's eat, Grandma" vs. "Let's eat Grandma."

One sentence has you telling your grandmother to eat while the other is claiming that you LITERALLY eat your grandmother. Is this what the writer probably intended? HELL NO! Who eats grandmothers? Well besides cannibals... But let's get real. If I started ranting with no periods in my sentences you would probably think "what the fuck is this" and scurry on off. Don't believe me? Try reading this paragraph without cringing or taking a breath where a supposed period would be.

You always said to look for the light in my life always said to find the thing that makes you happy and you will never be sad why why should I follow your philosophy when you didn't follow it yourself your family told me they fucking hated me when I was leaving the funeral I couldn't stand to see that body with that hole in your head I said something for you I went up there and said to everyone that you always said to live for the great moments in life then I yelled at your parents for not making you happy they always had you help others and hold your emotions back and stay strong. (This is from a story listed in the author note.)

I bet forty percent of people reading this rant probably couldn't say that all in one breath. Another forty percent probably didn't even waste their breath trying to read that because let's be honest that left over twenty percent are just kidding themselves. They couldn't read that in one breath either. I'm sure you understand now though periods are important. Punctuation is important. Hell, grammar is important! But like I said earlier damn hard. I am not saying that every chapter in a story needs to be edited to perfection or even edited at all. However, do your readers the common curtesy of at least rereading the fucking paragraph. Give a shit about your readers! We know you care. Otherwise why the hell would you be using up your time uploading new chapters to Wattpad? You wouldn't because writers actually give a damn! So take the extra few minutes to get rid of those unwanted capitalized words and extra punctuation and make sure you at least have some periods within your chapters.

READERS APPRECIATE BOTH OF THESE THINGS! No one likes hate comments, and I have seen quite a few that pop up because of something as simple of capitalization and punctuation errors. DON'T GET HATE. PUNCTUATE.

Remember. This while Writing. Cause everyone likes To read Sentences like this ;)

A/N:

Thank you to quacky3three for letting me use a section out of his first chapter of his story The Pack One Shots for the paragraph with no punctuation.