Evan Connell said once that he knew he was finished with a short story when he found himself going through it and taking out commas and then going through the story again and putting the commas back in the same places. I like that way of working on something. I respect that kind of care for what is being done. That's all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones, with the punctuation in the right places so that they an best say what they are meant to say. If the words are heavy with the writer's own unbridled emotions, or if they are imprecise and inaccurate for some other reason -- if the worlds are in any way blurred -- the reader's eyes will slide right over them and nothing will be achieved. Henry James called this sort of hapless writing 'weak specification'.Raymond Carver
About This Quote
The above quote by Evan Connell speaks about the importance of punctuation and clear communication. Clear communication means to be precise and not loose with your words. If you want to be successful as a writer then you must have a good grasp on what you are writing about. In addition, you need to understand that everything that is written down is being read by someone else.
They will have a different take on what you have written. If your words are vague or out of place then those people reading it will be confused and could possibly misinterpret what you are trying to say.
Source: Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction And Other Prose
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