Stop Stumbling Over Punctuation

To paraphrase (and remove the profanity from) a song from the Vampire Weekend — who cares, really, about the Oxford comma?

Yes, punctuation and grammar are important, but when the goal is to produce a book of 50,000 or more words that changes hearts, minds, and lives, it doesn’t matter so much at first whether you should use a period or a semicolon or a colon or a comma in any given situation. Grammar is a means to an end. In a world where spellcheckers are better than they've ever been, there are far more important aspects of editing to address.

The rules of syntax are like a life jacket in the ocean. They’ll keep you from going under, but they can’t make you swim in the right direction.