Elements of Wild Style: Instant Commas Gonna Get You (How To Write Dialogue So You Can Talk Shit: Part 3)

So here is something to add to the woes of English grammar proper and improper, the use of commas in dialogue vs. the use of commas everywhere else.

Commas outside dialogue, are for lists, parenthetical suggestions, dividing clauses, etc.

Inside dialogue, they do all that and serve an additional purpose --they time pauses.

If you read the statement below aloud and "full stop" at the periods it's not the same as if you "half stop" at commas.

"I shot him. I promise. He's got two slugs in the face. He's fucking dead," Vinny said.

"I shot him, I promise, he's got two slugs in the face, he's fucking dead," Vinny said.

Here you have a series of independent clauses. "I promise" teeters between independent/dependent but I wanted to show even though "grammatically" periods are the default here, to facilitate the flow of how someone would talk let your commas do the work.