Young Writers Society

Strictly speaking, commas can vary depending on what pace is going on. Sometimes you can talk them out and they work, such as short, snappy sentences but if you want to provide a detailed narration, then commas are the solution. Vocative uses, and especially dialogue, can be let off at times. For example, scared characters would stumble over words, rush out what they want to say.

There are a few fancy words, but if it doesn't make sense just ask the question As alwaysawriter pointed out (below this post) reading aloud can vastly help. Well, here it is:

THE LIST

• Linking clauses, which could work independently but would be more effective as a single, longer sentence: "David was a banker. He was funny. He lived in Australia." ... becomes: "David was a funny banker, who lived in Australia." Sometimes, people stick these into one sentence with no separation, i.e. no commas or full stops. Same applies.
  
• Actions: "Running, the man reloaded his gun." The action/verb can also go to the end of the sentence. You are describing the action something already doing another action.
  
• Adverbs: "Quickly, the wolf climbed the hill." This follows the same pattern as the previous sentence.
  
• Introductory statements, where you might describe or introduce something before it's mentioned: "A toilet has a seat." ... becomes: "Created by Joe Blogs, a toilet has a seat."
  
• Adding conjunctions: "Jason was crazy. He wasn't that bad." ... becomes: "Jason was crazy, but he wasn't that bad." In other words, when you are combining two sentences. Conjunctions are words like 'however', 'though' and 'and'.
  
• Parenthetical elements in a sentence, ignoring the fancy words: "The latest inflation news was disappointing, in fact, the Bank of England was very concerned." would be such an example. You connect clauses, basically. Here, the 'in fact' is the parenthetical element, as you might say. Another example: "Peter owned a shop, or in other words, lived in it."
  
• Descriptions and clauses: "Harry Potter, a boy with magical abilites, was 14." Here, you just stick in a clause that renames, or defines the preceding part.
  
• Lists: "Go shopping and get milk, cheese, and bread." (see the post below this for more information).
  
• Dialogue and 'saying something': Peter said, "What did you eat?" ... and: "I ate nothing," George replied.
  
• Names: "Will you, Fred, fly to Iceland?" This is when you address/describe someone directly.
  
• Just after 'yes', 'well', or 'now': "Yes, I like hamsters."
  
• The adjective comma: "He was a fat, green frog." There are a lot of exceptions to this, but try reading it aloud to see what you meant. For instance, if you were to say, "the clear, blue sky" you would be saying that the sky was both clear and blue. However, if you said, "the clear blue sky" you mean that the sky is a clear blue. An way of looking at it is if you want to describe and adjective with another.

If I have forgotten any, or you disagree, just say! I've found that once you know when to use them, they come naturally. Giving your own voice might involve taking some out, but make hundreds of run-on sentences to bore you reader, with no commas!

I agree with just about everything you said. Another way to know if you should add a comma is to notice when you pause for a moment but not more than a second. Reading it aloud can also help with finding where there needs to be commas, as can asking other people to read it over for you.

Lists: "Go shopping and get: milk, cheese, and bread."

There doesn't need to be a colon there. It doesn't look right and there's no obvious point for it when you can always just easily say "Lists: Go shopping and get milk, cheese, and bread."
You may also want to make a note that you shouldn't write lists like that when the characters are talking; as I've heard in my English classes since I was ten, tell, don't list (Meaning, example: "Emma, could you go to the store for me?" Her mother asked. "Sure. What do I need to pick up?" Emma scribled down a list as her mother talked.)
There's no need for the author to tell us what she was suppossed to pick up, unless it relates to the story in some other way. If the character goes to the grocery store to buy things and there's something else that will happen, there's no need to tell what she's buying. If there's not something else that's going to happen or she doesn't come up with some big revelation, there's no need to even mention anything about the grocery store in the first place.

I'd also give more than one example for each so if readers that don't understand the first one they can understand the second one. Try not to use all that big of words because it may confuse readers. Separate them into subheadings in bold so everyone knows exactly what you're talking to when you're refeering to commas.

Anyway, I hope I helped and didn't confuse you with anything I said (You can just PM me if I did).

-alwaysawriter

Yup, I agree

I shall add some more examples and make the descriptions and bit for effective. What you pointed out about the list, thanks

No problem. Glad to help.