We've been playing "Manor of the Damned" a subscription box game (a new chapter is sent to you by post each month) from Chilling Screams where you have to work out a series of puzzles based on audio, video and physical clues. It's really well done and we've been getting right into it.
During the "pretentious poetry phase" of my early twenties my vocabulary was more audacious and attention-seeking but, while I now deliberately avoid using long words just for the sake of it, I can get bogged down in complicated structures. Sentences include an abundance of introductory statements, interrupters and parenthetical elements, and appositives, often all at the same time. The words may not be difficult but the meanings can be obscured by an excess of commas. This is definitely something I need to work on and a good point of focus as I continue editing.
I'm guilty of overusing commas too. Being a technical writer who strives for short, clear sentences, I've had to consciously rein that habit in. It helps if you follow plain-language principles, one of which is to keep your sentences to no more than about 20 words. But if you've got any kind of literary bent, you'll probably find that a little too restrictive. :)
