HOW ABOUT SOME EXAMPLES? And for that matter: how can the writer know whats clear for the reader? There's two points of view to concider!
Excuse me, but who told you that commas are optional in fiction? They are wrong. There are situations in which a comma can be either inserted or omitted, but in most of these, the result is subtly altered. Also, there is no need to shout.
They aren't optional, but people have reasons why they leave commas out. The most popular is in stream-of-consciousness writing. They strive to simulate the human thought process. In extreme cases, there is no form of punctuation for pages and pages. Only really good writers can pull this off without making it confusing to the reader.
Well, I was refering to those specific cases of acceptable run-ons, and acceptable sentence fragments, and compound sentences where the comma can be ommited, if the independent clauses are short and to the point. Thank you though, for makink me fell stupid.
