A comma splice is generally considered a red flag for bad writing. However, rules are meant to be broken, and creative writing doesn’t necessarily have to conform to any set of formal rules. When two independent clauses need to be joined in a sentence, the following options are the most standard: a comma followed by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, because, etc), a semicolon, a semicolon followed by a conjunctive adverb (however, therefore, nevertheless, etc) and a comma, a colon, an em-...