“Show, don’t tell” is what every writer should set their sights on. The ability to show the reader, through your words, your character’s actions, or even the weather, the mood or tone of what’s happening. I will touch more on “Show, don’t tell” in a later post, but for now, “Show, don’t tell” leads me to two pieces of punctuation. One that, in my humble opinion, tells, and the other kind of does both.
A few years back, a fellow author offered to beta-read one of my books. She only did a few chapters, and when she returned her thoughts and suggestions, it became quite obvious that our writing styles differed. You see, she kept inserting exclamation points here, there, and everywhere, opting to tell the reader through punctuation rather than trusting that the reader could follow the intensity or emotion just by the words I’d written.
Now, I’ll admit that I used loads of exclamation points in my older books, but I don’t use loads anymore. Why? Because it tells. It doesn’t show.
The sentence “You’re kidding me,” doesn’t need an exclamation point. Italics show the reader the emphasis, rather than telling them with a piece of punctuation. As a reader, hopefully you heard the emphasis when you read “You’re kidding me.” Sure, it may be easier just to slap in an exclamation point, but you, as a writer, are supposed to be showing, not telling, whenever you can. And if you want to go further, you could always say it this way: ‘“You’re kidding me,” she shouted, throwing her arms up in the air.’ Again, your actions are showing, so there’s no need for that silly, often overused exclamation point. So, the next time you think about using it…think twice. I have.
The other piece of punctuation is a little trickier, because an ellipsis not only tells, it shows. By inserting an ellipsis (…) into a sentence, it shows/tells the reader there’s a pause, and if it’s at the end of the sentence (….ellipsis plus a period), it shows the speaker’s voice trailing off. For the life of me, I can’t think of another way to show hesitation or a voice trailing off other than to use an ellipsis. Anyone who’s read my books knows I’m a fan of the ellipsis, and I won’t apologize for it. I will say that I do try to use it less than I used to, but if my character is hesitating…or…or…trying to think of another way to say something…or their voice trails off…. What’s a girl to do, I ask you?
One more thing about the ellipsis. You can find lots of opinions online about how the ellipsis should be written. Some say it should be three dots with a space before and after, like this ( … ), others suggest it should be three dots with no space before, but one after (… ), and others state that it should be three dots with no spaces before or after, like this (…). I use the last example for several reasons. The first is that the Chicago Manual of Style says so. The second is that when I type an ellipsis in Word, the program automatically converts it to a character (Unicode 2026), thus locking the three dots together in marriage that will last forever and always, amen. This way, whether it designates a pause or a trailing voice, the three dots can never get divorced. In other words, an ellipsis without spaces before and after can never be split from one sentence to the next when you’re formatting your book.
Oh, yeah. While we’re on the subject of punctuation, unless you truly want to be seen as an amateur, never, ever, ever, use two exclamation points (!!), three exclamation points (!!!), or the interrobang (?!) in your books. They’re distracting, clumsy, and unprofessional. Semi-colons are also often considered a hindrance in good fiction writing. Just an FYI.
As always, though, all of this is up to you, and yes. In case you noticed, I decided to change the numbering system of these posts so it’s easier for me to keep track. Proof in the pudding that I recognize I’m forever learning. :)