March 2011

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Interrupting.

Interrup—

Interrupting Chicken!

Don’t be afraid, chickie. I’ll take you under my wing and help you through this.

Hahaha—cute, isn’t it? In a five-year-old. But not in your manuscript if interruptions aren’t correctly punctuated.

Toss in a comma, exclamation point, question mark, quotation marks—uh huh, do you know which side of the dash each goes on? Same for the ellipsis … which side?

Don’t be afraid, chickie. I’ll take you under my wing and help you through this.

In fiction, the dash is used in dialogue to show interrupted speech or thoughts. A dash shows breaks that are abrupt and strong.

For example, changing one’s mind (internal interruption):

“I might—no, I will—do what you want.”

Or, another example, cutting short one’s speech (usually because of an external interruption):

“Leave me alone or I might—”
“Might what?” [How rude!]

The ellipsis, in contrast, shows faltering or fragmented speech to indicate confusion or insecurity:

“I might … no … I will … do what you want.”                                                         
“Leave me alone or I might …” [voice trails off]
“Might what?”

The difference between using a dash and an ellipsis in your writing is that you’re setting up a visual signal to the reader on how to “hear” the dialogue. Ahh, power to the author! Use it!

On which side of the dash and the ellipsis does other punctuation fall? Chicken feed—not a problem!

Commas and quotation marks follow them:

“Please, don’t tell me—,” she began, but her husband cut her off.
“But … but …,” said the old goat.

Exclamation points and question marks precede them:

“I told you—or did I forget?—to pick me up at nine o’clock.”
“You’re telling me—heaven forbid!—that you drank all that?”
“I told you … or did I forget? … to pick me up at … nine.” [scratch head]
“You’re telling me … please, no! … you drank it all?”

Rarely used (but still good to know) is that in an interruption that belongs to the surrounding sentence instead of to the speaker, dashes are placed outside the quotation marks:

“Come closer and”—she lowered her voice—“I’ll tell you another chicken joke.”

And here it is: What goes peck, peck, peck, boom?

And your reply?

“I dunno—oh, wait—I do know the answer!”                                                         

or

“Um … well … you’d better tell me …”

If your reply incorporated ellipses, then here’s the answer: A chicken in a minefield.

Hahahaha!