Interrupted speech

by Paul Garside
8th April 2016

Hello all, well here we go again, need more help. How surprising. Anyway, when I have been writing dialogue and the speaker is interrupted mid sentence, I have been using an ellipse. However, some books I have been reading, (yes I do now and again) show the word being interrupted by a line mid way as... EXAMPLE. As I was about to comm--- only it is a line and not three dashes. I have looked for a way of putting in a line in that position but I can't find any way. What is the correct way to show interrupted spe---? Please if I finish my final edit I will have to go all through changing it.

Thank you all in advance. Regards, Paul G

Replies

Lorraine, your answer has got me thinking about using elipses in interrupted speech.

Stories and novels use ellipses to a very different effect. An ellipsis can demonstrate a pause in dialogue, a pause in narrative, or a character or a narrator trailing off.

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Adrian
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Adrian Sroka
10/04/2016

Sorry I meant correct every page before the last thirty before I went for the dash and change the last thirty or so pages to the em dash instead of the three dashes. there I think I have got that correct now. it was in my head just not in my post. hey ho, the old pink cells are packing up even quicker than they were.

Regards Paul

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Paul Garside
08/04/2016

Thank you both so very much for your answers, yep it all helps a lot. I can now correct the last thirty or so pages where I went for the dash, it didn't look right anyway. Thanks again and for getting to me so quickly, THAT is really appreciated.

Regards Paul

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Paul Garside
08/04/2016