Writing interrupted dialogue -vs- trailed off sentence?
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Writing interrupted dialogue -vs- trailed off sentence?
How do you write dialogue that is interrupted -vs- a sentence that someone doesn't finish?
Re: Writing interrupted dialogue -vs- trailed off sentence?
Uhm... you mean, like this?
Interrupted:
"So, I was at this bar, and there was this girl, and she was-"
"Exceptionally beautiful, I know!"
Not finished:
"So, I was at this bar, and there was this girl, and she was just..."
"Yeah? Just what? Pretty? Horny? Blue? Actually a dude?"
Or what did you mean by "how do you write it"? ô.O
Re: Writing interrupted dialogue -vs- trailed off sentence?
Yes. I meant how do you write each instance so that the reader can tell the difference, or is there no difference in how they are written and you have to use other indications to clue the reader. tags, non-verbal indicators etc.
Re: Writing interrupted dialogue -vs- trailed off sentence?
What Red Queen said - the dash ( – ) and the ellipsis ( ... ) do me pretty good. If it's interrupting, I like to put a dash at the beginning of the interruptor's statement in addition to the end of the interruptee's, like:
"And if I refuse to go – "
" – then I will scrape you off this earth like fat from good hide!"
I don't think you would generally need any additional advertisement; I gather those symbols are pretty standard for use in English-language books. There's some tiny quibbly difference between en-dash ( - ) and em-dash ( – ) but it's not massively important at this stage.
Re: Writing interrupted dialogue -vs- trailed off sentence?
I have always used an ellipsis for the unfinished sentence and no end punctuation for the interrupted dialogue with a tag but I wasn't certain if this was correct. Since my dialogue is peppered with both, I thought I would ask. It isn't polite to interrupt but people do it all the time, so into the dialogue it goes.
Thanks for your input.
Re: Writing interrupted dialogue -vs- trailed off sentence?
I don't see that there really is a difference. Some examples (from my own writing):
"We wouldn't have had to deal with this if you'd . . ."
"It's my fault!" he interrupted.
"We must report to the head of the . . ." He trailed off abruptly.
Re: Writing interrupted dialogue -vs- trailed off sentence?
Except that you have to tell the reader when it is an interrupt and when the sentence is just trailing off.
Re: Writing interrupted dialogue -vs- trailed off sentence?
-- is interrupted, ... is trailed off. How I've always seen it/how I edit it to be when working on novels.
"You can't just--"
"I certainly can."
"You can't just..."
"Just what?"
The answer gives some indication, but the punctuation leaves no room for question.
Re: Writing interrupted dialogue -vs- trailed off sentence?
This one is correct. When in doubt look at the Chicago Manual of Style.
BTW, Hyphen is NOT the same as a dash.
Re: Writing interrupted dialogue -vs- trailed off sentence?
Not putting in punctuation at the end of a sentence, interrupted or not, it incorrect under any circumstances.
Re: Writing interrupted dialogue -vs- trailed off sentence?
Thank everyone for the guidance. It figures, I was punctuating one of the two completely wrong. I guess that means you can teach an old... ;-)