Ellipsis…
and Other Words You Don’t Know
Like
abecedarian. You know what that means? No? Ha!
An
ellipsis—plural form: ellipses—is a set of three dots that triggers a break in
fiction writing. The primary uses in dialogue are to show visually that a
character is pausing, trailing away, or shift the focus from dialogue to
narrative.
Case
1.1, pausing to think:
The
philosopher rubbed his chin and said, “That’s a great point… I must take time
to consider this.”
We
could have just as easily written the example a different way to avoid the
ellipsis.
“That’s
a great point,” the philosopher said, rubbing his chin. How had he not foreseen
this exception to the rule? After a long pause, he added, “I must take time to
consider this.”
Case
1.2, pausing to breathe (i.e., gasping for air):
Lungs
screaming, Jack broke the surface of the freezing water and took a deep breath
of air. His ship was thirty feet away, but the crew had thrown out a life
preserver, which Jack swam to and grabbed.
“We’ll
reel you in!” shouted the captain. “Just hold on!”
“I’m…
trying to,” Jack said, shivering. “So… cold.”
Case
2, trailing off from dialogue:
Jeffrey
saluted his commanding officer and said, “Sir, I have news—”
“Did
I say you could speak to me?” the officer asked, a vein on his forehead pulsing
with anger.
“Well,
no sir, but I just thought…” Jeffrey trailed away, catching the officer’s
murderous glare.
“That’s
the very problem, Jeffrey. You don’t think—you follow orders.”
Technically,
you don’t need to say Jeffrey trailed away, because the ellipsis is
already telling you that Jeffrey is trailing off in his dialogue. Therefore, we
can rewrite the example as follows:
“Well,
no sir, but I just thought…”
After
a moment of silence, the commanding officer said, “That’s the very problem,
Jeffrey. You don’t think—you follow orders.”
Neither
version is wrong. Use what simply feels more comfortable to you. We prefer
using the first version simply because we have audiobooks. Naturally, some
people in our audience don’t read the book—they listen to it. Since the
listener isn’t seeing the page, a written cue can be very helpful to keeping
them engaged with the story.
Case
3, shift in focus from dialogue to narrative:
Using
a previous example from Dashes—They’re
Like M&M’s:
Professor
Harold spoke from the lectern about the importance of history. “It can be—no, is!—the
most useful topic to learn if you wish to predict the future, for the path of
mankind is a cyclical one. The best—and worst—of all mankind’s acts can
be found within the past and, thus, within the future…”
Harold
droned on as Jennifer sat at the back of the class, daydreaming. What were the
point of these lessons? Did anybody really care about history that much,
or was the professor trying to justify his own career?
From
the first paragraph, we see that the ellipsis is used here to show that the
professor is still speaking despite the fact that Jennifer—the POV—is tuning
him out and is in her own world. Explaining to the reader that something is
still occurring in the background makes the world of your story feel larger
than just the characters themselves.
Ellipses
are also useful in narrative and are used for emphasis, be it to establish a
sense of foreboding/uncertainty or a soft transition from one idea to the next
(i.e., soft transition in comparison to using an em dash, which is a harsher,
more abrupt transition).
Case
1.1, a sense of foreboding:
Caroline
walked down the narrow hallway filled with locked doors and little else. After
walking ten minutes, she passed a painting of a woman screaming on a bridge.
Shivering, Caroline increased her pace even as her feet echoed on the
floorboards underfoot and the wooden walls surrounding her. After walking for
what felt like another hour down the straight corridor, she passed another
painting… of a woman screaming on a bridge.
“That’s
the same painting.” Caroline raised a trembling hand to her lips. “But I didn’t
even turn around. How could that be the same painting?!”
Case
1.2, a sense of uncertainty:
At
long last, Jeremiah had found his brother’s killer—the supervillain, Quackers,
who wore a duck mask. Finally, now that Quackers was bound, Jeremiah
would know Quackers’ true identity. Triumphantly, Jeremiah pulled off the
murderer’s mask and found… his mother?
“Mom?!”
Jeremiah exclaimed.
Case
2, a transition:
Eve
waited in the hospital waiting room for news of her husband. He was in critical
care and had been for the last seven hours. What was taking so long? The doctor
had said the operation would only take three hours. Still no word. Could they
be waiting on purpose? Certainly not, right? But if they were, there could only
be one reason for not yet telling her the news…
Eve
turned her attention to the magazine, if only to quiet the nagging, fearful
voices lurking in her head that told her that something bad had happened.
Sometimes,
authors use four-dot ellipses instead of three. To be very clear: a four-dot
ellipsis doesn’t exist. There are only three-dot ellipses. However, a period
can be added to the end of an ellipsis (i.e., ….), which makes it look
like a four-dot ellipsis. Periods should only be used with an ellipsis when the
preceding sentence is complete despite the omitted words.
Wow,
that was a lot of jargon. Let’s make things easier with an example.
The
announcer tried to follow the speed of the football game. “Fourth and goal to
go, with clock approaching zero…. The quarterback snaps the ball…. It’s handed
off to the running back, who runs through the gap and… touchdown!”
Even
though there is sound reasoning to adding a period to an ellipsis, we never do
it. Why? Two reasons: one, our audience probably isn’t going to notice the
fourth dot even if we did include it; and two, we value consistency over
correctness with punctuation.
The
announcer tried to follow the speed of the football game. “Fourth and goal to
go, with clock approaching zero… The quarterback snaps the ball… It’s handed
off to the running back, who runs through the gap and… touchdown!”
Even
if this paragraph is technically incorrect, I think it looks better. Remember:
punctuation is supposed to be invisible to the reader. The last thing that I
want is for the reader to wonder why there are three dots only sometimes.
That
being said, you can still use both if using punctuation with ellipses makes
sense to you. The general rule is as follows: if the proceeding sentence should
begin with a capital letter, add a period to the ellipses.
Sources
differ whether the period comes before or after the ellipsis. While it doesn’t
matter with periods, this difference does matter with commas, exclamation
marks, and question marks. Our opinion is that commas, exclamation marks, or
quotation marks don’t offer enough visual clues to the reader to justify their
inclusion with ellipses. Instead, they simply look out of place and detract
from the story itself.
With
a comma:
“Would
you look at that…,” the sailor said, pointing up at the sunset with an awed
expression. “Never seen anything else even half as beautiful.”
Without
a comma:
“Would
you look at that…” the sailor said, pointing up at the sunset with an awed
expression. “Never seen anything else even half as beautiful.”
With
an exclamation mark:
“You’ll
never defeat me…!” the villain said, choking on his own blood.
Why
would you be using ellipses with an exclamation mark? If your character is
exclaiming something, then they aren’t trailing away. So, this doesn’t even
make sense.
Without
an exclamation mark:
“You’ll
never defeat me…” the villain said, choking on his own blood.
That’s
better.
With
a question mark:
When called upon by the teacher, Jim asked, “But, sir, isn’t the general
concept that we use a capital letter…?” He faltered as he noticed his two
bullies snickering behind him. Embarrassed, Jim slumped lower in his seat and
fell silent.
A
question mark makes sense if a character is trailing off, but their tone is
questioning. A question mark helps the reader to follow the tone of the
dialogue. However, even here, the sentence looks and sounds the same without a
question mark.
Without
a question mark:
When
called upon by the teacher, Jim asked, “But, sir, isn’t the general concept
that we use a capital letter…” He faltered as he noticed his two bullies
snickering behind him. Embarrassed, Jim slumped lower in his seat and fell
silent.
Well,
that’s all we’ve got for ellipses…
See?
Soft transition! Ellipses are a great tool in a writer’s arsenal, and like
other forms of punctuation, as long as you’re consistent in your use, none will
bat an eye at its use.
