editing/proofreading

This particular one (teased) looks a little strange in an interruption context, but there's no general rule in not having a dialogue slug or an action explanation for the cutoff.

sr71plt said:

This particular one (teased) looks a little strange in an interruption context, but there's no general rule in not having a dialogue slug or an action explanation for the cutoff.

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Cool. Thanks. Yes, looks a bit better with the dots, as in:
"Not sure, but for someone who made a big deal about deep-throating just now...." Annabelle teased.

Three dots or four....

I'd love to have clarification on whether the ellipsis refers to three dots, and not to four dots....


Obviously, three dots are used in a sentence to denote a completely different feeling/effect, than when one uses four dots at the end of the sentence. Although both denote a sort of pause or silent continued thought.

So, just wondered what the four dots are called. Or, is it the other way around and the ellipsis refers to the four dots...?

rexbrookdale said:

I'd love to have clarification on whether the ellipsis refers to three dots, and not to four dots....


Obviously, three dots are used in a sentence to denote a completely different feeling/effect, than when one uses four dots at the end of the sentence. Although both denote a sort of pause or silent continued thought.

So, just wondered what the four dots are called. Or, is it the other way around and the ellipsis refers to the four dots...?

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Four dots is called a period and an ellipsis. It's brought into play in quoted materal when words/sentences are excerpted out. If the period is in front of the ellipsis, it tells the reader that what was cut out was complete sentences and didn't omit anything in the original preceding sentence.

So, nothing reall to be used normally in fiction.

In publishing there would be no space in front of the first dot (the period), but would be before and after ever successive dots (except the last one if there's a quotation mark next). A publishing ellipsis has spaces around the dots.

BrettJ said:

My spell check corrects anything more than 3 dots and it's highly reliable. After all that I've written, I tend to trust it.

BrettJ in Canada

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Spellcheck is useless with ellipsis. Don't rely on it for that. A computer ellipsis is not a publishing ellipsis.