How To Use Dashes In Dialogue
Ctrl alt minus key on the numeric keypad nonbreaking space in word for mac.
How to use dashes in dialogue. Use em dashes outside the quotation marks to set off a bit of action without a speech verb. Emphasize important or essential information em dashes can be used to emphasize important or essential information midsentence or at the end of sentences. Dashes are used to separate groups of words not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does. An example from the opening page of the apartment written by billy wilder and i a l. Does anyone use em dashes or two hyphens to denote speakers in dialogue passages.
Em dash in word for windows. 2 the weary traveler forgot something in the airport bathroom her plane ticket. Nonbreaking space in word for windows. Joyce does this as does william gaddis. I i don t know what you re talking about denied the politician.
In written dialogue if a speaker suddenly or abruptly stops speaking hesitates in speech or is cut off by another speaker a dash can indicate the pause or interruption. Alt ctrl period. Although colons and commas can serve the same function em dashes create a more dramatic effect. An em dash is also useful in dialogue to show a break in thought that s abrupt rather than a trailing thought that gets an ellipsis. We can also use dashes in scene description.
A dash is a little horizontal line that floats in the middle of a line of text not at the bottom. Use an em dash with an exclamation point or question mark but not with a comma a colon or a semi colon and only rarely with a period. I practice it but my only conceptual understanding is that the dash dialogue format allows you to group a character s entire range of actions thoughts and words into one chunk headed by a dash. It s clear that if this was dialogue the dashes would still be needed for the interruption. Look over there she pointed to the corner by the bookshelves do not merely use commas because in such cases there is no speech verb and therefore it isn t a dialogue tag and can t be punctuated like one.
Ctrl shift spacebar. To break up dialogue. It s longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause.