While my subconscious works out a problem in my romantic comedy, I’ve been editing the first novel I completed—fourteen years ago. As I read, it became apparent I was a little too fond of the em dash. I think I used at least one on every page. So I decided to run a search for them.
In a manuscript of 89,000 words, I’d used 543 em dashes! Seriously. Five hundred forty-three. I wouldn’t have thought that possible.
Don’t get me wrong. The em dash is legitimate punctuation. I use it to indicate an interruption, add emphasis, or a sudden change of thought. For instance:
“If you’re asking me to—”
The man—swear to God—had giggled.
She would trust him again—in time.
The party lasted all night—where were you, by the way?
I could use parentheses, colons, and commas in place of some of the em dashes, but my fiction is usually informal, so the dashes fit.
In my defense, I’ve learned a thing or two about writing in fourteen years. I no longer have such a blatant crush on that bit of punctuation. I kept all the em dashes used to indicate interrupted dialogue, but many of the others were not used to good effect and bit the dust. The total now stands at a more reasonable 384, but I still have rounds of editing to do. And I haven’t checked the ellipsis count, yet.
Do you have a punctuation weakness?
Filed under: Editing, Fiction, Punctuation, Writing Tagged: editing, em dash, fiction, punctuation, Writing
