Parenthesis Types in Fiction
What's the general approach to using parenthesis (the grammatical construct, not the punctuation mark) in fiction?
I have an internal "ranking" of them:
- Comma-delineated parenthesis, like this, is the most natural and normally suffices.
- Em-dash-delineated parenthesis - like this - is more abrupt, but still acceptable in a story.
- Bracket-delineated parenthesis (like this) is too abrupt (or perhaps too formal) to be used in narrative writing.
That's basically what feels natural to me when I'm writing. However, I've received critiques where people have said that I shouldn't use em-dashes for parenthesis, and upon consideration, I haven't actually seen many authors use it, at least not as often as I do. Is there any kind of standard for this?
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1 answer
Comma, dash, and brackets are not simply different degrees of parenthesis, they are different types of parenthesis.
Comma parentheses denote modification or clarification of the main point.
His father, John, was a clergyman.
Brackets denote secondary non-essential information.
His father, John, (who also came from Nebraska) was a clergyman.
Dashes denote an interjection. The information matters, but it comes in from left field, so to speak, and can be grammatically disjointed from the rest of the sentence.
His father -- to this day he cannot remember his name -- was a clergyman.
Dashes allow you to shove one sentence into the middle of another one -- you can't do that with commas or brackets -- which is something people sometimes do in speech.
You can generally rewrite with the interjecting sentence following the first sentence. However, using the interjection give a certain vigor to the prose and allows you to put the emphasis where you want it.
As far as their use in fiction is concerned. These different kinds of parentheticals may occur more or less frequently in different styles of writing, but no grammatical structure, no form or punctuation, no part of speech should be ruled out. Use them where the effect they produce is appropriate, regardless of genre.
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