Punctuation before / after em dash and speech mark
I originally posted this question on the main English forum, but someone suggested it might be better posted here. Apologies if I have broken any forum rules.
As I home in on the end of my first novel, I find myself vexing over punctuation and the correct use of the em dash. Having failed to find definitive answers elsewhere, I’ll get straight to the point.
While I’m aware that the em dash can be used for interruption, I sometimes use them to indicate motion or action. Three examples:
‘Here—’ she said, holding out a small parcel.
‘Come—’ and he beckoned me closer with a finger.
‘Look—’ I lifted my hand and held up the empty bottle.
I am wondering about possible lack of commas or capitalisation in some of these cases.
I am also perturbed about the following em dash, speech mark, comma combination:
‘Well, I—,’ and before I could finish, he’d gone.
All advice greatly appreciated.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/18951. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Examples 1 and 3 are fine. You can have a sharp break at the end of a line of dialogue. I'd slightly change 2.
'Come — ' He beckoned me closer with a finger.
I wouldn't use a comma after an M-dash, because the M-dash already indicates a pause, so the double pause doesn't quite work.
This question might also be useful: How should dialog be formatted?
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