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Q&A How is a dialog interruption actually shown?

Standard punctuation for an incomplete sentence is ellipsis. But don't. Don't have one character interrupt another at all. Dialogue is not speech and the page is not the screen. The page is an a...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:53Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27629
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:20:40Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27629
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:20:40Z (almost 5 years ago)
Standard punctuation for an incomplete sentence is ellipsis.

But don't.

Don't have one character interrupt another at all. Dialogue is not speech and the page is not the screen. The page is an asynchronous media. Events do not unfold in real time but in read time. It can take far longer to read the description of a complex event that happens quickly than a simple event that takes a long time. So time based effects, like interruptions, are impossible to dramatize well in prose. Instead, the drama should come through what is said, not the way it is said.

As far as is possible, let each character have their full say. If one must interrupt the other, let it be a full and final interruption, a dismissal, not just two people talking over each other.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-04-20T19:05:46Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 0