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I've been told, by professional teachers of creative writing no less, that the correct number of exclamation marks to use in any finished piece of writing is zero; I've also read the works of Terry...
Answer
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T10:02:55Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39732 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
Ash
·
2019-12-08T10:02:55Z (almost 5 years ago)
I've been told, by professional teachers of creative writing no less, that the correct number of exclamation marks to use in any finished piece of writing is zero; I've also read the works of Terry Pratchett and know that this is not necessarily the case. In many ways it depends more on the target audience and/or the tone of the piece than there actually being any hard and fast rule. In serious literary fiction they shouldn't be used; rather the exclamation should be given in a character's actions and your description of their demeanor and body language. For less serious pieces, and for pieces written to be read aloud, more punctuation and less description can be useful in getting the story, and in particular the dialogue, to flow naturally.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2018-10-30T17:52:28Z (about 6 years ago)
Original score: 18