As much as editing can cause a writer angst, it’s one of the best things you can do for your writing. If you believe successful writing happens without editing, you’re wrong. Whether you’re entering a story into a contest, writing a full-length manuscript, or writing a letter to a friend, editing will improve your work.
A book I received as a Christmas present, written by a friend of a friend, caused me pain. A small press published it. I stopped reading the book at the end of page 36. It filled with history and intrigue, but I stopped reading it because there were too many ellipses on the pages. I couldn’t take them anymore.
An ellipsis is punctuation, shown as three dots (…). It’s used as a symbol to show an omission of words, or represents a pause, or suggests they left something unsaid. An ellipsis is not a symbol to be used in place of a comma. They are to be used sparingly because they are a type of punctuation symbol that can “put off” the reader.
This book showed it was published through a publishing company. Was it an inexperienced or a “bluff” publisher? Perhaps the publisher of the book didn’t provide an editor. Or, an editor faced hundreds of additional ellipses and tried their best to reduce them. Perhaps the author was allowed to “win” an argument that all the ellipses remaining in the last edition were necessary. I don’t know the reason, but the result was I shut the book and will not finish it.
The ellipsis pulled me out of the story and aggravated me because of the interruption. Every few seconds, there was another ugly ellipsis poking up its ugly head. All I could think was, “Oh my, another one.”
In 36 pages of this book, there were 41 ellipses. I counted them. I resisted the urge to count all the em-dash symbols on the 36 pages. There were dozens of them as well, but they didn’t bother me as much as the ellipses.
Previously, I wrote an article about punctuation for Writers Monthly PDF, and how punctuation is like traffic signals while driving. They cause the thoughts being expressed to slow down, pause and stop. Overuse of punctuation, any type of punctuation, can kill a good story, as the overuse of ellipses killed this book for me. This was a great story I couldn’t stand to read.
A reader really wants to enjoy your story. A contest judge wants to present an award for your work if it’s worthy. Share your work with other writers to give you feedback about punctuation, plotting, story, editing, and more. Listen to their feedback and try not to be defensive. Do your best to understand when they tell you. You may not agree, but get a second and third opinion. If they all agree, you must have an issue.
Why bother to write a book that can’t be comfortably read? Readers and judges are waiting to sing praises for your great work. Get that invaluable feedback, correct what needs to change, and then deliver the promise to them so you can obtain awards and retain readers.
Leave a Reply