And then, in not two years later, Tom had jumped into the water and swum away. And carefree, their whole lives ahead of them. However, I could imagine that kind of dash being used if a viewpoint character were remembering something but is then interrupted by a speaker or an event that distracts them from their musing. An em dash would confuse me because I wouldn't understand what it was indicating.Īs for which dash, and whether to have a space, as I said in the blog post, it's a style choice but for open loops and direct interruptions, it's usually a closed-up em. Now there's suspense because the reader's wondering: did he swim away, did he drown, did he nearly drown but manage to swim away? Something else? And perhaps that will be unveiled later but for now it's a mystery.īut if he jumped into the waves and swam away, that's it - job done. in other words the reader imagines there would/could have been more to say (either in dialogue or a narrative). Dashes are usually interpreted as indicating either an interruption or some sort of open loop. It's an interesting style choice but one that might confuse readers precisely because there is existing standard punctuation to indicate a terminus: the full point. Here are some examples that demonstrate how it could be done:

The EN DASH and the EM DASH can be used to set off an augmenting or explanatory word or phrase in a sentence that could stand alone without the insertion.īrackets, commas and colons can act as alternative forms of punctuation.

There are four dashes you’re most likely to use in fiction:ĭashes that set off text and replace alternative punctuation Take a look at the likes of CMOS and you’ll see plenty of exceptions to the rules, which is why I don’t much like rules when it comes to fiction editing! What I’ve given you here is what I think you’ll need to know most of the time for most of your novel writing. Both terms are acceptable but I’ll use ‘dash’ in this article. Oxford’s New Hart’s Rules ( NHR ) refers to the ‘en rule’ and the ‘em rule’ whereas The Chicago Manual of Style ( CMOS ) discusses ‘en dashes’ and ‘em dashes’. Dashes are sometimes referred to as ‘rules’, especially in the UK.

Turn off em dash on word 2007