Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lake
Well, again, I reserve !? for dialog only. The single and double exclamations are used very rarely and are more an effort to pump up the reader's adrenalin during high intensity scenes. Sorta how a story teller adds a little verbal punch to the story they're reading so it's more exciting. That's the only reason I do it, and again it's only used sparingly where most useful.
HAHAHAHA! 
Yeah, she's a published author like myself, although with less millage than me. |
Steven,
I have to say this, but published author means absolutely nothing to me. I know several "published authors" that couldn't put a decent sentence together. So is she a professional author?
As to the !?, that word just looks so wrong. Couldn't spell it so didn't even try.
Personally I would have to see the writing to know if the punctuation is right or wrong in context. Just please don't ever do this next thing for dialog.
"S said
-blah blah-
C said
-blah blah-
-oh really-
-yes, I am sure-"
Did you get lost reading that? I actually saw that in a published book. Not those words but that exact punctuation and spacing.
Oh and one other favor, if you have a person traveling from point A to point B, make the route somewhat logical. Example from Amarillo to El Paso, but avoiding New Mexico. (Actually easy to do if you can read the map.) This author had the guy Hitch hiking on county and farm roads. His reasoning, the numbers were bigger so the roads must have been bigger. Sorry but Snyder, Abilene and San Angelo will not get you to El Paso in any kind of hurry.
I didn't finish the book.