Punctuation Matters

I learned a lot writing my book, A Life With Horses. I learned how to express myself on paper; I learned a few things about myself (another blog story by itself); I learned about formating; and I learned more about the English language.

Although I have a good grounding in grammar, I questioned many things. I checked my book of grammar usage many times and searched the internet for solutions. The book is written in an informal, conversational tone (like I am across the table from the reader telling the story) and I found myself using ellipses and dashes - a lot! (Just used a dash, didn't I?) I questioned the correctness of my usage of both forms of puncuation. I even asked a teacher what she thought.

"I don't think they ever should be used," she said. Well, that deflated me!

I went over my manuscript and tried to take them out. I did substitute other punctuation in several places before I decided it was impossible to say what I meant in the tone I wanted without using ellipses or dashes. Then I looked through my bookshelf. I would check out what other writers did . . . and found out James Michener uses both. If ellipses and dashes are good enough for James Michener, they would stay in my manuscipt.

Then there was the form of ellipses and dashes. There's an "en dash" and an "em dash". Ellipses - three dots, but how close together? And with what other punctuation? More decisions... In the end, I had to choose and use the same form throughout the manuscript. Is it correct? Not sure, but it is consistant . . . and just like the ellipses and dashes in the James Michener novel!