BANG!

[pmmg]

So...along with Colons and SemiColons, how do you feel about putting BANG, or exclamation points into your prose?

Do you feel it does the necessary job of saying someone spoke excitedly, or shouted....or do you find the stand out too much and the rest of the prose around already do the job?

Do you find they get used too freely, and maybe should be pulled back some?

What say you!?!

Bang ! Bang Bang !!

 

[CupofJoe]

I've used them in speech, but I can't think of a time I've used them in the body of the prose.
and I'm with STP - “Multiple exclamation marks,' he went on, shaking his head, 'are a sure sign of a diseased mind.” Eric

 

[Penpilot]

I think they have their place. I'm sure I've used them on occasion in prose, but mostly if I use them, it's sparingly in dialogue.

 

[skip.knox]

Oh man, I had that one drummed out of me in graduate school. The guideline I was given was this: never try to do with typography, including punctuation, what you ought to be doing with words. This has proved useful in my fiction, as whenever I'm tempted to use an exclamation point, an onomatopoeia, or kindred, the ghost of my professor looms over me and I go looking for words. The sentence is nearly always better for it. Someone might be able to find a counter-example, but I'm confident in saying you won't find an exclamation point in any of my novels except inside dialog quotes. In which case I blame the character.

Here's a bonus from grad school: parentheses are not an appositive. Alas, I violate that one often.

 

[Saigonnus]

When she stopped, in the doorway, her eyes went wide in shock watching As'ma quite literally step out of his own skin. Or what she thought was his skin. He was one of the aliens!

I use them in dialog, and in situations like the above, if the character is surprised, shocked etc.

 

[Mad Swede]

I never use exclamation marks in my prose, you simply don't when you're writing in Swedish. Instead you convey emotions in other ways in the text.

 

[Incanus]

I use all common and standard punctuation in the ways they were intended to be used. I've never read a book that didn't use exclamation points that I know of. I use them pretty much in dialogue only.

 

[pmmg]

Gonna say...My editor would have me add exclamation points, but my story does not have any. I feel like some are permissible, like 1 to 5 every story, but not the way he would have me add them. I feel I agree mostly with Skip, and that they should be dialog only, or even Mad Swede...but for different reasons.

I do also feel like any mark that is standard punctuation used properly is not out of place, but it does not match well my writing voice. Like the Colon, and the semicolon, !!! are not really for me. I also tend to avoid contractions unless its in dialog too. I dont have to, but I do.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I'm admittedly an alliteration girl. I like the music they make. But I have never been a fan of onomatopoeia... although I do like the word, itself. It's cool. No word is off limits, no song unsung, but BANG! is not only too on the nose, it forces the reader out of the story. It was used for a very long time, as has the other little words that fill in the corners as we shore up a defense against monsters.

It's also so old-fashioned and so sudden to the 'ear,' that it all on its own launches the reader up out of the page and forces them somehow to think of 1960's Batman.

 

[pmmg]

Just to clarify...I was asking mostly about exclamation points, and not so much the word Bang. I just used that because exclamation points are called bangs (in tech lingo) in the same way number signs # are called pounds and these little guys are called splats *.

 

[Saigonnus]

Like the "interrobang!?"

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Just to clarify...I was asking mostly about exclamation points, and not so much the word Bang. I just used that because exclamation points are called bangs (in tech lingo) in the same way number signs # are called pounds and these little guys are called splats *.

Oh! Sorry, that went write over my Writer Brain. My wife's the editor. I'm just the comic relief.

I do use exclamation marks, but sparingly. Too many, too close, or even more than one in a cluster make the writer look histrionic at best and displaying a disconnect between the scene's actual tone and the Pride Picnic at around 4:30pm.

 

[pmmg]

I had a feeling...

 

[A. E. Lowan]

You should see what I do to commas.

 

[Devor]

In dialogue? Sure. In prose? Not usually, unless it's a deep POV moment where the prose blends with the character's thoughts.

But I do like to experiment, even with grammar and punctuation, so I can't say never.

 

[pmmg]

You should see what I do to commas.

You keep trying to get me to look...

 

[A. E. Lowan]

You keep trying to get me to look...

Me? Give out tantalizing hints of the fun and games - and the occasional goblin - contained within a couple thousand pages? All written by three crazy hot chicks and drafted by the dingbat who can't spell? Surely not!

>.>

 

[xena]

I sprinkle a few exclamation points here and there, mostly in dialogue.

 

[skip.knox]

I never use exclamation marks in my prose, you simply don't when you're writing in Swedish. Instead you convey emotions in other ways in the text.

This explains so much. My principal advisor on my Master's thesis was Swedish by background.

 

[minta]

I like them in moderation, like most things in writing, usually in dialogue or when I want a line to feel really exclamatory.