Three Periods

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  • Three Periods

    Should I use three periods (...) to convey a pause in dialogue?

    Code:
    ALLAN
    It’s OK, Sarah. Your thoughts have control over you... 
    It’s only been a couple of days. I’ll get you through this... 
    Right now you need to sleep.

  • #2
    Re: Three Periods

    Sure, why not, tho' your sample doesn't seem to need the pauses, or doesn't pause in the right places. Quickie alternative example:

    ALLAN
    It's OK, Sarah. Your thoughts have... control over you.
    It's only been a couple of days. I'll... get you through this.
    Right now you need to sleep.

    First pause, maybe he's searching for the right way to say it without making her panic? Second pause, maybe he's not sure if he can get her through this! If he's... using an inhaler... that's... different.

    -Derek
    My Web Page - shameless vampyre fiction & other shameless writings.
    You made me have a bowel movement in my britches. I ain't never gonna forgive you for that.

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    • #3
      Re: Three Periods

      If...only...there was...one...word to...describe the....three periods...in a row. Spock!

      Even if you never discover their official name, use them sparingly. Often times a full stop will function just as well as a....

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      • #4
        Re: Three Periods

        ellipsis - but you knew that, didn't you?
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        • #5
          Re: Three Periods

          Yes, I think he did know that, lol.

          And about using "three periods"... you need to ALWAYS remember to put a space afterwards and no using 4, 5, 6 or 13 periods. You know what that is? Nothing. And it's annoying. Do you put a three commas to indicate a super comma? No. So never more than three.

          Almost as bad as that is not putting a space afterwards. The poster above did it and I'll let it slide because it's just a dumb reply, but you need to... yes, NEED TO... use a space. It's no different than a comma or a period and you use spaces after them, don't ya?

          Anyways, that's what I wanted to say about them.

          Actually, one last thing. Try using elipses instead of Beats in dialogue. If you need a pause in dialogue and a period doesn't suffice, don't do (beat). It looks better and is more subtle to use an elipsis. Example...

          PETER
          Hey, what's up? I have something important to tell you... here it goes.

          PETER
          Hey, what's up? I have something important to tell you.
          (beat)
          Here it goes.

          It saves space, looks cleaner, and isn't a blatant "look at me! look at me! I'm a pause! You have to pause now!" type of thing (but it still forces the actor to pause anyway).

          And that is it for my rant on the elipsis.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Three Periods

            We shouldn't be using (beat) to indicate a pause anyway. It should be used to represent a different thought in one piece of dialogue.

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            • #7
              Re: Three Periods

              The ellipsis is perfectly suitable for a brief pause, or when dialogue trails off. Read one of Harold Pinter's plays to see how "silence", "pause", "beat" and the ellipsis differ in how meaning is conveyed.

              By the way, in writing prose, and the ellipsis comes at the end of the sentence, you'd properly use four dots, not three.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Three Periods

                Also, nearly all style manuals prefer a space in front of the ellipsis. So you'd have ... this, rather than... that. Unless you are using it at the end of a sentence, which case, you'd have four periods (as Jake said), and you'd have no space in front of them.... Like that. Because in that case, what you have is a normal period followed by an ellipsis.

                Of course, there are some who think there should be a space in between the period and the ellipsis. ... And then there are those who prefer to have spaces between the periods in the ellipsis like . . . so. I think both of those are considered somewhat arcane. But there is some kind of keyboard shortcut that will give you an actual ellipsis as a single character, with a "thin space" between the periods. And MS Word automatically corrects a hand-typed set of three periods into a slightly-spaced ellipsis.

                You can imagine how much fun I am at parties.
                The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter -- it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. - Mark Twain

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                • #9
                  Re: Three Periods

                  I've always done it like this...

                  And never heard a complaint.

                  Ele...

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                  • #10
                    Re: Three Periods

                    Would you use the ellipsis to indicate a dialogue that interrupts another? As in:

                    ME
                    Have you seen...

                    ANY WOMAN
                    I want you. Now.

                    ME
                    Okay.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Three Periods

                      Originally posted by RogerT
                      Would you use the ellipsis to indicate a dialogue that interrupts another? As in:

                      ME
                      Have you seen...

                      ANY WOMAN
                      I want you. Now.

                      ME
                      Okay.
                      A hyphen is generally used for that.

                      ME
                      Have you seen --

                      ANY WOMAN
                      I want you. Now.

                      ME
                      Okay.


                      Ele...

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Three Periods

                        Nitpick:

                        That's not a hyphen; it's a dash.


                        hyphen: -

                        dash: --


                        And, yep, a dash is the best way to indicate that the speaker has been --

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                        • #13
                          Re: Three Periods

                          Originally posted by refriedwhiskey
                          Nitpick:

                          That's not a hyphen; it's a dash.


                          hyphen: -

                          dash: --


                          And, yep, a dash is the best way to indicate that the speaker has been --
                          Um...I meant put two hyphens together...which would therefore become a dash...and...sigh...you got me.

                          Ele...

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                          • #14
                            Re: Three Periods

                            And then there's the em dash: - (on a Mac, option+shift+hyphen).

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Three Periods

                              Even better, most word processing programs will automatically turn -- into an em dash, unless you tell 'em not to.

                              I don't think Final Draft does, though. Presumably because "That's not how it's done in screenwriting."

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