Punctuation and Pacing

I took a great class at my last conference. It was on Pacing and taught by Josi Kilpack. She said a lot of great things but my favorite was about how punctuation can affect the pacing of our stories.

I hadn’t really thought about it in the cool way she put it:

Think of punctuation as road signs signaling your readers what you want them to do:

• Period (.) – Full stop.
• Comma (,) – Pause, or slow break.
• Ellipsis (…) – Pause, or rubbernecking at an accident.
• Semicolon (;) – Longer pause, or a rolling stop.
• Exclamation (!) – STOP. Yelled stop (That could get annoying fast, use in moderation)
• Question Mark (?) – Pause + prod to do something, or sharp turn.
• Em Dash (—) – Pause + look aside, like slowing to read a billboard.

I am a sucker for a metaphor. Thanks Josi. I won’t think of punctuation the same again.

-Angie