jmsx521

How do I write one sentence in which a narrator is asking a question and answering it as well. Or, does the change of voice, from question mark to exclamation point, automatically mean that it should be two sentences?

How does John behave now? He behaves well!
How does John behave now?... he behaves well!

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Mike C

How does John behave now? He behaves well.

For one thing, it's not one sentence, it's two. Secondly (and this is subjective, so feel free to make your own mind up) exclamation marks are mostly a no-no. Allow yourself one per chapter as an absolute maximum.

A commercial editor I know used to fine his copywriters $5 for every ! they used.

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suzakugaiden

"A commercial editor I know used to fine his copywriters $5 for every ! they used."

Wow.

What a jackass.

I also doubt he has any writing skills, honestly. That's... not rational behavior.

Anyway, I don't see any reason to use the exclamation mark outside of dialogue or a first person narrative. And I guess it's more of an... inflection marker, if you will (so is a question mark. Questions in English, aside from word order, ARE marked by inflection. "Can you give me the ball," and "Can you give me the ball?" are both grammatically correct sentences, but the former ends in a really awkward downish intonation). I dunno.

---edit

But uh, either way, neither of those sentences would take an exclamation mark. that's just bizarre.

Banzai

Ha, that's just pure genius. Excessive use of exclamation marks is extremely irritating, and makes the characters in a story sound like retards. I made some long rant about that in my GCSE english class, when some idiot used about five of the things in one paragraph. I seem to remember that rant making me quite unpopular...I wonder why? And I wonder why it doesn't bother me in the slightest? Am I a sociopath?

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Red Misery

What? That's rediculous lol. How did he stay in business? Many authors use ! in their books. I don't see why someone would object to them ^^

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imrhati

maybe he means if they use it outside of dialogue or excessively.

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bob rulz

I don't think that exclamation points should ever be used outside of dialogue and thought.

Talia_Brie

My opinion is if you can't get your point across without any exclamation points, then you should pack up your bags and stop pretending.

An exclamation point is a primary school grammatical tool. Once you know how to write things the way people actually speak you don't need them anymore.

I haven't used one about 18 years, and that's the way it's going to stay.

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bob rulz

I agree that exclamation points should be used sparingly, but there are still times when it's appropriate to use them in dialogue. I don't think it's possible to say something like "Wow!" without an exclamation point.

Mike C

It's perfectly rational. It made sure his writers only used thm when absolutely necessary - which is generally never.

And as for his writing skills... http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/d...=9781400065912

There's a lot of buzz in the industry over Jon's new book. It's Random House's lead novel for the season, meaning it gets the full weight of their marketing behind it.

I think we can assume (and I've read some, he's damn good) that his writing skills are at least as good as yours, suzakugaiden.

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Kane

Exclamation points should be used sparingly, but there are instances where a sentence might not look as good without one.

Myris

Exclamation marks are not bad in themselves, though like anything they can be overused, the problems arise only when the writer uses them as the sole source of emotion in the dialogue. The words alone should carry the brunt of the meaning; the exclamation mark is just to keep the sentence from looking contradictory.

To me it’s just as dumb to say that it is NEVER right to use an exclamation mark as it is to over use them. I mean, I can find them in Dune, and Stranger in a StrangeLand, and The lathe of Heaven, to name a few examples. And if it was used well in those great books, it can be used well in mine.

Fantasy of You

Kane, you say it as if it is a rule, but it is your preference. I am not bothered either way but I have read many, many good books that use ! alot..

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Kane

I didn't say it as if it was a rule...

Red Misery

lol

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