I LIKE TO DOT

OMG!

I just saw Janet Reid’s comment about ellipses on her 2/14//10 blog, Query Shark.

They drive her bonkers because most people misuse them.
I know, I know, I know …
I use A LOT of them too.
But in defense of my use of ellipses…
I use them mostly in my blog.
Not my manuscripts.
So if a would-be agent happens to check out my blog …
Please don’t think that I am an abuser/misuser of punctuation.
Because there’s a method to my writing my blog “this way.”
“This way” being clipped sentences, phrases, ellipses, and endashes.
Maybe I’m wrong ...

But I don’t want a thought/sentence to run-on and into the next line too often.

Why?
Because my mind (and I’m thinking the reader’s mind too), wanders.

Even after one sentence.
For heaven’s sake!
If my own mind wanders, and I’m the writer…
I can only imagine that the reader will be long gone if I don’t keep it short.

So here’s my philosophy…

I think of bloggers like food grazers.

So many blogs to read on the Internet/ so much food on the buffet table.
Only so much time to read/ only so much room in the stomach.
Therefore …
If it's easy to read/bite size…
Then the reader/eater…
Won’t get too full and …
Hopefully will come back often to read/graze.

FYI,   here's the definition of ellipsis from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: 

The most common form of an ellipsis is a row of three periods or full stops (...) or pre-composed triple-dot glyph (…). The usage of the em dash (—) can overlap the usage of ellipsis.Ellipsis (plural ellipses; from the Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, "omission") is a mark or series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word or a phrase from the original text. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis) (apostrophe and elipsis mixed). The ellipsis calls for a slight pause in speech.  The triple-dot punctuation mark is also called a suspension point, points of ellipsis, periods of ellipsis, or colloquially, dot-dot-dot. 

And if you ever saw the movie, Mamma Mia ...
Then you know just how much fun dot-dot-dotting is.   


Always, Em-Musing