"How do you show an interruption in-"

How do you show an interruption in dialogue? I've seen it as one of those long dashes, but I can't seem to figure out how to type one in word or scrivener (I have a mac). Also, whenever I use a dash, the quotation mark is always swinging the wrong way.

Any advice on the grammar/punctuation as well as general literary advice when handling interruption in dialogue? Thanks!

 

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for in your question, but are you looking for a way to key-in a long dash? One of these—?

I, too, have a Mac. My keyboard is strange (old-fashioned) but I can get the long dash in iPages, SimpleText and my Yahoo email programme. Just hold down the Shift key at the same time as the "Apple" key (the one next to the space bar) then key-in the dash/underline key. Mess around with this, if it doesn't work for you. Shift key in combination with control, or option, then the dash/underline key. Hope it works.

As for how to punctuate a piece of dialogue, I'm afraid I'd have to see the dialogue in question before I could help with that.

 

You use an em dash,which isn't on most keyboards, but you can use it by copying it from an online article that uses it, and pasting it into your writing software. Here's an example from my own writing that I used to show interruption.

 

"I have often noticed, being one to ponder upon this sort of thing from time to— "

"Oh, shut the hell up!"

 

Just type two dashes. Scrivener will merge them into an m-dash. (I have Scrivener on Windows; I assume the same thing will work on a Mac.)

 

And even if it doesn't, two dashes are now accepted as an Em-dash.

 

Excellent— Thanks guys!

 

The manuscript standard is to represent an em dash by two consecutive hyphens. That isn't a new standard. It goes back to when all manuscripts were typed on mechanical typewriters.

 

Guidelines now say you can just use the em dash straight out as well, same with italics--instead of underlining when you want to display them, since as you said, these rules go back to typewriters.

 

Most publishers will accept italics or actual em dashes. However, the original standard is still preferred by many submissions editors. The dashes don't matter as much, but underlined text is much easier to read and to distinguish from normal text than italics, especially if you aren't using the recommended monospaced serif font.

There are good reasons why manuscript format still favors the original typewritten standard. It really does make the editor's job easier.

 

This says they are fine, or at least, depending on what font you are using. And isn't this for submission editors?

http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html

 

Actually, what he says, if you read carefully, is that it is beginning to change, and to always check the individual publisher's submission guidelines. He strongly recommends Courier font, and with Courier, he says you should stick with underlining.

Note that he uses underlining rather than italics throughout the example.

 

Just a quick question. All of you use the term 'em dash.' I've never heard that before. Is that the term for two hyphens together, as opposed to a single long dash? (We always simply called it a 'dash' (—) no matter how it was keyed in (--) as opposed to a hyphen (-). But I'm an old codger...ess!)

 

It may be easier to simply copy and paste an em dash, but you can get an em dash on word (both mac and windows version) by typing a dash (-), then hitting space, then typing at least one letter, then hitting space again. After all that your regular dash will automatically turn into an em dash.

dash > space > letter > space > em dash. Note: the initial dash cannot be starting a paragraph or be directly next to a word (i.e. g-).

 

An em dash is the long one, an en dash is the smaller one. They are named this way because one is the size of a lowercase "m" and the other is the size of a lowercase "n."

Two hyphens together in a manuscript works as an em dash. And most word processors will transform two hyphens into an em dash for you after you press the spacebar with something like this: --example

Once you press the spacebar right after the word (or first letter) after the two hyphens it will transform them into an em dash.

 

It's really easy to type an em dash just like any old word once you get the practice.

For instance:

John likes to go to the movies--by himself--because Jane talks the whole time.

Right after you press the spacebar after the bold words it automatically turns the two hyphens into an em dash. You literally don't have to stop typing. It just takes a little time to get used to not pressing space after two hyphens.

 

Thanks, Jhunter! Makes sense, when it's pointed out.

 

You also can look under symbols (in word anyway) and set it so that every time you press dash twice it automatically turns it into an em dash. That's how I did it, because mine didn't do it automatically.

 

That is a Word Autocorrection that can be turned off

 

Is there any way to make the quotation mark curl the correct way after an em dash automatically? It always curls out, like the beginning of a dialogue, except it's at the end. I know it only takes a few seconds to type two quotation marks and delete the first (the second one curls correctly), but I would like that to be one less thing to edit.

 

You mean like this—”

I had to hit a letter then the quote, then delete the letter. :-\

 

Yeah, that's what I mean. It's a minor hassle, but just wondering if there's an alternative.

 

I haven't figured this one out. I have just gotten used to replacing them without thinking about it. But, if someone knows how, I would be delighted to have the information as well.

 

I know, but I don't want to turn it off. I use em dashes in my manuscript.