A friend just asked me a question that I frankly don't know the answer to about ellipses, so I figured asking for help here would be a good idea. In dialogue, is there a grammatical rule against a character starting his dialogue with ellipsis to indicate a pause of sorts? Something like this: "So, do you know who the murderer is?" "...Yes." Without the ellipsis, the dialogue would read like this: "So, do you know who the murderer is?" Detective Einstein paused for a moment, before saying, "Yes." It's not really a huge issue, but since I have never tried writing like that, I honestly got no idea on what the grammar rules are for something like that. I'd assume it violates some sort of rule as it's not something I can recall seeing in books very often, but then again, you never know. Thanks in advance for your replies.
Ellipses denote trailing off speech. There's no such thing as "trailing in." Use a beat. What did the detective do as he paused? Did he look to see who might overhear? Did he hold your gaze? Have a petit mal seizure?: "So, do you know who the murderer is?" Detective Einstein pocketed his notes. "Yes."
Which also goes to the oft repeated - show don't tell. Don't tell us he paused - show how - i.e. Cog's example.
Thanks. I'm not really wondering how to write around the issue, since the idea didn't even occur to me until my friend asked me about it. I was just wondering if it was grammatically permissible or not. Thanks for the quick answer.
I agree with Cog here. I use ellipses either in the middle of a dialogue or at the end (pausing or trailing off), but if he just takes a while to answer, there are more creative ways to show it.
