Hello, any advice appreciated. I'm not sure how to punctuate a character who suddenly stops saying something mid-word, and then carries on with something else. For instance, the character realises someone has caught them lying. They instinctively begin to reply with "How did you know?" But they stop mid-word and try to save themselves by changing the topic. So: "How did you kn-. Wait, I wasn't there last night, I told you!" I know I could break it with: "How did you kn-" she gasped, stopping as she realised her error. "Wait, I wasn't there last night, I told you!" However, I don't want to always do this as sometimes a character does this during a longer dialogue exchange and to keep having a 'she said/he said', etc, just doesn't work. So what is the correct use of punctuation to show this sudden stop mid-speech if I don't end the dialogue straight away? Thanks in advance.
I wouldn't try to do this with a one-syllable word like "know", especially since the beginning sound of that word, an 'n' sound, isn't normally spelled like the beginning of the spelling of that word. So I'd just use the whole word: "How did you know--" She stopped. "Wait, I wasn't there last night, I told you!" "How did you know--wait, I wasn't there last night, I told you!" With a multi-syllable word, it might work: "I need the com--" She stopped. "Where's the computer?" "I need the com--where's the computer?"
I agree with @ChickenFreak. The particular word in question is not lending itself well to this dynamic. Too short and with an idiosyncratic spelling that becomes hard to parse when broken away from the word. I'd go with the whole word. If you don't like how complete that sounds as a sentence - since "How do you know?" can work by itself as an uninterrupted sentence - then cut off at the you to provide that sense that it's been clipped.
I think it would be clear to most readers if you just break after "you". "How did you---. Wait, I wasn't there. I told you." I think that's how most people would say it naturally.
