Maybe her books weren't everywhere when you were growing up. For me, they were everywhere. Her name was always larger than the title, which is still a pet peeve of mine. But she always stood out in my mind, even though I haven't read much of her 140+ books.
Or maybe I just glossed over them. Generic sounding authors/potboilers don't really stick in my head. You've got to read about this guy called Asimov.
Yeah, I think that reads well. I'm not a hater of ellipses, by any means, but using too many of them to replace all other marks of punctuation can get old. If I was faced with paragraph after paragraph of the sort of ellipsis-fest you presented in your original post, I'd probably get fed up with them. However, if you like writing with them, use them AS you write. You can always go back during the edit and tone them down. It boils down to tone, doesn't it? Do you want your character to appear as if he can't produce a definite thought of any kind, or stay on track with what he's thinking about? If you portray your characters' inner thoughts as being hesitant all the time, that's going to become irritating, and your POV character is going to become irritating to read. An occasional hesitation, though? I have no problem with that.
They were for me as well. In the 80's her Romance novels were everywhere, and I think they made a bunch of TV movies and miniseries based on them. I have the feeling that she became less "cool" in the later 90's and 2000's (at least that's when she fell off my radar), but according to Wikipedia she's sold over 800 million copies of her books, some of which I have just learned were not only in the Romance genre but a also a few Non-Fiction and Children's Books. Well, she's written those books over 45 years (her first book came out in 1973 and she's still going) - that's really only 3-4 books a year. Not difficult at all for big name prolific novelists.
To be honest I think the pertinent point is the 45 years, rather than the prolificness I write 3 books a year, I just haven't turned 70 yet
From what I've read, she writes as soon as she wakes up. Then she writes, and writes, and writes for the entire day, right down to night. She usually writes multiple books at a time, and produces 3-6 books a year. It seems she has already produced seven books this year, the most recent being in late November. " I normally work an 18 to 20 hour day, whatever I’m doing. When I’m writing I work 20 to 22 hours and sometimes 24. As long as the ideas keep flowing, I write." Yeah, the woman doesn't sleep.
"Interesting", might be the word for it. As others have mentioned, I use the little devils within dialogue and thoughts only, and very... sparingly. If a character's words are trailing off, or they pause for an instant, then I may use them... and then, my editor usually scores a red line under them and comments as to what ought to be there instead. And by the way, you write very well for someone so young. Here's an example from my WIP to get you more familiar with the proper use of ellipses... and em-dashes. “Claire, my lovely, there you are! I brought our little accomplice with me so we'll go over things one last time,” Gael said to the young woman leaning comfortably against one end of an ornate iron cage that contained George and Henry, two crocodiles that seemed utterly unimpressed with their fellow bohemians. “Gael, I have to say, I’ve been observing these big fellows for quite some time now. We’ve only had three dress rehearsals, and none with this pair. Will they be… you know… more vigorous?” She wasn't a fetching beauty, but as the plainest of songbirds often sing the prettiest of songs, so it was with Claire — a little sparrow that possessed the wounded melody of a nightingale. As the consummate performer, she was destined for a fourth time to suffer a tragic and gruesome death by these wild beasts. Though she was sure of her performance in the play, she was starting to have doubts about her partners’ ability to convince a jaded audience. “Aye —” Gael went to reply, when Rosemarie popped up from behind. “Certainly, they will. They haven’t eaten for days, which makes them amenable.” She knelt by the cage, looked at its lazy occupants. “But once we have them in the water, they’ll come to life. You’ll see.” She looked up at Claire. “After the ghost of your lover bids you farewell, you step out onto the bowsprit of the sailing ship, and when you get to the middle and you’ve come to the end of your song, the clap of thunder crashes and the lights go out.” Rosemarie jumped to her feet. “That’s when I toss the ox’s heart into the pool! I bought it myself only this morning; the butcher guaranteed it is the biggest ox heart he’s ever seen and…” she approached Claire, eyes twinkling, and roared playfully, “they’ll go mad over it!”
Nice, I think you gave an excellent example. The pauses helped the dialogue to sound more natural and convincing, without being unnecessarily hesitant. I'll consider a similar technique in my own writing. I feel like pauses are more frequent in writings than I thought. Danielle Steel stood out in my mind because she was fond of ellipses (seriously, I'm not certain anyone in this post would enjoy Wanderlust. Not that I wouldn't recommend it, but she's pretty generous with the ellipses. I think she uses them to slow the pace of the story, not exactly to make her characters hesitant and contemplative). Other writers may choose full stops instead, or commas, or dashes. Or perhaps all of them. I'll have to experiment with my writing more to see what works best for the scene.
I find ellipses useful for conveying panic. I use it to represent a flurry of thought that's too fast to be coherent: Derrick woke in his tent to a snorting sound. He turned over and came face to face with a grizzly bear. He rolled away from the animal in a panic. Oh shit! That's a bear! Play dead! No, make yourself big. What's it want? Did I leave food around? Where is my wife? ... Here I represent that his thoughts did not stop, but are continuing on in a haphazard, disjoint way.
I think you represented this with short, exclamatory sentences rather than ellipses. If you used ellipses, it'd be something like: Oh shit...that's a bear! Play dead...no, make yourself big! What's it want? Did I leave food around? Where's my wife...?" For me, this doesn't really express panic. It's too slow, too hesitant. I prefer your example without the ellipses. Ellipses seem more effective for slow pacing and pondering dialogue.
