Title pretty much says all. I have a sentence that is simply, "Lou, was happy." I want there to be a noted pause after the name Lou, but wasn't sure if I'd get harped on for it not being grammatically correct. Thoughts on this?
That's how I do it. If I want a pause in the reading I just add a comma. I have no idea if you can do that, grammatically, but I still do it
Looks clunky to me. Would an ellipsis work? Or make it two sentences for similar emphasis: "Lou? Lou was happy."
It looks wrong to me. Commas have pretty tight rules around their usage. Other options that spring to mind are: A dash, which is a general-purpose pause, e.g.: "Steve - was happy". Italics: "Steve was happy". Somehow that causes me to pause when I read it, but ymmv. Perhaps you could give some context for the sentence to let us understand better why there's a pause there.
Reads awkwardly. As said above, context would be nice. It's a comma splice, so likely incorporating it into a contextual sentence would be better. May I ask why this particular comma is important to you?
I'm very particular about wanting my sentences to be read at a certain pace and in a certain manner. I feel it very important to capture the tone I'm going for.
That's no bueno. The brain won't pause at the comma... it'll just look wrong. Best bet is the "..." elipsis, which indicates a pause as if one were searching for the correct words. Typically it would read "Lou was... happy," though. You can do it the otherway if you have to--Lou... was happy--though I'm wondering why the pause is important in the first place. If it's because the narrator is searching or thinking for a moment, then definitely an ellipsis.
I’m usually fine with putting commas where you want them for stylistic reasons but I agree that this doesn’t work. Maybe an ellipsis.
I thought the ellipses were for parenthetical use only, which is a reference. I would use em line, but I guess that’s controversial as well. · dash. or em dash (ĕm′dăsh′) A symbol ( — ) used in writing and printing to indicate a break in thought or sentence structure, to introduce a phrase added for emphasis,definition, or explanation, or to separate two clauses. [From its being the width of anm in printing.]
