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If I Were Your Writing Coach, I’d Take Away Your Exclamation Point
Exclamation point abuse! It happens to far too many writers! It seems they just can’t help themselves!
Okay, look, you get one exclamation point per year or per book. That’s it. And I just used up my three-year allotment. Unless you are illustrating a point of a character who always seems to be in exclamatory mode, a character who is a joke and a punchline, then you might use more exclamation points to show what an idiot he is. Otherwise, just don’t. Exclamation points should be treated like saffron: Just a few bits go a very long way.
Published in Group Writing
What!!!
Did I use up my annual quota with my post “Florida, Florida, Florida!”? https://ricochet.com/804966/florida-florida-florida/
Okay… but don’t touch my elipses…
One of my supporting characters is a very punctuation-heavy sort of girl.
Everything she says is either exclamation pointed, question marked, or run-on sentenced to death. With in-universe commentary by the other characters about her speech patterns.
I get as many as I want. I just don’t want many.
Annual? No. Lifetime? YES! 😜
You have made * very, very happy.
I have to admit to ellipsis abuse on my own part.
That’s my worst writing habit, and I’ve been trying to murder it for quite some time. After a writing session, I do a search for ellipses and act accordingly.
That is an appropriate usage.
Seriously, besides Gary’s Florida post, I have seen this recently in a couple of works of fiction. Exclamation points really should be fairly rare. One might go with an “Oh my God! Where’d that dinosaur come from?” But in general conversation using them to show that someone is enthusiastic is making a mountain out of a mole hill. There are other ways to show it. Unless it’s a character like that or a T. rexnado, avoid them.
I mean, how often do we get use the word juxtaposition?
Is there a lifetime quota on exclamation points no matter the type of writing?
Please don’t say zero.
Go Celtics!
Cold dead hands
More like inspiration. 😁
There are certain situations where they are always appropriate.
War eagle!
I’d rather ban those who call it an “exclamation mark.”
I don’t know. Now that I think about it, a character named Mark who exclaimed all the time would have a built-in name.
I teach my professional writing students that they should never put an exclamation point in their exposition. That it is insulting to the reader to tell him or her how to react to what they are reading. That the only time to use a “!” is in a direct quote when someone is shouting or screaming.
Exactly.
And does. But my close friends call me question mark.
FIFY.
FIFY
Much better than being an Exclamation Mark.
I see you are having a lot of fun with these grammatical posts! Good for you! Did you know that exclamatory punctuation can also indicate sarcasm!?! Like in the infamous 2016 campaign of ¡Jeb! – we all knew he didn’t mean it when he was running! But would you say that USING ALL CAPS AS WELL AS EXCLAMATION POINTS IS DOUBLE-PLUS SHOUTING¡?! I’VE never been ENTIRELY CLEAR on this POINT!
Some professional writing is shouting and screaming! (natch) At least for the paid flacks that inhabit Twitter.
¡FTFY!
Sure. Why not?
I’ve noticed a few such instances here over the years.
Oops… ellipsis abuse above (I misspelled the word ellipses)…ellipses abuse? ellipsis abuse? do I overuse the question mark?
Just you go ahead and try it, Buster…
!!!!!!!!!!