You pause...and then keep going. The end.
Hold that thought.
Thereâs more to the dramatic pause than simply stopping. Pauses vary depending on whether youâre speaking or writing. It depends on what youâre saying, who youâre saying it to, and the type of pause youâre going for. Across the entire genre spectrum, it depends on what you want to communicate to your audience.
For something that says nothing, it says a heck of a lot.
Whatâs the Point of The Pause?
A pause is simply a break in speaking or a moment of silence. It shouldnât be a difficult thing to master, but used at the wrong moment, itâs a disaster.
Think back to your school days and class presentations. A prolonged pause in someoneâs presentation made everyone uncomfortable, because we worried theyâd lost their place or forgotten their script. Itâs disconcerting and hard for the audience to get back into the groove. Itâs the same thing with your readers.
Improperly handled pauses can break the flow and pull the reader out of the story or poem. However, this may not hold true if your character is pausing at the wrong moment because of an established quirk. It also works if you want your character to appear scatterbrained or as though they lost their train of thought.
In poetry, a pause at the wrong spot will set your reader off-kilter. Struggling to establish the rhythm means theyâre not focusing on the message. Pausing in the wrong spot during a reading is the school presentation scenario all over again.
Doing these things purposefully is one thing. The problem is many writers do it accidentally.
Powerful, Plentiful Pauses
Thereâs no shortage of fancy titles for the plethora of pauses. In the discipline of linguistics, these differentiations get complicated. At a basic level, thereâs the silent pause and the filled pause, the latter containing âum, ah, erâ etc. A juncture pause marks a transition between sounds (re-seed has a pause where recede does not) and differs from a hesitation pause. Hesitation pauses can include the silent and filled pause, but also include false starts and repetition of words.
Think of the false start in this light: âI canât believe...I canât believe you did that.â Repetition is often part of childrenâs dialogue, such as âit was a really, really, really big dog!â. Other times, itâs a way to search for a word, often to comedic effect:
âDonât you just love the color?â
âIt is certainly very, very blue.â
Pauses can be planned (before complex words/thoughts) or timed (after something is said). This is important when performing poetry or providing script directions. Itâs all about timing and rhythm.
Pausing in Prose
There are a few different ways you can pause your characterâs thoughts and actions, and a few different tools you can use to pause prose depending on what youâre writing.
Before getting too attached to your favorite, remember this is Writerland. Like many things in the writerâs world, we debate proper use of the punctuation for pauses. People argue about whatâs still in fashion and whatâs fuddy-duddy. Old-school grammar and writing gurus butt heads with the younger ones. Things change.
Somewhere thereâs probably a Writerâs Rumble,
but nobodyâs allowed to talk about it.
Thatâs the only rule they agree on.
Ellipses are the adorable little dots that walk you to the second half of a thought. Theyâre a somewhat modern use of the punctuation. By modern, I mean not really modern at all, but thereâs still those that cling to ellipses being used to only indicate omitted material.
Why notâŚboth? Most fiction audiences understand the modern use, and irritated or not, most people know the dual use.
The Dreaded Dashes. Can you use all the dashesâhyphen, en dash, em dashâfor a dramatic pause?
Em dashes are what youâre looking for. They place a break in a sentence, indicate extraneous information, create emphasis, and show a change in thought. In the right hands, they can do the job of the comma, colon, semicolon, and parentheses.
Em dashes are easy to overdoâespecially in longer work. Spaces before and after the em dash are a style choice. And no, em dashes do not have to come in pairs.
Importantlyâand especially in dialogueâthey demonstrate a dropped or picked-up sentence. Itâs often used when someone or something interrupts a character.
These three pieces of dialogue are all about the same thing, but you can see the subtle difference conveyed in each:
âWe should go to the cafe andââ
âWhatâs wrong? Wait, is thatâa spaceship?â
âYes, it isâof course it isâbut why is it here?â
You can use dashes here on WdC using WritingML.
{emdash} â
Don't @ me about the other two dashes ▼
Use a hyphen to connect compound words.
They have a real "can-do" attitude when completing their task.
En dashes connect a series of numbers like if The Lions lost the game 102-7.
They also connect things that, well, connect.
If you traverse "eastâ –west" you're taking an en dash with you.
En dashes also have WritingML.
{endash} –
Commas. Commas Everywhere.
There are plenty of good reasons to go with a comma. Thereâs just as many rules to go along with it. When it comes to pauses, commas are particularly strong in poetry.
For dialogue, it sets off extraneous information without the flair of the em dash. Itâs low on the scale of intrusiveness, and certainly not an attention-seeker. The question is whether you want or need more punch.
Capitalize on Colons and Semicolons
Think of a colon like a momâs reaction when you donât clean your room. It demands your immediate attention to the issue at hand: Heyâlisten up. They work in both prose and poetry.
Death is a curtain call:
We are reborn,
and rehearsals begin anew.
Semicolons are gorgeous and flexible punctuation. Theyâre great in poetry, where brevity counts as much as clarity, removing filler but keeping context intact. Providing a link between two distinct sentences without the explanation, it allows your reader just a whisper of a beat longer than a comma, but without the hard stop of a period. Itâs great for line breaks, allowing your reader to immediately connect two lines. Itâs also great for caesura.
Mother Earth claws the back of man; she has no pity.
The trick with the semicolon is limiting its use. Itâs powerful, yes. Itâs also annoying if you overdo it, and itâs pretentious if you do so on purpose.
Deleted Dots and Dashes.
With poetry, sometimes the lack of punctuation can do more than any punctuation will be able to. Be careful with this, though. A common critique of punctuationless poets is they can come across as lazy writers. Your style is up to you, but donât string lines together for the sake of it. If punctuation will strengthen your piece, use it.
You put a comma in,
You take a comma out,
You put a comma in
and donât know what your poemâs about.
You do up some revisions,
Now the whole thingâs upside-down,
Thatâs what writingâs all about.
Poignant Pauses
The point of the pause is to convey something about your character or to punctuate for effect. A pause fills in for emotions, motivations, or thoughts. It can give the audience time to breathe and synthesize.
Donât underestimate your pauses. Thereâs a reason theyâre dramatic.
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Drama: April 21, 2021 Issue [#10729]
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