: Should I use ellipses or em dashes to denote pauses in speech? I flipped open its latch and peered inside. A—gold tooth? I flipped open its latch and peered inside. A ... gold

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I'd use ellipses for pauses, dashes are usually used for interruption.

"I found this - "

"That doesn't matter, look what I found!"

As opposed to:

"She... She's dead."

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I might use an M-dash for the whale example, because it's startling. For the gold watch, that's more of a thoughtful pause, so it would take an ellipsis.

Also related on this site: Using dashes in writing dialogue and How not to overuse ellipsis?

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em dashes are usually used to denote an interruption or sudden change — whether in dialogue, thought or narrative — ellipses are for pauses, again in all respects.

'I just don't see why—
'I don't care what you think,' Johan barked, turning from me before I could protest.

'She was just...' His face turned pale as his memory returned to that night.
'Just what?' I asked, eager for more.

here are some resources:
Jodie Renner Editing
Novel Publicity
Writer's Relief

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