: Using exclamation points in fiction I've heard some advice that you're only supposed to use an exclamation point every 100,000 words or so. I'm finding this advice very hard to follow; I've

The only time I use exclamation points is in dialogue, thought, or in describing a thought process or feeling that is not put into worded thought by the character.

My narrator (3rd person limited) never uses an exclamation point. I don't think of my narrators as a personality, they do not get themselves excited, confused, or have any emotions. My characters get angry, excited, horny, playful, fearful, worried, desperate, bored, etc. Characters can use all the exclamation points they need, in dialogue or thought or realization.

When he said that, images swirled in her head, a dozen memories that coalesced into a singular epiphany. Jason was in love with Melanie!This whole time! Holy crap, how in bloody hell did I miss that?

---

(0)

Here's a completely non-scientific random sampling based on a book I grabbed from my shelf, Honor of the Queen by David Weber. I opened random pages from around the middle third of the book (small paperback, 422 pages total):

1st random page: 1 exclamation point in dialogue
2nd random page: 0 exclamation points
3rd random page: 4 exclamation points in dialogue
4th random page: 2 exclamation points in dialogue and 1 in non dialogue (describing a character's strong feelings).
5th and 6th random page: 0 exclamation points
7th random page: 1 exclamation point in dialogue, 1 emphasizing an onomatopoeic description.

So, based on that sampling, exclamation points happen pretty regularly in dialogue and can happen in non-dialogue as well, but much more rarely which seems reasonable. I took another quick sample with Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett, and while he is much more judicious with his exclamation points, I still managed to find 3 exclamation points across 9 randomly picked pages (two in dialogue, one animal onomatopoeia).

---

(0)

Do not use adjectives and adverbs in dialogue tags, or anywhere else, to avoid exclamation points. Use them when they are needed. I've read many novels with more than two or three exclamation points in them. They never jar me when used reasonably. Semicolons, not exclamation points, are what one should almost never use.

---

(0)

I'm working on exclamation points today and have also heard the guideline of one per 100,000 words (one per book.) I have 800 question marks in my book, and over 10,000 periods. But allowed only 1 exclamation point?

I thought it would be helpful to add into the answers here on one possible genesis of the rule:

In his book 10 Rules of Writing, Elmore Leonard offered a rule about
exclamation points. He stated, “You are allowed no more than two or
three per 100,000 words of prose.” Leonard was prolific. He wrote more
than 40 novels in his career, totaling 3.4 million words. If he had
followed his own advice, he would have used only 102 exclamation
points in his entire career. In practice, he used 1,651. That’s 16
times as many as he recommended!

Despite his advice, he used over 40 exclamation points per 100,000 words.

This discovery is a relief (by a factor of 16).

And Leonard was sparing among authors. James Joyce used over 1,000 exclamation points per 100,000 words, according to the link.

At the moment I have about 300 per 100,000 words. That puts my use of exclamation points between ELJames and F Scott Fitzgerald.

(If the argument is about not stressing the reader, I wonder if we will be told to not use too-strong action words someday. It's an odd balance.)

---

(0)

Consider the reason for the advice you cite. Excessive use of exclamation points — I'm not saying your use is excessive — will result in your writing sounding strident, overemphasized. Often, however, the use of exclamation points can be reduced by choosing better, stronger verbs.

So, in your first example, the verb you chose communicates that the speaker is calling across a large room (supposing you've already set the scene), even without an exclamation point:

"Press the green button," Alice called to Frank.

Rewriting your second example, though, you can see the potential benefit of considering the reason for the advice:

"Alice," Frank yelled, running toward her from the other end of the hall, waving a piece of paper wildly in the air.

In this rewrite, the weak "it was" has been replaced with the active, strong and descriptive verb, "yelled". As a result, the phrase "as he called for her" is no longer needed, and the sentence so becomes much leaner and tighter. In addition, I think quite possibly Frank's concern has already been expressed or will be expressed, in context, by "yelled", "running", and "wildly", and so ", concern etched into his face" can also be left out without any loss of sense.

The caveat included with all this is that it's your writing. The overall tone of the piece may be such that stridency is not an issue, or rewriting on the model I've suggested doesn't suit your style, or ....

---

(0)

I think that the exclamation points thing is probably to do with writing it outside of dialogue. As you said yourself, all of your occurrences of the punctuation appear in dialogue, and from what I can tell they are mostly necessary to convey the tone of the conversation.
However, putting exclamation marks outside of the dialogue is an entirely different matter. Extending one of your own examples to portray this:

She was already halfway down the hall when she heard a voice.
"Alice!" It was Frank, running toward her from the other end of the hall, waving a piece of paper wildly in the air as he called for her. "Hey! Alice! Can you hear me?"
She could tell that he was worried. She realized that he was carrying the document that she'd asked him for!

Personally I feel like the last sentence doesn't look right, it feels quite immature, possibly because the sentence could be very easily restructured to not require the exclamation point. This could likely be what the advice that you heard was referring to.
If you still feel like you wish to reduce the number of exclamation marks within the dialogue, I would say perhaps to use only one per paragraph. Once you have established that someone is exclaiming something through excitement or volume, the reader will likely assume that the rest of the speech within the paragraph will follow the same emphasis, unless explicitly stated otherwise:

She was already halfway down the hall when she heard a voice.
"Alice!" It was Frank, running toward her from the other end of the hall, waving a piece of paper wildly in the air as he called for her. "Hey, Alice, can you hear me?"

Whilst no other exclamation marks are used at within that speech, the reader will likely realize that he continued to shout for her.
Of course, a further way would be to attempt to negate the need for excessive use of them at all. You are, after all, the writer. You can simply change the situation to ensure people are exclaiming less. Changing the example given:

She was already halfway down the hall when she heard a voice behind her.
"Alice!" She turned to see Frank, running toward her from the other end of the hall, waving a piece of paper wildly in the air as he called for her, concern etched onto his face.
Alice stopped walking and allowed him to catch up to her. By the time he reached her he was panting heavily. Breathlessly, he managed to say, "Hey, I have that document that you asked for".

---

(0)

Using only one exclamation mark per 100,000 words not a lot – a typical page of a book only has 500 words when completely filled with words in a small font. This will be more like 250 or 300 words on average for most books, so this would be only one exclamation mark per 400 pages, i.e. this means only one exclamation mark for most books.

I would, however, limit (or even avoid) exclamation marks that are not in a dialogue.

---

(0)

Exclamation points should be used to create emphasis.

Firstly, I'd like to let out my opinion on that 100,000 word thing for exclamation points. I believe that the lot of it is nonsense. Use exclamation points when you believe it will benefit your writing. Its the same with chapter lengths, and everything else. Do not let these word count rules push you around, because its best to always do what you think will benefit your writing the most.

Exclamation points are used to create emphasis/tension in a piece. Use an exclamation mark when you wish to magnify a certain feeling, e.g. excitement, anger, anxiety. However, because the use of an exclamation mark is so powerful, I don't think you should use them all the time, only for the perfect situations.

Because of the use of an exclamation mark normally being magnification of feelings or emotions, I think that it would be best to not use one in your example. Instead, you could try saying something like this:

"Press the green button," Alice vehemently called to Frank for her final attempt of gaining his vacuous attention.

Normally, if you are writing about two characters calling to each other from a distance, you would not use an exclamation mark. Instead, I used the adverb vehemently to intensify the fact that they are far away, and Alice is most likely frustrated that she can't be heard.

If I were you, I would save exclamation marks for situations of extreme importance or magnification, requiring extra emotional power:

Kill me. I swear, kill me before I rip the goddamn gun out of your hand and do it myself!

That was a bit of an exaggerated example, but it gets the point across rather well.

I hope this helped you.

EDIT:

In you're rewrite, I think you need to put the description of the dialogue before the dialogue, so the reader will preemptively know how it sounds in their head.

Frank summoned the courage to shout as loud as he could. "Alice," he shouted, his voice ricocheting off the corridor walls.

By saying Frank is shouting before the dialogue begins, we know that this will be loud. I think that to further emphasis the loudness, we could try using effects like a echo off the walls.

"Hey?" he began, his voice searching for her. "Alice, can you hear me?"

Because you used hey, I believe there needs to be a question mark. The use of hey or a similar word, like eh creates a sense of confusion in the piece. Because Frank is confused as to why he she can't hear him, his voice searches for her. This could be a great way to begin some tension too.

Conclusion:

Describe the voice before the dialogue if you want him to shout. Possibly add further clarification by describing how the voice travels.
Use question words like hey to create tension.
Use 'volume' words in general like: crescendo, dissonance. In fact, if you wanted to say somewhere was already loud and your character was trying to speak over it, without exclamation marks you could say: his voice joined the overwhelming dissonance.

Remember, this is only my advice on how to achieve these effects. There are no other answers on this post, so use what you want.

I hope this edit helped you.

---

(0)