: Re: 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

@Sent2472441

Vote Up Vote Down

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)

Login to post a comment!