: Re: 'Ellipsis' - what do they convey and how to use them aptly in a Novel? In the writing practises guides, it is usually mentioned that use of ellipsis is a bad practice. But I have come

@Welton431

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I think of an ellipsis as a moment in which emotion and feeling overwhelms narrative thought. That is how it is being used here, a pause for the narrator induced by internal sensation (desire) and imagination she cannot put into words.

Those can be more than desire, of course, it can be confusion, or pain, or grief, or horror, or love, or passion, or some other struggle between our emotional and sensory system asserting dominance over our rational system that can put things into words.

"No, don't ... don't ... don't die baby please don't die!"

On the other hand, I regard dashes -- (or an em dash) as an interruption or pause in a thought due to some other thought intruding. So it isn't being overwhelmed by emotion but being internally interrupted by a different rational insight. Or at times, stopping a sentence due to an outside interruption.

"That just isn't -- Oh, wait, I get it. I get it!"

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