McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

The Hyphen

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Aminar:

--- Quote from: Dresdenus Prime on October 23, 2011, 05:50:17 PM ---Okay, I know about using the hyphen to connect certain words, but I'm not so aware of the one to connect thoughts. Here are two examples of what I'm talking about. This comes from the third book of the Iron Duid Chronicles so be aware of any minor spoilers;

(click to show/hide)That blow had clearly been intended to take my head off or punch a hole through my chest-or something equally fatal.
(click to show/hide)Sure, the beard was being controlled magically, but that magic was targeting the hair, not me, and apart from being completely gross, such hair could constrict my windpipe every bit as effectively as a length of rope-and there were twelve such lengths reaching for me now.
Is this the two seperate thoughts you speak of? If I had written this, I would have used commas, so would I have technicaly written it incorrectly? Or is writing that way a matter of personal taste?

--- End quote ---
It is the two different thoughts.  In my mind it creates a longer pause if that makes sense...  It's not grammar as much as it's flavor.

LizW65:

--- Quote from: Aminar on October 24, 2011, 03:52:58 PM ---It's not grammar as much as it's flavor.

--- End quote ---
This.  The m-dash creates a bit more drama in the sentence, if you will.  Take the following quote from Fool Moon:  "And I knew that there was some dark corner of me that would enjoy using magic for killing--and then long for more."
Now replace the m-dash with a comma: "And I knew that there was some dark corner of me that would enjoy using magic for killing, and then long for more."
Both grammatically correct, but the former has a bit more of a dramatic impact.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: LizW65 on October 24, 2011, 06:04:03 PM ---Both grammatically correct, but the former has a bit more of a dramatic impact.

--- End quote ---

It strikes me as a pacing thing which is very hard to specify or define grammatically.  I use more semicolons than most people, and I have something of a similar difficulty there; to my mind there is a different degree of implicit logical connection between the bits of a sentence before and after a semicolon and those before and after an em-dash, it's just very hard to characterise.

Snowleopard:

--- Quote from: Dresdenus Prime on October 24, 2011, 12:02:14 PM ---I know right??!!!  :o

--- End quote ---

Yeah, verily yeah!
And now many writing programs like Word take care of a lot of stuff that you used to have to worry about and/or remember.

Figging Mint:

--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on October 24, 2011, 06:41:06 PM ---It strikes me as a pacing thing which is very hard to specify or define grammatically. 

--- End quote ---

"Stronger than a , weaker than a . " doesn't work for you here?

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