All Caps, Multiple Exclamation Points, & the Interrobang

The words your character just yelled are so very important, and you want to be sure those who will be reading your story notice them. How do you draw attention to those words? How do you convey their importance to your readers?

When you are texting someone, drawing extra attention to words is simple: you simply capitalize all the letters. Of course, that also means that you are shouting. In fiction writing though, writing words with all capital letters isn’t considered to be professional, and for some readers, it can be distracting. For me, it is especially distracting when the words are in all caps because the character is shouting and their shouting spree ends with multiple exclamation points.

Let’s pretend for a moment that it is correct and professional to write words in all caps and use multiple exclamation points. How do you decide which words are the most important? How often is too often to capitalize all the letters in a word? What if you mess up and don’t capitalize the letters in the right words? Will proper attention not be given to them?

What if you don’t add enough exclamation points after a particularly important shouting spree? Will it be ignored? What criteria do the words and phrases need to meet to be written in all caps or for the sentence they’re in to end with multiple exclamation points? That would be a lot of extra work. It is so much easier to not use all caps or multiple exclamation points but rather let your writing convey these emotions for you.

The events that happen right before your character feels the need to shout should let you know that fear, excitement, or tension is building, maybe even all three. The exclamation point used at the end of what your character said shows that it was shouted. Remember, the words you write have the power to convey different emotions to your readers. Your words can show anger, excitement, joy, sorrow, etc.

But what about the interrobang? The interrobang—or interabang—is a nonstandard punctuation mark. There aren’t any shortcut keys on your computer for one, so here is one that I copied from the internet: ‽. If you look closely at the interrobang, you’ll see that it is a question mark combined with an exclamation point. Since the interrobang is absent from the keyboard, it has been typed as ?! or !?.

As an editor, I run across all different kinds of issues in the books I edit. Without including all the misspelled words and words being used in the wrong way, the two most common errors I run across would be the comma splice along with the misuse of dialogue tags. Next would have to be the use of words or phrases written in all capital letters for emphasis or to point out that the character is shouting. Running a close third would be the use of multiple exclamation marks or the interrobang where only one punctuation mark is needed.

In fiction writing, what is going on in the story should be enough by itself to let the reader know that the character is shouting and why. An exclamation point is just the proper punctuation to use. If a question is being asked, please just use a question mark. Show your readers that the character is angry while yelling the question. Have the character’s face become a bright red at an astounding speed. He is breathing so hard and so fast that he has trouble speaking clearly. He could even grab items and throw them around the room. People have all different kinds of reactions when they are angry. Use them.

I am an avid reader. From the time I learned to read, I made it a habit to always be reading a book. My favorite authors were Charles Dickens, Stephen King, Carolyn Keene, Franklin W. Dixon, and Agatha Christie. I don’t remember any of them writing words in all capital letters to convey shouting. I don’t remember seeing more than one exclamation point used at a time either. Using all capital letters repeatedly as well as the frequent use of multiple punctuation marks together only draw attention away from the story. As a writer, that is the last thing you want to do. Could these annoying habits that many authors use today come from the way we text?

By the way, I do realize that Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon are pseudonyms for the many people that wrote the Nancy Drew series and the Hardy Boys series.

Since you don’t need to write words in all capital letters to draw attention to them, what do you do? If you really feel the need to add an extra punch to a word or phrase, use italics, a much more graceful way of emphasizing. I would say make the word bold and italicize it, but then that would cause the chosen word or phrase to jump off the page and proclaim, “Hey, look at me!” You just want a bit of extra attention given to that word or phrase; you don’t want it to steal the show.

Before you resort to those methods of drawing attention, maybe you should try creating pictures in the mind of your readers through the words you write so it is obvious how important that particular word or phrase is. Then even the use of italics won’t be necessary. After all, you are a writer.

The Chicago Manual of Style, the most trusted guide for anyone who works with words, says in section 7.48 that capitalizing an entire word or phrase is rarely appropriate.

Is it ever acceptable to use all capital letters? The abbreviations for each state are normally capitalized. For example, KY is the abbreviation for Kentucky. Many acronyms are also written in all capital letters: NAACP, UFO, NASA. Always consult your dictionary if in doubt. If it is written in all caps in your dictionary, it is acceptable.

In summary, should you write words in all capital letters to show how important they are? Should you end a shouting spree with multiple exclamation points? No, not if you want your work to be professional. Words have power. Allow the powerfulness of the words you write to do this work for you.

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