Proper Use of Exclamation Points & All Caps | Novel Writing Tips


By EelKat Wendy C Allen

Using caps lock to signify a character shouting in a story, Yes or No?

Using caps lock to signify a character shouting in a story, Yes or No? from writing

>>I don't really know where I should stand, do you think writing in all caps is a good idea or not?

I don't use all caps for full sentences.

The only time I use all caps is when a character is frustrated and annoyed and yells out a single word, in this case used to show their frustration.

For example:

"No," he said yet again.

"Why?"

"Because I said so."

"That's not a reason."

"Yes it is."

"Tell me why?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Why?"

"I said no."

"Why?"

"Will you leave me alone?"

"Just tell me."

"No."

"Tell me."

"No."

"Tell me."

"No, damn it, leave me alone."

"Tell me."

"NO!"

The word no is short and in all caps is not difficult to read. But a long word or a phrase or a sentence, is difficult to read in all caps. I know as a reader, I always get annoyed when I see an long line of all caps ad, I can't see well. So I end up skipping those lines ad guess what they were, because my eyes don't focus well enough to see them.

Because of this in my own writing, I only ever use all caps for words like "No" or "Yes", very small words, and used in the manner like what was shown in the example above.

As for your specific example, I strongly suggest you get a 5th grade grammar book and keep it on hand. This is very, basic elementary grammar rules that are taught in 5th grade.

Let's start with correcting the following sentence...

"Sarah! Where are you?!", he shouted.

Basic grammar rule: NEVER use more than 2 punctuations in a row. (Caps here are used to highlight important words. This is the correct grammar usage of an all cap word. It would also have been correct to bold it instead. Please note that is correct, proper grammar, all caps DOES NOT mean shouting, but rather means "to emphasize importance". Any one who ever took high school grammar is going to know this and is going to be annoyed at any author who doesn't know grammar well enough to know that all caps DOES NOT mean a character is shouting. Worse, wait till you get hate emails from a reader who has a college degree in English... like I do and can quote the grammar rules off the top of their head.)

NEVER use more than 2 punctuations in a row.

?!", is 4 punctuations in a row.

The correct grammar is this:

"Sarah! Where are you," he shouted.

In this context he is calling someone. An exclamation after her name is the correct grammar. Exclamation points are self titled to explain their meaning: "Sarah!" is the shortened form of: "Sarah," he exclaimed.

You only use an exclamation point at a place where you would said 'he exclaimed'.

Exclamation points are like contractions. (can not = can't) They are used to shorten. An exclamation ends a sentence. Like a period, a new sentence must be started after using an exclamation. Same goes for a question mark.

  • This is correct: "Sarah!"
  • This is also correct: "Sarah," he shouted.
  • This is also correct: "Sarah!" He shouted.


  • This is incorrect: "Sarah!" he shouted.


  • This is incorrect: "Sarah! Where are you?!", he shouted.
  • This is also incorrect: "Sarah! Where are you?" he shouted.
  • This is also incorrect: "Sarah! Where are you!" he shouted.


  • This is correct: "Sarah! Where are you?" He shouted.
  • This is also correct: "Sarah! Where are you!" He shouted.
  • This is also correct: "Sarah! Where are you," he shouted.

The reader will know he is shouting by the exclamation point and the tags can be removed, thus:

  • This is correct: "Sarah! Where are you?"

By changing the exclamation point you change the character's tone of voice.

For example:

  1. "Sarah, where are you?"
  2. "Sarah. Where are you?"
  3. "Sarah? Where are you?"
  4. "Sarah! Where are you?"
  5. "Sarah! Where are you!"
  6. "SARAH! WHERE ARE YOU!"
  1. The first one with the coma, is said quietly, calmly, as one looking for a child playing hide n seek.
  2. The second one with the period, is said more curtly, they are losing their temper, but trying to control it. She's been hiding too long and he's getting annoyed.
  3. The 3rd with the question mark is starting to worry. It's now louder. He's wondering if she's left the room. The fact that it's now a question means there is panic rising in his voice.
  4. The 4th with the exclamation, is him now panicking. He can not find her and she's not answering so he's yelling her name.
  5. The 5th with an exclamation after both sentence is him becoming frantic. Panic getting worse.
  6. The 6th with the exclamation and caps, is him in full on panic, now screaming hysterically. He can't find her anywhere and is now terrified she is hurt. He's running around looking for her and now about to call the police.

This is the correct textbook grammar for use of exclamations.

Hope that helps.

EDITED TO ADD THIS SECTION:

When I started writing my answer, you had not yet replied to the 56 other responses.

You have now replied to them, and in reading your responces, I must say I'm rather apauled at your level of trolling.

Sadly, you are quite clearly a troll, seeking only to attack people who tried to help you. Your viciousness in lashing out at them (one of whom I know or a fact is a literary agent who scouts reddit for new talent, and at least 3 of the others are rather big names authors who actually do know what they are talking about, and you are coming off as a childish, cry baby, no good trash, peice of shit who just wants to start a fight

Your writing just in what you have said here, is childish at best, bordering on gibberish. It is painfully obvious that either English is not your first language, you flunked out of grade school and was expelled long before high school, or you are about 8 years old and have not yet been taught, basic, simple, 3rd grade grammar.

I'm sorry, but a primary school English teacher would have a heart attack just trying to get to the end of your question, and I don't even want to begin to try the count the grammar errors in your post. I can see more then a dozen. And they are very basic mistakes. 

VERY basic. 

They are mistakes a 10 year old with a D grade average wouldn't even make.

I'm sorry if the truth seems harsh, but you really are in need of taking very basic Grammar classes. To be an author, you need to know grammar. You'll never get published if you don't.

Something to consider: You may have the talent to come up with a great story and wonderful characters, but if you can't convert them in legible English, it won't matter how good of a story you can tell, because it'll never see the light of day, because no publisher is going to take the time to edit it for you.

You are making a fool of yourself in this argument, and I am not going to reply to you on the forum directly as you have made it very clear you are not seeking an answer and are only looking to start a fight. You already have 7 authors pssed off and fighting with you right now.

As I refuse to feed trolls, I will answer no more of your posts here on reddit.

I will instead answer the rest of your hysterial ravings over on my website, in the article I am now going to write about this situation.

Thank you and have good day.

Using caps lock to signify a character shouting in a story, Yes or No? (self.writing)

submitted 23 hours ago by tae_ka_pre

I recently saw an argument someone gave me when it comes to shouting dialogue a character can say.

For example:

"SARAH! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Sarah! Where are you?!", he shouted.

In these two cases, the first one may sound right. Since once you read it, you automatically shout it out.

The second one, the reader will only know that the person shouted once he reads the tags, this will lead to the reader possibly reading it again to convey the character's emotions when he said that line.

The thing is though, although the first one is quite fine, it's not widely accepted.

I don't really know where I should stand, do you think writing in all caps is a good idea or not?

Seriously though, shouting is rare. Obviously, we'd use it sparingly. It wouldn't be used Everytime a character coughs.

What about this:

"Hey!"

"HEY!"

The first one seems like the character just slightly raised his voice as to call out another character.

The second one seems as if the character is angry and shouted at another character.

Ever watch that disappointing metal scream in YouTube? It sorts of feels like that.

Ben was enraged. His hands were trembling of anger. Everything he worked so hard for was just crushed in a matter of seconds. It felt as if he wanted to break every single thing present in that room.

Suddenly, he stood up and decided to call for his butler.

"Tom! Come here!", he shouted.

It feels as if he didn't even shout. When I don't put it all in all caps

I think it's infrequent because characters rarely shout.

This is a weird analogy since everyone's saying don't use it too much when characters almost never shout at all. You can go through ten chapters and a character only shout once.

I read some books and it really just takes me out of the experience. It's like when I read something like:

"YOU KILLED MY FATHER!"

but instead it goes like:

"You killed my father!"

Of course only a few authors use it and it's not used frequently, that's because shouting isn't always used.

If you read some books, movies, stuff like that, there are some cases where the characters never shout, of course it'll be infrequent.

It feels as if the character builds up in rage but instead of shouting with anger, he just went and said it normally. You then see the tag that says ', he shouted' and that's when you realized 'oh, he shouted?', you then go back to the sentence and try to convey it how the author wanted it to happen.

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

The character shouted in one of these sentences. Guess which one

The only time time a period follows after hey is when a character is in a gloomy mood.

"Hey."

When you call on someone you say:

"Hey!"

It's just, for example, look at this:

"Hey!"

It would seem as if a certain character just called out someone.

...but if you made it all caps:

"HEY!"

It would seem as if he shouted at the character. It looks like he's angry at the character and calling him out.

I feel different. Whenever you see all caps sentences, I sometimes forget that the writer made it all caps, and instead just shouted at me.

Ever had an argument with a friend or a loved one in chat or something?

They suddenly speak to you in all caps, but you don't think 'oh they're using all caps to signify they're shouting', you think 'oh, they're mad'.

With your entire conversation now here, let's get to answering each part.

Seriously though, shouting is rare. Obviously, we'd use it sparingly. It wouldn't be used Everytime a character coughs.


I'm sorry, but what world do you live in where shouting is rare?

If your characters do not bicker and argue and fight over the course of your novel, I would say your story is something I personally would find rather dull and bland.

Any one familiar with my own books, knows my characters fight... A LOT.

The 3 main characters are in constant petty battles with each other over everything and nothing. Their fights are worse when the three of them band together and fight with someone else.

Quaraun, obviously is the main character. He is a complicated and difficult person to get along with. Few people can tolerate being around him for very long, due to his whiny, bitchy, sharp-tongued, hissy fits, his constant complaining about everything, and his assumption that everyone exists solely to serve his every whim.

Unicorn and GhoulSpawn, likewise are each as difficult to get along with in their own ways. All 3 of them are generally looked down upon by society, not well liked, usually excluded from social gatherings, and generally get along with other because each of them is a hard headed egomaniac that gets off on the challenge of pushing each other around. The 3 of them are each well aware of the fact that they are annoying as hell, but none of them is willing to change, and each of them is willing to accepting each of the other 2 with all of their flaws.

All 3 of them are hot headed, each has strong personalities, each has strong (and often fanatical) belief systems, and each are often in stark disagreement with the others. They often break out into fist fights. Quaraun is daily bitch-slapping Unicorn only to end up on the ground with a bloody nose after Unicorn punches him.

They are often in taverns drinking and once drunk, lunge at each other's' throats. They near daily start barroom brawls. Their fighting goes far beyond just yelling at each other, with their fights often getting bloody. Multiple occasions Quaraun has pulled a knife on Unicorn and stabbed him. Several times both Quaraun and GhoulSpawn have suffered broken bones from being beaten by Unicorn. 

Unicorn is a predatory monster, who eats Elves, and when angry enough, will bite Quaraun, pinning the Elf to the ground, then drinking the blood from his wound until the Elf passes out from blood loss.

Their 3 way relationship is brutal and violent. They do hurt each other. And yet, each one loves the other two. When they are not fighting, they are prone to cuddling and coddling each other. When one is sick, injured, or hurt, the other two are quick to care for him and hover over him like a mother hen. While they fight with each other, they will quickly band together and gang up on any one who tries to harm one of them. They are fiercely protective of each other.

This means that there is a LOT of shouting, yelling, screaming, and over all being very loud going on.

And yet, that example I showed you above, that came right out of what of the Quaraun books. It's an argument between Quaraun and Unicorn, and you can see how often exclamation points and caps showed up.

Here it is again, with name tags added.

"No," he (Quaraun) said yet again.

"Why?" (Unicorn asked.)

"Because I said so."

"That's not a reason."

"Yes it is."

"Tell me why?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Why?"

"I said no."

"Why?"

"Will you leave me alone?"

"Just tell me."

"No."

"Tell me."

"No."

"Tell me."

"No, damn it, leave me alone."

"Tell me."

"NO!"

~From "The Journey Begins" (Volume 4 of The Quaraun Series)

Punctuation is there for a specific purpose. Each coma, period, question mark, and exclaimation adds meaning to your story. When carefully placed, by obeying the rules of grammar, your reader knows exactly how your character is feeling and at what level their voice is.

Punctuation is that specific.

When someone, like yourself, has no clure what the grammar rules are or the meanings behind those rules, they do exactly what you are doing and throw punctuation in all over the place with no rhyme nor reason.

Because they don't know what each punctuation point means or sounds like, they have no clue where to put them.

When called out of their errors, they can choose to do 1 of 3 things:

  1. Learn the rules and correct their mistake.
  2. Ignore the rules and pretend they were not informed of the error.
  3. Act like a spoilt brat and throw a temper tantrum on a forum running around screaming and yelling at every one while making a complete and total jackass of themselves and proving they are an illiterate idiot.

Guess which one you are doing?

56 different people, all of them published authos, have responded to your question, all of them sying the same thing, and look at you. Look at how you are reacting.

You do realize that being an author is a profesion business career, where you are expected to act like a profesional business person when dealing with other profesionals in your profesion, right?

You're NOT acting very professional right now. In fact, you are acting like a 2 year old holding their breath to get their way.

I'm sorry, but you can kick and scream all you want, it isn't going to change the fact that grammar has rules and they aren't going to change just to kiss your royal silver spoon ass.

What about this:

"Hey!"

"HEY!"

The first one seems like the character just slightly raised his voice as to call out another character.

The second one seems as if the character is angry and shouted at another character.


Once again, I will repeat myself... in correct, proper grammar, all caps DOES NOT mean shouting, but rather means "to emphasize importance".

Any one who ever took high school grammar is going to know this and is going to be annoyed at any author who doesn't know grammar well enough to know that all caps DOES NOT mean a character is shouting.

The fact that you think all caps = shouting, shows point blank that you are completely clueless about basic grammar rules and are someone who does read, anything.

The grammar rules apply to ALL writing.

If you believe that caps=shouting then you are seriously lacking in basic education and either didn't go to school at all or were a really shitty student who didn't pay attention in class, skipped classes, and overall had your head stuffed too far up your ass to learn anything.

I'm sorry, but I have very little patience for someone who displays the level of willful, defiance based ignorance that you are displaying right now. It's one thing to be mistaken about something and not know the answer, but it's another thing entirely, to be given the same answer by 56 different people and then, you go off in a hissy fit and screaming and yelling at them because they aren't bowing down and worshiping your ass.

You came to authors asking for clarification on a basic grammar rule that you admitted you did not understand, and were given 56 different examples of the correct grammar rule, and now you are running around in a total bitch feast melt down because oh, boo-hoo-hoo, every body is picking on you... GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS! No one is picking on you. That's all in your head. I don't what your problem is, but get off the internet and go deal with it. Obviously you only came here looking to start a fight, and you've done a good job of that. You never see fights break out on this subreddit. It's one of the most peaceful places on the whole internet. And look at you, working yourself up into a frenzy, bitch challenging everyone. Being a whiny little brat.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself, the way you are acting. Go take an ice bath and calm down.

What about this:

"Hey!"

"HEY!"

The first one seems like the character just slightly raised his voice as to call out another character.

The second one seems as if the character is angry and shouted at another character.


No. The first on his him shouting loudly, and we know that because of the exclamation point.

The second one is him having a total meltdown, running around like a hysterical, crazed raving lunatic, shrieking to the point that he's about to pass out. 

The second one is not anger, it's a mental patient raving lunacy and about to be straight jacketed and carried away.

Ever watch that disappointing metal scream in YouTube? It sorts of feels like that.


I'm sorry, but what the hell?

What?

No clue what in the heck you are talking about.

Earth to crazy person, hello, please rejoin the conversation.

Are you even listening to yourself? You're not making any sense at all. You are throwing out these random meaningless nothings, expecting us to have any clue what you are talking about.

No.

I have no clue what it is. I've never seen it. Maybe you should go back and try actually completing a thought. You are so worked up that you are not even typing full passages of conversation any more and are just tossing these wierd random, meaningless nothings at everyone now.

No one here knows what you are talking about, because you are thinking 90% of your conversation in your head and only typing out the last couple of lines.

Can any one say schizophrenia?

I know schizophrenia well. I grew up with adults who had it, and were very unmedicated when they seriously needed to be, and you Honey, now that you are angry and flipping out on a forum, your schizophrenia is showing big time. 

Please go see a psychiatrist and get some medication for it. You very much need it and it's becoming more and more obvious with each new post you make.

Ben was enraged. His hands were trembling of anger. Everything he worked so hard for was just crushed in a matter of seconds. It felt as if he wanted to break every single thing present in that room.

Suddenly, he stood up and decided to call for his butler.

"Tom! Come here!", he shouted.


Uhm... so now what are you talking about?

Who is Ben?

Who is Tom?

What butler?

No on on this thread has mentioned a Ben, Tom, or butler, and you not replying to any one specifically and just tossing these comments out all willy nilly, no one here knows who you are responding to and what the heck you are talking about.

Can you at least TRY to put a full complete thought into one of your comments before commenting?

And since you've tossed this one in, I'll correct this one too.

This is incorrect: "Tom! Come here!", he shouted.

This is what it should be: "Tom! Come here!" He shouted.

Or else it could correctly also be this: "Tom! Come here," he shouted.

You learn commas in 2nd grade, by the way. You are posting dozens of wild gibberish posts, tossing commas in all willy nilly. You've not used a single comma correctly yet. Normally I don't bother correcting a person's grammar, but you are running around bragging your perfect grammar and, I'm but, your grammar isn't anything even close to correct, let alone perfect.

It feels as if he didn't even shout. When I don't put it all in all caps


Who?

What are you talking about?

Who are you replying to.

No one knows, what you are talking about or who you are replying to. Have you never used a forum before? Do you not know how to reply to people?

Do you even know how to convey a full, complete thought?

Your posts are so mixed up and disjointed. You are just throwing random, unconnected sentances out here and there. Clearly, you've got a conversation with yourself going on in your head and you are replying to that and not replying to anyone here on the forum.

We can't help you like this. No one can.

Calm the fuck down, you are having a freaking melt down over nothing. What the hell is wrong with you? Are freaking drunk or something? Damn, Honey, you're messed up big time.

If you want anyone to reply to these comments, put some context in here so we know what in the heck you are talking about.

I think it's infrequent because characters rarely shout.

This is a weird analogy since everyone's saying don't use it too much when characters almost never shout at all. You can go through ten chapters and a character only shout once.

I read some books and it really just takes me out of the experience. It's like when I read something like:

"YOU KILLED MY FATHER!"

but instead it goes like:

"You killed my father!"

Of course only a few authors use it and it's not used frequently, that's because shouting isn't always used.

If you read some books, movies, stuff like that, there are some cases where the characters never shout, of course it'll be infrequent.

It feels as if the character builds up in rage but instead of shouting with anger, he just went and said it normally. You then see the tag that says ', he shouted' and that's when you realized 'oh, he shouted?', you then go back to the sentence and try to convey it how the author wanted it to happen.


What's infrequent? All caps?

And again, as I already asked... what planet do you live on where no one shouts?

As for authors using caps infrequently... that's because most authors actually know grammar and how to use it and use it correctly. Unlike yourself, they know how to take their head out of their ass and actually find out what the rules are and use them, correctly and properly.

And... how often do you REALLY read movies.

Again, you are coming off like a drug peice of shit right now.

You never went to school, you don't know grammar, we get it. Are you really sure you want to continue this little multi-post feast rant of yours? You're just making a fool of yourself you know.

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

The character shouted in one of these sentences. Guess which one


Both of those sentences are shouting, you're just too ignorant to know that.

And... again, you are just tossing random rant posts out into thin air. Where you intending to be replying to somebody here? Was there another side to this conversation. Who exactly are you fighting with? Are you aware the people in your head aren't real?

You are becoming more childish with each new post.

I think you need a time out.

The only time time a period follows after hey is when a character is in a gloomy mood.

"Hey."

When you call on someone you say:

"Hey!"


And... is this supposed to be a continuation of that last post? Where you trying to convey a full thought and almost succeeded but posted each one 5 minutes apart?

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to reply to you when you post like this?

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she replied.

Neither is gloomy.

Remove the tags and you get:

"Hey."

"Hey."

Again, neither is gloomy.

How do you see gloom here?

This is just basic standard, proper English. Where's the gloom of which you speak?

It's just, for example, look at this:

"Hey!"

It would seem as if a certain character just called out someone.

...but if you made it all caps:

"HEY!"

It would seem as if he shouted at the character. It looks like he's angry at the character and calling him out.


You're just gonna keep posting like this all night, aren't you.

What are you doing... do you leave, have a donut, then come back 10 minutes later to finish typing your thought in a new post?

You are so manic. You know that.

You must be a nightmare to live with. But moving past your inability to post a full thought in a single post and excessive need to post bits and pieces of thoughts, in a random mish mash of dozens of posts every 5 minutes...and let's try to answer what you are actually attempting to say.

I'm am so baffled as to what kind of parinoia you got going on in your head, that yo are so, completly convinced that all caps = shouting, anger, and calling someone out.

All caps does NOT mean anger and as I've already pointed out, any half-brained idiot who got anything above a D in high school, knows that. 

Basic grammar.

We are talking basic, simple grammar.

How do you not know basic, simple grammar on these levels of absolute ignorance?

In writing, you capitalize a word to EMPHASIZE it's importance.

This is why you often see a character's name in all caps the first time they appear in the story. It denotes that the character is important, and is not just some minor character. It alerts the reader to pay attention to this particular character because he is important to the story.

It's why in murder mysteries, a clue is always put in caps.

For example:

  • He looked around the room and saw a RED SCARF laying crumpled on the floor.

The narrator is not shouting "RED SCARF" at the reader. The reader knows when she sees a word in all caps that that word is important to the story. It is for this reason all caps are used infrequently.

How did you get through school and not learn these very basic grammar rules?

I feel different. Whenever you see all caps sentences, I sometimes forget that the writer made it all caps, and instead just shouted at me.

Ever had an argument with a friend or a loved one in chat or something?

They suddenly speak to you in all caps, but you don't think 'oh they're using all caps to signify they're shouting', you think 'oh, they're mad'.


Again... your schizophrenia is showing.

If you think an author is shouting at you, you have a serious mental issue that needs checking out. Please go to a psychiatrist as in likely treatable with medication.

I have better things to do, then spend all night waiting for your next post every 5 minutes... you know like writing a novel, because I'm an author and that's what I do.

So, I'm not checking back after this to see what else your insanity has to say.

Please, do everyone a favour, and go see a psyciatrist first think in the morning. You've got some serious parinoa issues here, that go far beyoung your inability to grasp basic grammar rules.

Authors, characters, people on the internet... none of them are shouting at you. That is not what all caps means. Get help. You need it very badly. 








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