I have an acquaintance who's started doing low-cost freelance editing. For a few dollars I had her proofread the first chapter of my novel that I'm sending out to a second round of agents this week.
I have a paragraph that reads:
What was I supposed to do? Ever been bitten by your little sister? Try a three-hundred-pound drunk politician.
She removed the dashes (in red), but none of my beta's (some of which are great line-editors) have said a thing.
I think, that technically I'm fine either way. I know that sometimes dashes are a matter of style.
But, I wanted to check with the experts here, not so much for this one sentence, but to make sure that I understand the rule correctly:
That, in fiction, dashes can be omitted for style as long as the meaning of the sentence remains clear. (EDIT: Not correct, see advice below).
I have a paragraph that reads:
What was I supposed to do? Ever been bitten by your little sister? Try a three-hundred-pound drunk politician.
She removed the dashes (in red), but none of my beta's (some of which are great line-editors) have said a thing.
I think, that technically I'm fine either way. I know that sometimes dashes are a matter of style.
But, I wanted to check with the experts here, not so much for this one sentence, but to make sure that I understand the rule correctly:
That, in fiction, dashes can be omitted for style as long as the meaning of the sentence remains clear. (EDIT: Not correct, see advice below).
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