The three-hundred-pound drunk politician.

MJWare

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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).
 
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tko

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not quite the rule as I understand it

If you have a list of adjectives (three, hundred, pound) you don't need to hyphenate them if removing them one at a time still gives a sentence that makes sense.

Big red round ball. You can have a round ball, a red ball, a big ball, still makes sense, any combination of the above. No relationship between the adjectives, mix and match to your hearts content. No hyphen.

You have a compound adjective, all the adjectives are designed to be used together. Technically, they need to be hyphenated. Technially, you can remove the three, for example, but it changes the meaning (from 300 to 100.) No go.

I'd agree it's sometimes a matter of style. You acquaintance should be able to explain this, I'm terrible at grammar and I can explain it.

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.
 

IceCreamEmpress

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If you have a list of adjectives (three, hundred, pound) you don't need to hyphenate them if removing them one at a time still gives a sentence that makes sense.

That's not the actual rule, but it's a really good way of checking to see if what you wrote meets the rule.

"A big red dog"? No hyphens necessary, because "an old red dog" and "a big red dog" and "a big dog" and "an old dog" and "a red dog" all make sense.

"A three politician," "a hundred politician," and "a pound politician" don't make sense. So it's "a three-hundred-pound politician." Done and done.
 

MJWare

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Great advice. I'm going to have to bookmark this thread. It makes perfect sense now. But, I'm sure I'll need to re-read it some night when I'm up late working on my writing.

I'd planned on leaving them in anyway, but I really wanted to know the rule, and tko and Icecream's advice really helps.

Thank you all!
 
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Kenn

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The big question is: should there should be a comma after pound?

I say yes. Or at least I think so;)
 

maestrowork

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You don't need a comma for two adjectives. You can, of course, but not necessary, but sometimes it looks/sounds better:

The tall, thin guy vs. The tall thin guy (I would use a comma)

The drunk, fat guy vs. The drunk fat guy (I wouldn't add the comma)
 

Kenn

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Not in US usage. I can't speak to UK usage.
It's all to do with coordinate adjectives and not US/British English.

M/W - I think it you'll find it depends on the relative weight of the adjectives (i.e. whether they are coordinate or serial).