Overuse of exclamation marks

Exclamation points are something to go very, very easy on. Fiction for younger readers is probably a little more forgiving than adult fiction, but the fewer, the better. In many cases, probably most cases, the excitement or shout should be obvious from the context and won't need an exclamation point.

Shelley

My general advice would be to avoid exclamation points, but if the characters you are writing about are teenagers, they may be excusable. Teenagers have a tendency to talk in exclamation points.

I've found myself overusing them as well. I'm calling it the Twitter Effect (or the Facebook Effect, or the Message Board Effect). Anyway, on the internet, everything is a HEADLINE!!!! It's bleeding into my prose.

When I go back to edit my WIP, I'm sure I'll have to strike out a lot of them. I've been told to use them sparingly.

There's a reason they're called screamers.

You're allowed one every 100k words, which should then be removed on editing.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Harry Potter books were written by a British writer. I'm not sure why, but in my experience I found that Europeans tend to use more exclamation points than Americans do. Regardless of whether English is their first, second, or third language, they like exclamation points. Used to drive me nuts editing the corporate newsletter or their trade magazine articles.

First, I had to take out all of the exclamation points. They really had no place in a technical article on the merits of shotblasting vs shotpeening, or process development case studies.

I've noticed that Canadians, and a friend of mine who works for a Canadian company (but is from the US) also use them more generously than Americans. It's used for emphasis, and how I can always tell when my exclamatory friends are happy.

To me, an exclamation point is the standard English equivalent of ALLCAPS, and indicates a raised voice/shouting. I use them rarely.

So, I'd look at your target market. How do they use exclamation points? Do they use them when they are happy, or when they are yelling?

Focus

tonten said:

I've read somewhere that exclamation marks should be used sparingly in novels. Does this apply to children's or young adult novels as well? I mean, I'm not talking about like an exclamation mark after every sentence. The first chapter in my novel, about 5000 words, has about 50 exclamations.

I did an exclamation word count, and it seems like the harry potter books has anywhere between 40-100 per chapter.

Click to expand...

The best way to find out what is typical for a particular genre is to read from it. Whenever these types of discussions come up they result in a whole bunch of opinions, many of which are general and not specific to the context in which the question is asked. It's useful for so many reasons to read from the genre you're writing for. This would be one. Not just a single author, though, but read as widely within the genre as you can manage.

Whether you then follow the conventions of the genre, such as they are, is up to you, but at least you'll understand the context in which people will come to your work.

Lil said:

Teenagers have a tendency to talk in exclamation points.

Click to expand...

we call this being 'gob-shites'

My first novel was EXPLODING! with! !!!!!!! I had been using them to cover a lack of action. Now, I play whack a mole with each one that dares rear its ugly head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!