How Many Ellipses Is Too Many?

One is too many, in my opinion.

I used to read a lot of Barbara Cartland when I was younger, and her back pages always used to look like they had the measles.
"I...love...you..." she gasped.
"Oh...my...darling..." he replied.
It used to have me in stitches!

There could be occasions in dialogue where a lot of ellipses are needed, say a character who is depressed and who often does trail off her speech. Other than that, I might find it odd if there was more than one ellipse every four pages or so in a book I was reading. So, for a book that was planned to be, say, 280 pages I would look closely if I found more than 60 uses. Of course, it all depends.

I use them a lot here on the forum to imply something of a shortened thought. I don't use them very much in my writing, but I do use them.

Too many

If you're using them correctly, just about any number is allowed. If you're using them where you should be using dashes, one is too many.

Unless you're channeling The Shat

Boy can I relate! While I don't do the ... I am "em dash" crazy and it is darned annoying. I have come to accept it as a part of my rough draft writing. I bang something out rather quickly and then go back and edit out the dashes. If I worry it too much my text starts getting really choppy.

Eleven.

caw

The ellipsis should indicate missing words. If your writing has dozens of instances of missing words in 100 pages, it should be examined closely for style or incorrect use of the ellipsis. The "m" dash is typically used in dialog to indicate that someone was forcefully interupted. You should avoid using either in place of a comma.

The number of instances does not indicate a mistake. It merely indicates a need for close examination. We should not try to indicate the rate of speech and tone of every phrase in dialog. Character development should have already given the reader enough clues to form an image. If we know that the patient... with... nerve... damage... is speaking to his doctor, we can imaging the speech pattern without an ellipsis between each word.