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Ellipsis (plural ellipses; from the Ancient Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, “omission” or “falling short”) is a series of dots that usually indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning.
Here is a thing that can drive editors crazy… as well as other English teachers like my wife… when they read my… you know, purple paisley prose. I can be way too generous with the dot dot dot. And why do I do such a silly… silly thing? The left-out word… the pregnant pause… the idea that something more is there when it really isn’t… something left un-said.
I know you can indicate a pause in prose with a simple comma. I know that the comma is proper, respectable, more suitable for the task. But I feel the need to put really long pauses in my writing… Sometimes the most important things that we say are what we don’t say. Let me give you an example from Snow Babies. Here’s the set-up and context that is needed to understand this scene. During the middle of a killer blizzard Valerie Clarke is having a tough time. Her father killed himself the year before. Her mother became seriously ill as the storm started. Townspeople have come to help and support her, but she is afraid of losing the people she depends on. Then the local deputy brings two runaway orphan boys that were stranded in her little Iowa town by the blizzard and asks if the Clarkes can take them in where there is a fireplace and a decent chance at staying warm…
“What do you think, Princess?” Catbird said to Valerie. “Can we keep them?”
Officer Baily stood in the entryway with the two snow-spattered boys. Catbird was asking Valerie to decide because her mom, packed away under blankets by the fire, was either asleep or unconscious. It made Valerie shiver all the way down to her toes because Catbird was asking in the same way that Kyle Clarke had asked so many times when Val was small. Did he know he made her daddy’s voice echo in this house? A house he had never really been in?
“We have no heat and not much to help them with,” offered stalwart Sue. “We’ll abide by your wishes, dear, as the mistress of the house, but they can go somewhere else to stay. Your poor mother is very sick.”
Valerie stared at the boy Tommy. He was fascinating. His eyes bored into her with something like raw emotion. Did he despise her? Did he like her? Did he maybe even like like her?
“I-I think I want to let them say tear… Oh! I mean stay here! Will you guys, um… um… stay here?”
For the first time the dark clouds of Tommy’s glare broke. A ray of light from a smile few ever saw from the boy, split the darkest night of Valerie’s young life. Not that the night when her father… wasn’t… That was dark too. But this night, in the cold and the snow, she stood to lose her mother, and she stood to lose Pidney. The darkness had taken hold of her more than she could ever know until that smile… that wonderful smile… that smile coming from a steely-eyed face that only ever knew frowns… What was she thinking about? Even her thoughts were stuttering with fright at the moment.
“We want to stay here,” said Dennis, intently studying Tommy’s face, “if you’ll let us. I don’t think Tommy’s ever seen such a pretty girl.”
“Shut up, Denny,” Tommy said through gritted teeth.
“Really,” said Denny, grinning, “I bet Tommy’d even volunteer to sleep in the same bed with you!”
Tommy whacked the littler boy on the crown of his snow-sprinkled head. Tommy’s face was bright red.
It is necessary to realize that some of the most important things that are said are the things not actually said. I know that is an oxymoron of the worst sort, but what can I say…? I really do plan it that way I don’t spot-up the page with ellipsis just because… and I’m not crazy, either… well, not completely crazy… hopefully.
Walt Whitman… just for comparison.
from poetryfoundation.org
Catch a Falling Star 