Exclamation Mark Rehab Clinic by Moira Butterfield

Do you pepper your writing with exclamation marks (called exclamation points in the US)? Picture book and board book authors must get out of the habit. As a sometime editor, I know that it is the mark of an author who hasn't spent enough time editing their work. It’s also the mark of a text written in-house by an editor under pressure. 

I find I sometimes add stray exclamation marks on first drafts. We probably all do it, perhaps because we use exclamation marks a lot more these days on social media. I certainly had a serious habit when I first started writing. Oh yes, I reckon I used many a day back then. But I had to stop, and so do you. We need to edit out those mad little barks at the end of sentences. 

Read this blog as exclamation mark aversion therapy. I'm going to be tough. I want to drill it in. I want authors to stop overusing them and I want editors to stop adding them to work without thinking, as if they're sprinkling salt on their food. 

Use an exclamation mark if someone in your writing is exclaiming – “Wow!”

Or if they are shouting/calling out  – “Stop!”

Or if there is a loud noise. 

New board book art for an upcoming series. A loud noise and a call-out here. 

Otherwise DO NOT use them.

Because picture book and board book texts are short, exclamation mark addiction becomes very obvious and overpowers everything else. Let's be brutal here. If you put them in all over your work  you will come across like some demented over-needy children’s TV presenter, gurning away and trying far too hard to please an audience you have no empathy with. “An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes,” said F. Scott Fitzgerald, which is why he didn't write The Great Gatsby! 

Exclamation mark over-user

Remember that an exclamation mark will not convey lovely smiling positivity. It will not convey a happy tone of voice. Used over and over again it will make you look slightly mad. As Terry Pratchett said: “Five exclamation marks. The sure sign of an insane mind.” I think he was talking about a long row of exclamation marks at the end of one sentence (utter, utter madness) but loads of the pesky things in one short book is bad, too. 

Read through some of the best picture books. Note that most of them use one, possibly two exclamation marks at most, and always in just the right place. Then flick through some bargain board books, count up the exclamation marks and breathe deeply to calm your rage (er...that might just be me). Board books are particularly prone to exclamation mark overdose because they’re increasingly put together in-house by stressed editors who can't go back and mull over the work. 

Feeling suitably traumatised by my aversion therapy? Good.

Remember. Only use exclamation marks when someone specifically exclaims or shouts. Like this….

HEY! YOU! STOP USING THEM NOW!

Moira Butterfield

www.moirabutterfield.com

@moiraworld 

New picture book series, 'Everybody Feels', for Quarto Publishing, out later in 2015.