Bob Schroeck wrote:
The use of "..." is of course not a "real" standard used by
authors. As a matter of fact, none of the professional authors use
this, so obviously this is just for fanfic writers.
Ahem. Pro here. (If you want, I'll cite my credits in private email
and give you Amazon.com links and other verifications.) *I* have
used ellipses, in both fiction and non-fiction, in the manner so
described by the original poster. That's in *published* stuff, which
I got paid for -- and in no case did any of my editors suggest that
their usage was not "professional". Where did you get that idea?
I think he meant not that ellipses are non-professional, but that a
quotation consisting entirely of an ellipse is non-professional. (I'll
certainly admit that I don't remember having ever seen one in a formally
published work.) This is made more likely and perhaps more relevant by
the fact that the context was the topic of dialogue-only stories.
This is, however, starting to get off of the list topic...