comma or ellipsis?

Mr Orange

Mr Orange

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okay so i just had a lively "discussion" with my girlfriend on whether the following sentence should have ellipses or commas:

Then I kind of expected to… I don’t know… go to heaven or something.

or

Then I kind of expected to, I don’t know, go to heaven or something.

crazy saturday afternoon in the orange household i know, but any thoughts on the above

thanks in advance
 
If the character is being a bit glib, and it comes across that way to me, I would go with commas. If it is a sincere confusion, I would lose the 'or something'. That's purely based on how I read the punctuation.
 
What do you want to achieve? The ellipsis gives a feeling of uncertainty that the comma doesn't. The comma feels more diffident, somehow. Personally, I don't like either of the second ellipsis/commas, i'd prefer:

Then I expected to... I don't know, go to heaven or something.

Especially if it's in dialogue.
 
cheers all, i think springs's's's combination of commas and eillipses works best....

so i think it's a draw at home...
 
Does a draw demand a tie breaker? By the time I found this thread it didn't need my opinion.
 
Sounds like my sort of line.

I'd do:

Then I kind of expected to… I don’t know. Go to heaven or something.
 
It depends how slow/reflective/considering you want the character to come over as. I like ellipses, but if the guy talking is a fast-mover/shaker, then the commas might suit him better. In my wip, I'd use the ellipses, because they draw better emphasis to a related thought within an interesting sentence. Of course you could always:

Then I kind of expected to - I don’t know - go to heaven or something.


Nah, dunt look right, does it? Ellipses for me!!
 
With commas, it reads as a variant of the now-ubiquitous valley-speak "like", so if that's the impression you want, I'd go with that.

Have you considered the underused chevron?
 
Now I'm loitering with intent.

Springs choice. The ellipsis is the character thinking and the comma for when the character has made up their mind and a choice has been made.

Chevron?!?

I may need an example, HB.
 
Whatever you've used in the text all around, I'd use the oppsite. Unless the rest of the text reads as this piece does, in which case you want to follow suite
 
an ellipsis denotes a time lapse, a redirection in speech, a left out word or phrase, or a connection between two otherwise unconnected phrases - there being understood that the bridging or connecting words are denoted by the ellipsis, much as an apostrophe can stand in place for a part of a word.
personally i would also do a split as the judge has suggested but i would reverse the positions of the comma and the ellipsis.

HareBrain a chevron? wug? the little eyebrows maker for happy faces that proofers use to say insert text here? like ^^ ?
(probably underused because it isn't on a phone text pad. :D)
 
No, these: <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>. OK, you can't really use them -- I just wanted to feel I was contributing something new.
 
you could use a semicolon and drive the editors batflying crazy :D
 
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