But how do I punctuate a pause? I think I read somewhere that...three dots is bad or used for something else, but I'm not sure.

It's a matter of finding a way of changing the autocorrect/autoformat as your type options. In front of me, I've the latest version. But if you press F1 and search in help under autoformating you should be able to find it.

The strictest rule on ellipsis points in discourse is they are acceptable for faltering or interrupted speech, as in when one individual is self-interrupted or faltering in their speech.

I . . . I . . . She . . . Wait. What did she say?

The em-dash — or reporter's dash -- is Chicago's recommendation when a speaker is interrupted by another or an abrupt change in thought occurs.

She said she's not--
She didn't say not.
She said--I heard her say not.

However, ellipsis points and dash usage vary all over the creative writing landscape, published or not. Along with other emphasis: exclamation points, bold or capitalized text, italics, a manuscript can become cluttered with a lot of directorial punctuation acrobatics. For story writing, I prefer avoiding all sentence punctuation except commas, periods, and question marks. Other writers feel that dialogue must contain punctuation indications of emphasis for representing the emotional conditions of the spoken passages.

A pause is not only a pause in a character's discourse, it's a pause for the reader. If the intent is to slow down the tempo, pauses are an effective way to do so. Otherwise, slowing down the flow might cause a reader to pause and put down the story altogether, never to return.

Punctuating a pause is simplest when done with a comma or a full stop: a period, even a question mark, sometimes with text for context.

She said, what? that she wouldn't go.
Wait. Wait. I didn't hear that. Tell her to say it again.
No. No. No. No. She didn't say that.

Discretionary punctuation, conjunctions, polysyndetons, asyndetons, prepositions, discourse markers, appositive phrases, incomplete sentences, interjections, parenthetical phrases, all might cause momentary pauses that don't disrupt the flow of a narrative.

She said it, and I heard it.
She didn't say it and you heard what you wanted to hear and went on from there.
She said it, I heard it, I know I'm not mistaken.
I know what you believe, though I think you're mistaken.
Well, I'm not.
She said she's going, going now, if I'm not mistaken.
Mistaken.
Nonsense.
You are mistaken, that is, as I said, indeed, in fact, precisely what she said.

There's more than one way to skin a pause.

I leave for a few days and I come back to Grammer 101. Geesh I wish I would have stayed awake in class.

And here I thought I just needed a good story.

ya'll aren't making this easy

TaleSpinner watched, distracted, as an eagle landed on his windowsill. "We don't get eagles around here," he said, "so this one's ... an anomaly." He stepped towards the window and studied the eagle more closely. "A beautiful anomaly ..."

Realizing that the ellipsis could be ambiguous in another way, he wondered if the ellipsis closing each of his paragraphs was a pause, or a hint of the story to come ...

As for a more definite interruption---well, I use three dashes without space. I can trace this habit directly to the ten-easy-lessons typing book I used to learn, where it was said this was the way to do it---so that's the way I've done it.

I found out not much later about two dashes with space on either side---but it's another of those habits that became ingrained and I can't easily break.

I always use the "..." for trailing of, as in thought. You know, I don't know if that makes me crazy... (open ended sort of like)

I use the - for when my very rude and very rude character who loves to hear himself talk breaks into other people's conversation.

After reading all that I have, both here in this post and from elsewhere, I'm confused!

Ellipsis points for trailed off speech is not specifically mentioned in Chicago, though trailing off is generally considered faltering speech. And like in the formal usage of representing missing words, it's also indicated and to my thinking appropriate. Ellipsis points are specifically indicated for trailed off speech in stenographic transcription in Morson's English Guide for Court Reporters, which generally conforms to the Associated Press style manual for journalism.

Dashes, be they the em dash, the reporters dash, or the three-hyphen dash for interruptions, they're recommended. As representations of pauses, I've seen them used that way in published creative writing. The only rule for any writer, to my way of thinking, is follow your own style and be consistent. Like with any aspect of creative writing, there's no absolutes.

For publishers, well, to each their own, some object to dashes and ellipsis points, others not. I've seen one submission guideline that stated, No Dashes Allowed. Another, an ezine says only manuscripts with interruptions annotated with three-hyphen dashes will be considered. They use the three-hyphen dash as a nonce character for search and replace with the character entity for an em dash, — —.

Hope this helps,
Pat

[This message has been edited by TaleSpinner (edited September 04, 2008).]