In the Writing of Fiction or Prose, How Does One Write a Question That Asks Three Different Things?
Question by asthmaman: In the writing of fiction or prose, how does one write a question that asks three different things?
For example, if I want a character to ask something like the following: “Was his behavior the result of alcoholism? Child abuse? Anger management problems?”
I realize the second two questions aren’t complete sentences so is it unconventional to capitalize the first words or should I leave them in lower case?
Best answer:
Answer by Ore
The way you’ve written it, the capitalization is correct. The question marks denotes the end of the first sentence; after that you’ve got sentence fragments, which is typically okay in dialogue or first-person narration (depending on the age/maturity of the narrator).
I might shape the first sentence a little differently (“Could his behavior have been the result of alcoholism?…”), but otherwise that looks fine to me. :D
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!