Stylizing Dialogue

Well, either or, because most keyboards don't have interrobang keys. I find them confusing. Surely the author knows whether the sentence is an exclamation or a question.

What if they're trying to create an exclamatory question?

I, of course, am no expert, but I agree that Goodgulf's example seems fine. I think the key is using the effect sparingly, a word here and there, so that it stands out and means something as opposed to whole conversations, or even whole sentences, of it.
Our author guide gives this example under things to avoid:
Meaningless repetition of letters, e.g. "Pleeeeeeeeease don't doooooo that, honnneyyyyyy. I don't liiiiiike it."

As far as interrobangs, I think that a sentence can absolutely be both an exclamation and a question. 'Exclamatory question' is a good term. I find it useful to get across the tone of a question. An actual interrobang would confuse me.

What a greaaaaaaat discussion!!! I agree with so many of the points. . . And the posters. . . "It truly is SUPER how we all write sooooooo differently, yet can all come up with so many terrif stories, n'est pa?!" Smeple cried!

That's a great capture of the sound of someone talking. Dry words on a page can't always capture that sound.

Goodgulf

I agree with the example from Goodgulf - extending "no" to "noooo" would be just about OK (once) but extending every word would be very irritating.

I think it's fine used just occasionally. For example, you're introducing a character who talks like that most of the time. You use this method to convey how (s)he speaks and then people can imagine it for themselves. Used regularly, it stops the reader getting on with hit because (s)he'll be familiar with the normal spellings and will have to stop to think about anything unconventional. For the same reason books written entirely in a dialect are very hard going unless you're familiar with that dialect.

I do use sound effects for screams and so on. There is just such a fascinating variety of anguished sounds a human can make and I like to indicate what actually came out. But if I write "Please, no, please, don't, please IAAAAAAAAAIOW!" no reader stops to try to puzzle it out (I hope).


I think the case of strong accents is a bit more difficult. In principle it should be the same ("Aah am amazed at you, Mizz Smyuth!" or "She be a roight woild one, that Miss 'Arris!" once but not again) but I feel that there is a strong tendency in the reader to forget the accent. On the other hand, conveying it phonetically can cause confusion.

I agree that such effects should be used sparingly - I'm overfond of dashes and ellipses myself... but I think they have their place if not overdone. There are times when I'm trying to convey a tone of voice or the pointing of a remark that I wish we had more to choose from - a font with several sets of italics with differing degrees of slant to indicate degrees of emphasis or stress on words would be useful, for example, or some sort of symbols to indicate the length and type of pauses (shocked, thoughtful, suspenseful, confused etc). Perhaps future alphabets will include emoticons as well as letters...?

And here I thought we were talking dirty when I first saw this word..interrobang....LOL. Here it turns out its a symbol. Boy...where was my mind on that one?

CS

You mean it's not a surprising and creative way to get a captured enemy to talk?