Free A Dash of Style by Noah Lukeman Page B

there. The avoidance of the colon is unfortunate, since it is one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of a creative writer.
    HOW TO USE IT
    • In its most majestic, overt form the colon reveals. Indeed, when it comes to dramatic revelation, the colon has no second. In this function, the colon acts as a mark point, with the text preceding it building to a revelation, and the text that follows living up to the promise. The highly visual colon helps us immediately distinguish two parts of the sentence, to know that we are crossing a threshold. Consider:
    I grabbed my bag, put on my coat, and stepped out the door, as I wasn't coming back.
    In this example, we don't feel a revelation, don't feel the impact of "I wasn't coming back." Adding a colon, though, changes everything:
    I grabbed my bag, put on my coat, and stepped out the door: I wasn't coming back.
    Now we know this is a peak moment; now the sentence is divided neatly into parts, and there is a clear purpose for each. The colon has shown us that the focus of this sentence is not the bag, the coat, or the stepping out, but the fact that he wasn't coming back. It has propelled this clause into the limelight.
    Keep in mind that in order to achieve this, you must first craft a sentence where the opening clause builds to a revelation and the second portion delivers. A revelation is ineffective without preparation, and preparation is pointless without revelation.
    • The colon can be used, simply, to offset a point. Sometimes a point, like a youngest child, needs to stand out, to be given extra attention, perhaps for clarity's sake, or for fear of its getting lost in
    the midst of a complex sentence. You must always consider whether the sleepy, 2:00 a.m. reader might accidentally gloss over a word or clause. If this is your intention (as it is for some writers who strive to be subtle), then that is fine, but if not, you must think of the reader, and assume the worst-case scenario. Reading is a different experience for everyone, and if an idea is important enough that you can't afford to take the chance of its being missed, a colon will make sure it stands out. With a colon present, the first part of the sentence will be the equivalent of, "I have a point to make, are you ready?" and then the point will follow. Compare this:
    The engineer couldn't climb the telephone pole because he was scared of heights.
    With this:
    The engineer couldn't climb the telephone pole: he was scared of heights.
    In the first example, "he was scared of heights" might not have full impact. In the second example, with the colon, it cannot possibly be missed.
    • The colon can be used to enhance word economy. A writer must embrace any device that helps create a tighter, more economical work, and a colon allows you to eliminate words such as "that is," "namely," and "because."
    I've been meaning to tell you something, and that is that I'm pregnant.
    I've been meaning to tell you something: I'm pregnant.
    I didn't want to leave her alone for Christmas because her friend had just died.
    I didn't want to leave her alone for Christmas: her friend had just died.
    • The colon can be used to summarize. If you're describing the attributes of a character, or the elements of a house, or the methodology of a prison, and you want to take your observations and summarize them in one grand impression, the colon can do the job. Consider:
    The parlor was immense, the kitchen spectacular, the two billiard rooms offered a water view and the six fireplaces were always lit: it was a palace.
    In this capacity, the colon allows you to take a sentence one step further, to take your observations and parlay them into an impression. You could summarize without using a colon, but then it wouldn't necessarily be clear to the reader that the impression is the direct conclusion of all that came before. There are instances where one might want a conclusion to be distinct from the observations that preceded it; but there are