While taking a writing course many years ago I remember my tutor advising my against using brackets in fiction and using dashes or commas instead. Also he suggested using dashes as sparingly as possible.

The trouble is I do tend to use brackets quite a lot (I've also gone through my novel manuscript and edited out lots and lots of dashes - ) See - I told you!

Perhaps it is just laziness on my part. Does anyone else have this problem. Is it a problem? I could re-work my manuscriipt without dashes and brackets but I think it reads well.

What do others think?

I don't use brackets in fiction (though I do a lot in other writing). I think a temptation to use a bracket would alert me to something I should have explained more fluently earlier, or that I don't really, really need it, in which case it isn't there.

I use dashes a lot - too much, my MPhil tutor used to say - but almost always in proper pairs, except in dialogue, where I know it's incorrect, but they do very well for a little hesitation mid - well, sentence.

Emma

Don't use brackets in fiction. Just don't. It looks like you're trying to cram in infor that should have been explained elsewhere.

I agree. They’re fine for informal stuff – like this forum for instance – but when I see brackets in fiction I tend to think it’s laziness on the part of the writer. Dashes are more acceptable but only when used sparingly.

Michael, you’ll think it reads well because you’re hearing it in your head in exactly the way you intended it to be heard. Ask someone else to read it aloud to you, without any prompting, and see how it sounds. That should tell you whether it works or not.

Dee

Be posh. Use footnotes!

I use dashes all the time and I don't care! I think brackets work better in forst person narration, generally. I think getting someone to read it aloud is a good idea, though.

Cath

I think it depends on the style of the fiction. If it's an informal narrative tone then I don't see a problem with brackets. If I recall correctly, Terry Pratchett uses brackets on a regular basis and it doesn't seem to have harmed his career any.

However, I also agree that in <i>most</i> cases, using brackets indicates a failure elsewhere - particularly if your writing is not in that informal style.

Jon