How many exclamation points are too much?

[Mystie]

First off, anything somebody says in response is merely their opinion.
That being said I think that they should be reserved for points of great excitement or import.
People forcefully speaking, used on the main point.
Some unexpected shocking occurrence.

Teens have a higher level of what is the norm, and so I would expect that short of shouting there wouldn't be many exclamation points. For teenagers there are a great number of things that fit into the category of earth-shattering events. It would take earth-shattering with a milkshake down the front of you when your dream guy looked your way to warrant an exclamation point.

[Keryl]

Okay, so obviously I haven't read the thing, but my guess is that 17 exclamation points on one page is going to look more like parody of how teens speak than genuine emotions. But that's just a blind guess.

Meanwhile, you can pretty much do whatever you like between the quote marks. And if you've got a bunch of really excited dialog, then use those exclamation points.

How is your POV structured? If it's 3rd omni, I'd say cut the non-dialog exclamation points out. Your narrator probably isn't that excited. If you're in 1st, then keep them in. Your narrative is an extension of the main character's voice.

As a general rule of thumb, I suggest looking at books that are similar to yours, and see what they've done. I don't read a ton of teen oriented literature, but the stuff I have read hasn't been that heavy on the exclamation points.

[Kevin]

That many exclamation points seems a bit excessive to me. Even though teenagers are excitable, the reader will grow used to an excessive amount of exclamation points, making them lose their value IMO. It might be better to include descriptions of body language or actions instead of using so many exclamation points.

[Susan]

Kevin wrote: "That many exclamation points seems a bit excessive to me. Even though teenagers are excitable, the reader will grow used to an excessive amount of exclamation points, making them lose their value I..."

After reading the responses - this one was the one I would agree with the most! (ha - just HAD to use "!")

[Trish]

April wrote: "I am in the processing of self-publishing my first novel. It is a teen fiction in which the main characters are teenagers/young adults. There is a lot of excitement, drama, and action in my book, s..."

Hmmm...this is a fascinating question, when did you decided to count them?? lol I think if you are worried, you can tweak things by using italics, or bold in a statement. But if your book has a lot of emotion, where an exclamation point is needed...then go for it! (lol)

[K J]

One or two per lengthy chapter, maximum. Use sparingly, otherwise it'll look like a cheap tabloid newspaper editor got hold of your manuscript.

You have to let the reader do some work, and that includes letting him/her decide on the voice of the characters, based on what you have written, rather than placing whacking great signposts at the end of a sentence.

The content of the speech should indicate the tone of it, and an exclamation mark should only be used in more extreme cases. The main point being, if you emphasise ever other sentence with !, nothing stands out.

[Lee]

I would use them as sparingly as possible. Your dialogue in general should create excitement without artificially adding inflection in the form of punctuation.

Exclamation points get old really fast.

Just my 2 cents :)

EDIT: Yeah, pretty much what KJ said.