Ellipses

[Trixie]

Ellipsis (plural ellipses; from the Ancient Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, "omission" or "falling short") is a series of dots (typically three, such as "…") that usually indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning.

Whereas, using it for just a pause, before returning to speech, without using to indicate the omission of a word would actually be the incorrect use of an ellipses.

Informally it can be used as a pause for speech, because you're really just cutting off your characters thought aloud.

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You were quoting the Chicago Manual of Style which is this irritating and excruciating set of rules that apply for academic papers and formal writing. We write fiction, which in the grammar world, is considered informal writing.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.writingforward.com/grammar/punctuation-marks/punctuation-marks-ellipsis">http://www.writingforward.com/grammar/p ... s-ellipsis</a><!-- m --> (Your exact quote is on this page and right below it it goes into detail about how ellipses are used for speech in Fiction.)

Just as a heads up. I don't dock points for ellipses use in speech when I judge.