Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Proper formatting says that numbers under 100 should be spelled (one, twenty-three etc), and that numbers over 100 should not (123, 4,596 etc). What about when the number is used in dialogue and the speaker stutters?

"One -- one million -- one million nine hundred ninety nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine and I and I remember -- hee heeee. I remember them all." (?)

"One -- 1,000,000 -- 1,999,999 and I and I remember -- hee heeee. I remember them all." (?)

Since your emphasis here would be to get the stuttering across, I think it would be wiser to spell it out. I think it makes it more clear. I didn't know that numbers over 100 were to be "spelled" using numbers. Interesting.

Beethovenfan wrote:Since your emphasis here would be to get the stuttering across, I think it would be wiser to spell it out. I think it makes it more clear. I didn't know that numbers over 100 were to be "spelled" using numbers. Interesting.

That's apparently how it's supposed to be done on a submitted Ms.

(15) All numbers under 100 should be written out in full: twenty-five, not 25. But numbers over 100 should be written as numbers: 1,243, not one thousand, two hundred and forty-three. http://www.annemini.com/?cat=1398

My first thought was to spell it out, but - well - agents want things the way they want them.