I learned a very important piece of grammar in my editing class this week. An ellipsis-one of my favorite forms of punctuation-for text messages-is an accent that I (and most folks) don't use properly. This makes me sad. It is so . . . effective. We also type it wrong, regularly. To properly type an ellipsis: space, period, space, period, space, period, space. It was originally used to indicate an omission in a quotation. But it works so beautifully to create a heavy pause to create the perfect . . . timing for your reader.
I learned that the best way to write better is to learn how punctuation can work for you. Yes, that is what editors are for, but when you are writing for fun, with a lack of funds, it is pretty cool to learn the difference between and en dash, em dash, hyphen, ellipsis, and parenthesis.