Punctuating for Hesitation and Pauses in Dialogue

All punctuation shows the reader two things: (1) how thoughts are connected or grouped together and (2) how the author intends for the characters or narration to sound when spoken. Keeping that in mind will help you make decisions about the punctuation for what you are intending to convey.

For any pause, whether in dialogue or narration, you have to consider the length of the pause and how the pause is related to the thoughts in the sentence. Different punctuation allows for different lengths of pauses or separations of thoughts.