i'd like to thank everyone for the comments on the last page!! i don't get many responses here so it always makes my day when i do. thank you!
speaking of ellipses from the previous post, i just noticed this page has a ton of them! usually when i write dialogue it's both really meticulous like how i talked about on the previous page, but i also write it kind of gut instinct-like and "feel" my way through what the characters are saying, often saying the dialogue in my head or even out loud, and i don't always stop to think about the various pauses or syntax or if i'm using perhaps too many dots or something. i think it ends up sounding, or at least feeling, more real that way even if sometimes it looks awkward on the page.