To dot or not to dot...

Okay, this is a toughie to communicate in HTML. I'll give it a shot. The ole dot-dot-dot (...) technique is another one of those love-it-or-hate-it type devices.

If you want your character's spoken or internal dialogue to fade off (in a vague, uncomfortable or lost-in-thought kind of way) then you can use '...' before starting a new line.

"But, if you want your character cut off by another character, then you should use an em dash so that they get rudely clipped off--"
"Thus!"

No full-stop, inside the speech marks (if appropriate).

If you want to communicate some kind of emphasis or struggled thought, then the '...' should be placed inside a sentence with no space after it so that the reader...sees the emphasis.

Oh by the way, the correct number of dots is three... In all cases.

Therefore some examples might be:

"How do you know that I --"
"Just go. Get out of my house!" Hannah was near tears now.

Why did he have to make everything so...personal?

"I don't know what you hope to gain from this...?" Hannah's voice cracked with tears.

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