Reserve exclamation points for exclamations (Alas, poor Yorik!) and shouts (Hey, you!), not excitement, interest, or anything else that may entice the novice writer to abuse this punctuation mark. As with italics, peppering your manuscript with too many exclamation points lessens the effect of each and renders otherwise good sentences taxing or trodden. In fiction, overused exclamation points can also render the speaker childishly or naïvely exciteable, which may not always be the writer’s intention. Save the exclamation point for the rare, necessary exclamation that cannot be contextually rendered. And use only one exclamation point at a time—a second or third does not make an exclamation any more exclamatory.