I am trying to write some dialogue where an ellipsis is used after a statement with a full stop. So essentially its not that the first statement is being interrupted, its that the next statement takes longer to think about, like a realization moment, if that makes sense.
Eg 1. "That sounds great. ...hang on, isn't that John over there?"
Obviously the example above is not punctuated correctly since it is quite confusing. I am also wondering whether the "h" in "hang on" above needs to be capitalized? Since my understanding is that an ellipsis can have a full stop on the end to signify an end of the statement as oppose to a continuation of the same train of thought.
Eg 2. "That sounds great.... Hang on, isn't that John over there?" VS "That sounds great... hang on, isn't that John over there?"
The issue being is that the meaning of Eg 1 is very different to either version of 2 because of which statement the ellipsis is in.
I suppose an easy fix for dialogue would be to break it up like this:
"That sounds great," said George. "...hang on, isn't that John over there?"
But then how about if trying to achieve the same outside dialogue, such as with unreliable narration?
Eg 3. There were 3 friends with them that night. ...actually it was more like 5, because George and John were also there.
Any suggestions on best practice for this?