Sometimes in the Erlang shell, if I mistype a command and hit Enter, the shell goes to the next line in anticipation that the command will continue (so the line number on the left stays the same). 

For example, I just now mistakenly (on purpose) typed `1> $"X".` instead of `1> $X.`. After hitting Enter, now the command line is stuck on `1>`. I have tried typing `.` followed by Enter and simply Enter in the hopes of terminating the command sequence, but it doesn't work. Although I have tried, it is very hard to look this up on google because the incredibly common keywords lead to other results. 

Is there a way I can break that sequence without having to exit the shell entirely with Ctrl C? The trouble with restarting the shell is all the variables are lost.