Are 'em dashes' a put off simply because AI uses it a lot?

[ElijahRyne]

What do you think of em dashes in a novel's text?

Personally, I find em dashes quite stylistic. It adds variety to the punctuations we already know: periods (.), commas (,), question (?) and exclamation marks (!), colons (:), semicolons (;) and the simple dash (-). A paragraph with multiple compound sentences that were punctuationed with just periods and commas are... Not as aesthetically pleasing as one with dashes.

What do you think?

I only use them when someone‘s dialogue is being interrupted.

”It looks like it is raining now, do you know the f—“ Jerem’s words were cut off by the harsh ringing bell of thunder.

What do you think of em dashes in a novel's text?

Personally, I find em dashes quite stylistic. It adds variety to the punctuations we already know: periods (.), commas (,), question (?) and exclamation marks (!), colons (:), semicolons (;) and the simple dash (-). A paragraph with multiple compound sentences that were punctuationed with just periods and commas are... Not as aesthetically pleasing as one with dashes.

What do you think?

Also, that is why you use ? ! & / and ‘’ “”.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

I am readily looking forward to the great bursting of the AI bubble.
I'll welcome and cherish it.

 

[Time4T]

There's a huge difference between disliking AI because what it produces is garbage, and simply disliking AI. I've read thousands of books in my life and I don't know any of the authors personally. Ultimately, It's not about who, "what" or how the story was written, as long as I enjoied it. Having the final product refined by a spell checker, an editor, reader feedback or AI, it's all the same to me... whatever works. Without human guidance I think everyone understands that the best today's AI can produce is generic slop. Using AI is not a cheat, it's a tool.

The human mind supplies the inspiration and AI assists with execution. Why should anyone fear this?

 

[tiaf]

My system every time he appears "Ding—"

Otherwise? Very sparingly. I'm picky with pacing and breaks.

 

[FRWriter]

I use them.

— instead of ;

I like Em dashes more. I got used to them. The magic alt + 0151 is so deeply ingrained into my brain that I'll continue to use it

Also, I can confirm that AI uses ";" as well. Also, it takes 1 small line to tell your AI to replace — with ;. Or alternatively, you can simply search and then auto replace — with ; so it's a little silly to think that "Only AI stories use —"

 

[Anonjohn20]

What do you think of em dashes in a novel's text?

Personally, I find em dashes quite stylistic. It adds variety to the punctuations we already know: periods (.), commas (,), question (?) and exclamation marks (!), colons (:), semicolons (;) and the simple dash (-). A paragraph with multiple compound sentences that were punctuationed with just periods and commas are... Not as aesthetically pleasing as one with dashes.

What do you think?

They aren't bad, just archaic. Semicolons, parentheses, and commas have replaced them entirely in modern writing, so when you use them, people will assume that you travelled a few centuries into the future or are AI.

 

[foxoftheasterisk]

Hey, that's actually really cool. I didn't realize you could do that with a numeric keyboard. Thanks for the not-so-direct tip!

There's also (if you're on windows) Windows key + period. Pops up a window that lets you enter special characters—dashes, accented letters, emoji, kaomoji, all sorts of cool stuff. (Also, clipboard history.) Very useful.

 

[AlexRiven201]

I think em-dashes are lazy. You can use them to replace other punctuations so you don't have to think which ones to use.

I feel a blend of punctuation creates a properly-flowing story. Em-dashes have their place. You just need to find where they fit over a pair of commas. Em-dashes sound like a completely derailed thought over one that smoothly flowed over to a new track. At least to me.

 

[RepresentingDesire]

Semicolon can mean the same thing as an m-dash

 

[AlexRiven201]

I can only really speak from my own experience, but I use em-dashes quite a lot in my writing. AI is going to generate what it does because it's trained to do so, and I'm going to write what I write because that's how I choose to. I had teachers and family members that influenced my style. But I developed that style, and I chose how it manifests.

 

[L1aei]

Semicolon can mean the same thing as an m-dash

Maybe as a continuation, but I've never seen a semicolon used as an insert in the middle of a sentence... or maybe I drank that memory away?

 

[Rezcore]

Confession, I didn't know what an Emdash was until ai, still don't really understand it now.

 

[L1aei]

Confession, I didn't know what an Emdash was until ai, still don't really understand it now.

Sometimes I'll use them if I have an intrusive thought in the middle of saying something; emdashes can come in handy to make that stand out as an out-of-context insert.

 

[AlexRiven201]

IMO

Nah, even before a.i., its always been trash.

And you know what?

The hobbit wasn't a very good book.

There i said it.

That' subjective. You didn't enjoy The Hobbit. I did. The book was written supremely well. That doesn't mean it was going to - or was meant to - capture everyone's enthusiasm.

 

[L1aei]

Confession, I didn't know what an Emdash was until ai, still don't really understand it now.

That' subjective. You didn't enjoy The Hobbit. I did. The book was written supremely well. That doesn't mean it was going to - or was meant to - capture everyone's enthusiasm.

Ah, see there? That inserted shift away from consequence to intent inside the dashes? It's within the sentence rather than its own to avoid breaking the initial point of what they're saying. That's what I meant.

 

[AlexRiven201]

Ah, see there? That inserted shift away from consequence to intent inside the dashes? It's within the sentence rather than its own to avoid breaking the initial point of what they're saying. That's what I meant.

Someone gets it XD

 

[L1aei]

Someone gets it XD

 

[RepresentingDesire]

Maybe as a continuation, but I've never seen a semicolon used as an insert in the middle of a sentence... or maybe I drank that memory away?

An Semicolon is very similar; it can be used in the same way, but it is more a parallel sentence

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

Maybe as a continuation, but I've never seen a semicolon used as an insert in the middle of a sentence... or maybe I drank that memory away?

He had been a spacer for nearly thirty years; the entire operation had been almost hardwired into his brain at this point.

 

[HarryGarland]

I was just re-reading the first book of Harry Potter. Lookey what I found, em-dashes. And a semi-colon.

Quoted from the book:

​

“Anyway — Harry,” said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, “a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here — I mighta sat on it at some point, but it’ll taste all right.”​

(I marked this to learn how to do punctuations when dialogue and description are sandwiched together. And lots of em-dashes.)​

“Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune,” said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon’s hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.​

(A semicolon!)​

I don't know which edition this one belongs to. And I'm not sure if the first edition had em-dashes or not.

I think dislike towards em-dashes simply because AI uses it is more subjective rather than objective.