Em dashes are making waves on social media. I’ve lost count of how many posts and videos I’ve seen in the last few weeks of book enthusiasts either accusing authors of using AI in their writing or defending those accused.

I feel like I blinked and now this is an issue. And, like, yeah, there are authors out there who use AI to write their books. I’ve been super open about my views on the morality of the issue in other blog posts (I Asked AI to Teach Me How to Plan a Novel, and How Can Authors Embrace AI?).

But just to be clear, I do not, and never, ever will, use AI to write my novels, blog posts, or anything else. I also don’t use it to generate art and then claim I made it; if an artwork has my name on it, I spent actual time using the skill I’ve honed over literal decades to create it.

Lately, I’ve been using the AI to Google things for me. I have ADHD. That means, to me, Google is a concentration-breaking black hole. I’ll start by searching for a female name that means ‘lioness’, swing by volcanic activity off the coast of Hawaii, and end up twenty-six tabs deep in research of Victorian warships. It’s a curse. So, when I tell Copilot I’m looking for a list of lesser-known mythical creatures that have a solid coloured eye, without iris and pupil, and it spits out ‘keres’, I get back to the actual writing because I don’t get distracted by the pretty lights.

I’ve generated images with AI to help me visualise how my characters would look, but I’ve never claimed the art (?!?) as my own, and I’ve ALWAYS USED MY OWN DESCRIPTIONS to create them. It’s easier to see if something works if I have a picture, and even though I can sketch all my characters myself, I don’t have the freaking time.

I use AI to generate the odd throwaway name. If it’s a place that is mentioned only once or a character that features in passing, I don’t care about the name. I’ve ALWAYS used name generators for this purpose. For the main cast or important places in the story, I spend freaking ages on baby name sites or cobbling together words that have the perfect sound and meaning for a place name. The receipts are all over my blog.

I recently asked the AI to teach me how to plan a novel. It spat out a series of steps that really helped me find a way to plan that works with my ADHD instead of against it. I’m over 50k words into this novel, and it’s progressing SO MUCH EASIER than any other writing project, because I have a Lego-style plan that can be altered because of its modular nature.

But, again, I DO NOT USE THE AI TO WRITE FOR ME. Heck, I barely use AI to edit for me! I rely on Word’s built-in spell-checker and Grammarly (not a sponsored post) on the blog. My husband, kid, and friends can attest to the hours upon hours I sit in front of my computer, earphones blasting music (right now it’s the world’s best cover of My Sacrifice by Nicole Serrano and Tommee Profitt), just writing.

I do, however, use em dashes.

Like, a lot.

It’s a punctuation tool I learned to use from my editor, Nerine Dorman, who is an actual human person.

Em dashes in written work don’t instantly equate to AI. Emily Dickinson used the em dash so frequently that it became known as the Dickinson Dash. Her work is riddled with em dashes, to the extent that some people joke and or believe the ‘em’ part is short for Emily.

How to Use the Em Dash

The em is the longest dash.

A hyphen – connects thoughts or numbers. Twenty-two, blue-green, sun-kissed.

An en dash – shows range. Sections A–D, 200–250, 1985–1990.

An em dash — signifies a pause, break, or interruption.

In Dialogue

An em dash inside quotation marks means one character is interrupting another’s speech, or that character is distracted by something else and abruptly stops speaking. For example:

Cara holds out her hands. “I didn’t mean—”

“I don’t care what you meant,” Sera says.

If one character interrupts the other but the first keeps speaking, the em dash might be used at the beginning of the sentence to show that. For example:

“Hey, do you remember when we went to that club last week and—”

“No, I’m a goldfish.”

“—that guy hit on us?”

However, this rule only applies when the character continues with the SAME SENTENCE. If they start a new thought, the opening em dash falls away, and the sentence starts with a capital letter.

Em dashes are different from ellipses … in that ellipses show thought trailing off or time passing, while em dashes signify an abrupt stop. For example:

“Do I want the burger, or the fries? Hmm…” Indicates the character is thinking or pausing, and that time is passing.

“I don’t— Crap, did you hear that?” Means the character stopped speaking instantly because something distracted or interrupted them.

An em dash between clusters of quotation marks indicates an action while speaking or a thought that the character doesn’t speak aloud. For example:

“I don’t see it here”—she rifled through her bag—“but it might be in the kitchen.”

“Look all you want”—I hide the chocolate bar behind my back—“because I didn’t raid your candy stash.”

“I totally would babysit on Sunday”—pick an excuse, pick an excuse—“but I have to study for that big chem test.”

In that last example, the italics signify a thought in the middle of the conversation. When em dashes are used in this way, they can also show a short passage of time, but are more often used when the action or thought is important, and the writer wants the reader to notice it.

As Emphasis or in Clarifying Clauses

Em dashes are a stylistic tool that say, ‘hey, this is important.’ I often use them instead of semicolons (;) or commas when I want to accentuate the next part of the sentence. For example:

“Thanks for the help—I don’t get enough opportunity to show off my skills.”

The sentence would also work with a comma, but the difference is that the em dash shows how much the opportunity to show off their skills means to this character.

The same rule applies to clarifying clauses. If a writer delivers a clarifying clause with em dashes instead of commas, parentheses, or semicolons, it amps up the emphasis. For example:

I didn’t know where I was going—this place was a maze—but I had to get out, fast.

The fact that the character is stuck in a maze is important. It shows the reader something about their struggle and need for speed without spending too much time describing the actual maze. Sometimes, amping up tension makes it difficult to include long-winded descriptions.

I can’t speak about other authors, but when I use em dashes, it’s because it’s the best tool for the sentence.

So, Why Do Readers See Em Dashes as AI-Writing?

I suspect it might be because of overuse, but I’m not really sure.

And I’m not here to rain on anyone’s parade or burst any bubbles (because I’m a fan of these books, too), but bashing newer authors and books because of overuse also feels like a double standard. I mean, some really famous, super-successful authors overuse other kinds of punctuation, words, or phrases all the time. Just Google how many times the word ‘mate’ features in ACOWAR, and you’ll see my point.

Using certain kinds of punctuation is a stylistic choice. In fact, the way I use these tools makes it easier to spot my writing style and authorial voice. I have years’ worth of blog posts that prove I’m not a bot.

And if you’ve been around the blog for a while, you know I’m always on about eliminating overuse of anything from our writing. But overuse doesn’t instantly point to AI.

I would wager we’d more easily spot the AI in consistent mistakes, glaring plot issues, or weaker storylines.

I recently read a series that I will not name or shame because I HAVE NO PROOF, but I was fairly sure the author used AI to cobble the story together. There were glaring similarities to books by another author, to the extent that I would’ve believed it to be her work if the name on the cover wasn’t different. And then similarities to other series started popping up, with a few sentences that are copied verbatim from really successful books. Some of the plot felt wonky, like the author didn’t really know the direction of her little ship, and there were weird instances in her descriptive work that had me re-reading sentences.

But, thing is, I can’t go around pointing fingers. Unfortunately, everything has already been done. Books will be similar to other books.

Sometimes, people draw inspiration from other works, and it comes across a bit more ‘in your face’ than they might’ve planned. These days, fanfiction gets published all the time. Open the discussion to include trope territory, and it becomes obvious why so many books are so similar. Shadow daddies and enemies-to-lovers sell. It’s that simple. 

I saw a review on a book once, where the reader literally docked a star from a book she adored because the MMC was blond, and she wants dark-haired guys in her romance. So, the bottom line? We’ll continue to see the same story with a different cover until the next big trend lands.

Folks, I’m the biggest advocate of artists and the arts. I’m a writer slash artist, and both those things have been irrevocably changed with the dawn of AI. It does threaten my livelihood, and it creates all kinds of new obstacles for me and people like me, who must jump through so many hoops to prove we’re human and we did the work.

But on the same token, I’ve seen so many new authors being accused of using AI in their work just because of punctuation choices or how fast they craft a story. I mean, I’ve written multiple books in under 2 months. I have ADHD! When the hyperfocus hits, it hits hard, and I can complete tasks that should take weeks in a night. Add a deadline, and I’ll crank it out even faster (but not up until the night before the due date, let’s not be crazy). I’m so thankful I’ve blogged about my entire writing journey (and that I’m older than the AI), because otherwise I’d have no idea how to prove how fast I can write when I get going.

That’s kind of what we’re doing to artists and writers—we’re making them constantly have to defend themselves and prove they did the work. And, believe me, it’s no freaking fun.

In the age of social media, one baseless accusation can sink a career at the drop of a hat. So, unless there are actual, hard-core facts to support accusations of AI in writing, please don’t accuse people.

Hi, I’m Yolandie, and I use em dashes. What’s your quirk worthy of an AI-use accusation?

Until next time.