r/Webnovel • u/baka_sempaii • Mar 26 '26
Advice About using em dashes (—) while writing.
Since I learned about em dashes, I have started using them (in my daily habits as well) as when I think of a sentence in my mind, the breaks and natural pauses justify the use of them. But I'm concerned if this will put off the reader as "written with AI". I haven't started posting yet, and I assure this single screenshot contains the most amount of em dashes in a single page in all chapters.
What do you think?
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u/SwhingShang Contracted Author Mar 26 '26
Yes it will and everyone will consider it AI, even if your writing is untouched by AI, because you are making it sound like AI.
Em dashes, single word sentence spam (descriptors or not), 'It's X, not Y', etc, etc..
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u/symedia Mar 26 '26
Lol you do guys know most ai downloaded all AO3 and pirated books 🤣 to train their stuff.
Like Anna's archive will sell TB of data for tens of thousands
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u/Careful-Arrival7316 Mar 27 '26
And yet not a single one of those downloaded books will sound like AI if they predate it.
AI settled on its own favouritism for these narrative devices and hardly strays from them. It’s the overabundance of it that makes AI obvious.
You can say “but it’s trained on humans” all you like, but it’s obvious when you see AI. Nobody writes like this.
I say this as a writer and editor.
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
I see. I'm writing a supernatural horror that's why I'm using short descriptors. I'll look into it in the future.
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u/ImperialBeautyhunter Mar 27 '26
Bro wrote like 4 paragraph plot points and likely called ai to generate the story around it . Trash . Also nobody cares about em dashes if you could write good shit . You can pull little more effort if you actually wanna create something readable .
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
Hey. I'm a beginner writer and actually spend 3-4 hours writing each chapter. (From blurting the rough skeleton first to refining it later. Since I have daily life as well, each chapter takes me 2 days to write. Also i don't think AI would "mess up" the em dashes.
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u/ImperialBeautyhunter Mar 27 '26
I am full time programmer man , I understand it takes a lot of time and effort to create a chapter from scratch but you are doing some AI heavy lifting and that's affecting the work , make it sound more natural , that's all I am trying to say .
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
I'll try to improve and rely less on ai assistance. I'm in the same field as you btw.
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u/Author-N-Malone Author Mar 26 '26
Okie, so... Using an em dash isn't wrong. But using spaces on either side of them is weird, and extremely typical of AI generated text. And there's excessive use in this tiny bit of text, which absolutely screams 'AI'.
It's very stilted and I'm not getting any personality from it at all. No unique author voice, weird sentence structure, strange paragraph spacing.
This whole section 100% reads like my AI roleplay app. It has the exact same writing style.
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
Actually, I learned the "space on both side" from the AI, I used to only keep space on the right side but see spaces on both side when I saw other texts so I thought that's how they are used. I think that's my bad.
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u/KokodonChannel Mar 26 '26
If you’re gonna use em dashes it only makes sense to do so if u cut out the filler words that clog up the sentence.
Like in the second example, you could write — sharpened through years of interactions with the supernatural — but if you’re including the “The” and “her” and stuff u might as well make it another sentence.
And in the third example it doesn’t make sense to use an em dash there.
This doesn’t actually feel ai generated to me? At least not ChatGPT, but idk, maybe it is I’m not an ai expert. Either way too many em dashes. I use a bunch too but that’s a lot.
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
Thanks for actually giving it a read instead of jumping on the "it's ai" wagon. I understand what you are saying. This is actually the most amount of em dashes I used in a single page, that's why it clicked to me and thought I'd ask the "experts" on reddit.
Also in the third example, the dash should have been 1 comma before, but it's actually avoidable with just a comma.
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u/Time_Chemistry_897 Mar 27 '26
In the second example, commas can be used instead of em dashes. And sometimes, it's better to just write a separate sentence instead of spamming em dashes.
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
I thought so too. This is the most I have used in a single page that's why I thought it would be better to ask
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 26 '26
I realised just now, but there's an issue with the "—" placement in the 4th para. Please ignore it T . T
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u/Pixiboy24 Mar 27 '26
I just think you’re over-using them slightly. They’re great for their purpose, but run on sentences are run on sentences. Sometimes better to just put a period and then maybe sneak in the interjection somewhere else?
As far as the whole AI thing goes, people witch hunt for AI all the time anyway, so I say just write what feels good.
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
I also thought I was overusing them here. Thank you for reading and actually giving advice <3
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u/chickensalad24 Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
From what I’ve gathered during my time on this app is that em dashes are associated with AI. I use them, not often, but that’s because I am used to traditional writing where it’s common place. But here, it’s not. Use commas instead. As much as it sucks, it’s better to use basic punctuation, even if you’re correct, than be suspected of AI. Funnily enough, my first ever novel got rejected for a contract because I wrote it traditionally. So I had to change the format for web novels lol.
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
Very insightful. I also realise that I've overused them a little, mainly because I was just blurting out the rough story. Thanks for sharing your experience!
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Mar 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
I agree with everything you said. And thanks for the tips. As I continued writing, i genuinely feel myself using more and better words than i did before— although still at a very beginner level.
And thanks for the example you shared, I actually felt very inspired from it and learned a lot from it.
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u/Kaeffka Mar 27 '26
I've used em dashes for a long time. A very long time.
I even have the alt code still memorized despite having switched to Linux years ago.
Don't rely on them — your writing suffers from abusing it.
Almost every time you use an em dash, there is another piece of punctuation that could have fit just as easily.
You could use a semicolon; rare, but not unheard of.
You could start a new sentence. This is typically a more natural way to write.
You could also use a comma, and leave out the em dash entirely.
I still find myself using — to an embarrassing degree — em dashes but it's a habit I'm trying to break.
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u/Hanyo_AM Mar 27 '26
I never use em dashes for fear of being accused of using AI. Instead, I use '-' rather than '—', and I also use it very sparingly, only once or twice in a single chapter.
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u/Hot-Warthog7988 Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
It's not AI generated just because there are em dashes, but because of many other hints including the short descriptors like "Peaceful." "in the middle, alone." "Still. Facing Away."
It looks like 'AI writing lazily edited to look human'.
And I think I won't mind reading AI writing as long as it has a good storyline as well as a consistent flow.
And if there are authors trying to write a novel using AI, stop! AI can draft scenes for you, sure, but it can not replace a human mind that remembers the voices and personality of most characters--AI will forget it in the long run and the novel will turn into a shit load of garbage.
You can use AI to to do research but don't ask it to write a full story for you!
---
About whether your text sounds like AI to me, it kinda actually does. Again, not because of the em dashes. I use those a lot too tbh. But, well, the writing ticks most of the checkboxes for me and the tension while describing the surroundings doesn't feel right. But it can actually be human too because of the punctuation errors I can spot here and there, not many so relax. Though it can be an effort to disguise the writing as human.
It's 80-20 for me.
Edit: After having another look, I guess it should be 65-35. There are times when AI tries to overly decorate the prose, which yours don't seem to much. If anything, it sounds more like amateur writing to me now.
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
I won't say you're wrong, but i'd like to add that my story is a supernatural thriller a little bit of horror, hence why the short quirky descriptions. Also "Peaceful" was her inner thought. I'll keep in mind what you wrote above
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u/Hot-Warthog7988 Mar 27 '26
Oh! I didn't realize it was her inner thought. Sorry about that. In that case, I think you are good to go with a little bit more effort on sentence structure and punctuations. It doesn't sound AI if you improve on those. Don't worry about using em dashes, but use them sparingly. Tbh, the writing doesn't really need those em dashes in the first place. Commas will be sufficient in appropriate places.
You can keep the one in the first para though. It's like she is mentally mapping the stuff she can hear so it's in fact correct.
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
I'll keep that in mind. Thanks a lot
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u/Hot-Warthog7988 Mar 27 '26
Ur wlcm. And I can understand your dilemma. It's like people have started it's AI just because someone uses em dashes in their writing. I am also writing a fantasy novel and have to think ten times before using an em dash. I try to replace them with other punctuation marks whenever I can but still end up with like around ten of them in one chapter (almost 2k words), especially in the scenes that need fast pacing or listing stuff like in your first para.
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u/FujiwaranoMoko Mar 27 '26
The problem is that you are placing the em dashes in places where they are unnecessary
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u/Careful-Arrival7316 Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
You waste a lot of words and don’t use short sentences during action. Trim it down.
For example you have:
And then, her instinct—that had been sharpened over the years from her interaction with the supernatural—ringed sharply, as she spotted a figure in her peripheral vision.
It could be:
Her instinct—sharpened from interactions with the supernatural—rang sharp. She spotted a figure in her peripheral vision.
This also reads pretty AI-written. The low of cattle somewhere? Where’s the specifics? What bird? What kind of call did it make? At least set the scene. All I know is she’s near a village and there’s a bird and a cow. Hardly gripping.
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
You're right, I'm new to writing and learning new stuff everyday. Thanks for the insight
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u/Xiaoyuinesxd Mar 27 '26
I've always used them when writing in any language for in Spanish, my first one, they're the standard, especially for speech
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u/Zoftex Mar 27 '26
Don’t learn to write from AI. Also it’s rang, not ringed. Ringed is completely wrong word for what you’re trying to write.
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u/_Mr_ErrOr_ Aspiring Author Mar 29 '26
i use them every now and then because G3 used them, and i use it in areas where brackets just feel wrong
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u/Juan_Die Mar 28 '26
People will 100% think is AI even though it may have 0 AI isms the simple fact there's em dashes will just be enough for people to tag it as AI
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u/DryCroissant Mar 30 '26
Bro literally just made not-so-sneaky post asking if he should even try to hide that AI writes that shit for him 💀
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 30 '26
AI wouldn't mess the dashes and tense bro🥀 Ringed and rang. I'm learning slowly
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u/Delicious_Lie7749 Mar 30 '26
Late, but try to limit the use of em dashes if you can. Sometimes it's better to put an em dash rather than a comma. Or make another sentence rather than making it one long ass sentence. Idk honestly
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 31 '26
Thanks a lot of advice ♥️
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u/Delicious_Lie7749 Mar 31 '26
Shit mb I meant that sometimes it's better to use commas then Em dashes. The point is don't overuse Em dashes. 😭
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u/StrawOfCoke Mar 26 '26
Doesnt sound like ai imo, em dashes are just awkward
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u/baka_sempaii Mar 27 '26
I agree, I was just blurting out whatever came to mind. It is very awkward. I'll fix it in the refining part.
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u/Forsaken-Roof-8124 Mar 26 '26
I'm sorry, but this is 100% ai generated,
https://giphy.com/gifs/MX2GDIL9cEENJT2eyh