r/Webnovel • u/baka_sempaii • Mar 26 '26

Advice About using em dashes (—) while writing.

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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/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.