Look! I’m Using an EM Dash! Better String Me Up for Using AI!

Lately, I’ve noticed something odd: if you use an em dash — like this — people assume you’re using AI.

It’s ridiculous.

Since when did punctuation become proof of plagiarism? Since when did using a writing style that’s existed for centuries make you suspect?

I’ve been a writer for decades. I love the em dash. I love how it punches in, how it disrupts, how it lets you break rhythm and inject a thought or change direction. It’s not AI. It’s voice. It’s craft. It’s me.

It how I get the fast and abrupt way I write, my voice.

But yes, I do use AI.

Let’s get that out of the way. I am one of those writers who have found a way to coexist with AI and actually use it as a tool to help me write better, cleaner, and with more punch.

I use AI tools to outline, to brainstorm, to draft sentences and ideas when I’m stuck. I use it to challenge myself. To test different angles. To find a phrase I almost had but couldn’t quite grab.

But here’s what I don’t do:

I don’t copy and paste. I don’t let it write for me. I don’t hand over the keys to the thing that only I can do — my perspective, my pain, my weird humor, my late-bloomer rage, my voice.

AI is my co-pilot. But I’m still the one flying the damn plane.

If you’ve read any of my essays, you know when it’s me. You can feel it. The scars. The rawness. The rhythm that comes from a mind that’s wrestled with depression, self-doubt, survival — and still chose to write anyway.

Yes, I use an em dash. You know what else I use? Semicolons. Sentence fragments. One-word paragraphs.

Because I’m not here to write like a bot. I’m here to write like someone who’s lived.

So the next time someone says, “This sounds like AI,” I’ll smile and say:

“Nope. That’s just me. Flawed, human, and very much alive.”

And if you’re a writer using tools to help you get unstuck, don’t let anyone shame you. We’ve always had tools. Thesauruses. Notebooks. Whiteboards. Mentors. Now we just have a faster one.

Use the tool. Keep your soul.

And throw in an em dash if you feel like it — hell, throw in three.

They’re not proof you’re fake. They’re proof you’ve got style.