this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2026
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I use them when connecting a thought in between another thought—for example, what I just did right now—and then returning back to the original thought. I use a semicolon when connecting two related thoughts together*; LLMs tend to only use one em-dash, so I'm hoping that by using two of them instead—and a semicolon instead whenever an LLM would use an em-dash—there will be no confusion as to whether or not I'm human.
I use them with a space on each side -- which is apparently wrong. Sigh.
You're absolutely right! I have never seen an LLM use em-dashes in the way you do — if they use them, it's always to add a pause to the sentence.
I like to alternate between sets of em dashes and sets of parentheses to obscure the fact that I'm using too many "asides" in my writing.
I do that too on top of everything else I said. It's an ADHD thing. I write how I think, with lots of tangents.