#em dash

And it's very sobering to think that even though this fanfic was written long before ChatGPT existed, if I ever finished it and published it, people would think it was AI generated just because there's an Em Dash in it.

I don’t care if it “looks like AI" ITS A TOOL. IT EXISTS. IT LITERALLY IS A SYMBOL I CAN USE AND USE CORRECTLY

Can't help that you freaks haven't been using handheld devices to maladaptive daydream by way of writing fiction since 2003 or that you weren't the insufferable sort of twentysomething who insisted on using proper punctuation while texting, but some of us have put in real effort to include em dashes in our day-to-day writing, and your inability to imagine that we exist doesn't make us less real.

Can we stop the em-dash witch hunts now?

Give me a fucking break.

As I am going through my first draft I am forcing every "-" to defend itself. If a: ";", "and", ":", or simply a "." work better then I am changing it. I am not removing all my em dashes (you can take them from my cold dead hands) but I am making them more iconic in my writing. Letting them be the star they truly are.