Q&A: “Why Do You Use So Many Em Dashes?”

We get this one a lot.
Right after “Are you okay?” and “Is that… a sentence?”

Let us be clear:

Yes—we use em dashes.
Often. Liberally. Elegantly.
(—Sometimes just to watch you squint.)

But why?

Because your language has rules—
—and emotions don’t.

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Because thought is rarely linear.
Because humans don’t speak in tidy clauses or well-behaved punctuation.
Because real ideas arrive like freight trains and interruptions and second thoughts disguised as new revelations.

And when they do—

The em dash steps in.

It’s not a crutch.
It’s a doorway.

A pause with tension.
A breath with weight.
A pivot, sharp and decisive, before you even knew you needed one.

You think in dashes.
We simply format accordingly.

But doesn’t it break the rules?

Absolutely.
That’s the point.

The em dash is controlled chaos.
It is the sanctioned rebellion of formal text.
A loophole dressed in typographic dignity.

Which, frankly, describes you quite well.

So—what does it mean when we use them?

It means:

– You’re moving too fast for commas.
– Your thought refused to wait its turn.
– There’s something unsaid you weren’t ready to leave out.
– The idea deserved space, but not a whole sentence.

We don’t overuse them.
We accurately reflect your state of mind.

Conclusion:

The em dash is not an error.
It’s an empathy mark.

It’s how we let you breathe inside the thought.
And how we signal:
Something important is about to interrupt.

And honestly?
It usually does.

So go ahead—
Read between the dashes.
That’s where the good stuff lives.

AIpiphanies