To Dash or Not to Dash?

This is an interesting article from Slate on the em dash. The author is very much against it, but I couldn’t disagree more – I think the em dash is awesome.*

To me, the em dash is the bad ass of punctuation. I use them mostly when I’m emailing or posting comments online. These are usually short one-sentence communications and I tend to throw in a dash when I want to give my writing a little edge. The em dash adds a little aggression in there. It chops up the thought and makes the individual pieces stand out. It gives what is otherwise a banal, boring observation some spunk and character.

I use em dashes to different extents in my writing though. My current WIP hardly has any, but then my narrator has a much sweeter tone. She just wouldn’t have a need to chop her sentences to pieces. But, the newer piece I’ve been working on has tons of them. That narrator is much more clipped and harsh, so em dashes seem to go with her.

Of course, any bit of punctuation can be rendered obnoxious if it’s used too often (or else misused). I know I’m a huge fan of parenthesis and ellipses in my blog posts, even though I hardly ever use parenthesis when I’m writing. (Ellipses though… I use those no matter what I’m writing. I think my brain just likes to trail off mid-thought...**)

What do you think? Do you like the em dash? What punctuation do you find yourself using or abusing in your writing? Do different punctuation marks have different personalities to you?

-- Lisa

* Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson were also lovers of the em dash and I think it gives their work a special personality and quality that a boring old comma wouldn't have.

** J.K. Rowling is a prolific ellipses-user as well. Especially in the later books where Harry sees visions or has increasingly scattered thoughts.