I’ve been trying to cut down my use of em-dashes over the past couple of…

I’ve been trying to cut down my use of em-dashes over the past couple of months. I had started to overuse the mark. This is part of a wider project to shorten my sentences and simplify their structure. The em-dash has been a crutch to my sentences, allowing them to go on far longer than they should have done. The em-dash still has a place, but it seems to be good practice to avoid it as a go-to piece of punctuation. I sometimes have to think harder about sentence and paragraph structure, but perhaps that will aid you, my dear reader.

But please don’t pull up my use of the em-dash. I’m not trying to cut them out altogether. It’s one of those things where the problem is that I’ve started to use as an affectation. I am also not sure the short sentence structure reflects my voice as a writer; it feels forced. I don’t seem to have found a rhythm. A self-enforced trial will hopefully result in my learning something of the benefits. An experiment if you will. Then, perhaps, I can integrate this learning into my writing.