You could probably get away with something non-standard like... It isn't difficult to use them; but to use them stylishly. Technically that isn't correct, at least not by the usual simple guidelines. The reason I'm saying it could work is that a reader understands that this version is just the original cropped down. The second part is a clause (a would-be sentence) with a few words removed, and you can feel this as you read. In effect, it is still a full clause. And the reason I think this version might be more stylish than the first is that it leans on the semicolon to do something - cleanly separate two clauses, showing contrast - that neither a comma in its place nor a semicolon in the original context would do. It's "stylish" because it's more compact than the alternatives without losing any coherence. Still, I'm not convinced. I'd feel pretentious writing that.
I'm not sure why semicolons have a reputation for being difficult. Is this why? Style worries? To be fair, rather like colons, they are difficult to get right. You might need to understand fragments, clauses, and conjunctions modestly well to judge whether a semicolon or colon is technically correct—or clarify the difference for someone.
But really. Take any two sentences. Replace the period with a semicolon. Not hard. (Reverse the procedure to check if one's correct.) The question is, why would you do that? When is it a good idea to set two sentences into extra relief against each other? Let's not forget that any two sentences next to each other are already a juxtaposition, and relatedness is already suggested by the sequence.
A semicolon (when not used in what I call its "supercomma" role, which I'm ignoring in this post and almost never comes up) basically asks a reader to look again—look, look a second time—at how two thoughts are connected.
That's it. It's very simple.
Now the question is, when do you think that's a move that's stylish and helpful, rather than a move that shows off that you know how to replace a period with a semicolon. (That's dead easy. You write a tail onto the period, and you put a dot above it. Then you improvise to make the capital letter lowercase.)
