So.....

My writing background isn't in novels. Oh sure, that's where I started reading. But I started really writing scripts for movies and plays. That's the only way I could get a whole story out. Consider: a screenplay is about 90 pages long, each page is made up of mostly spaces, barely any space is taken up with flowery prose, everything is dialogue. A short novel is 50,000 words (or 200 pages at 250 avg. words per page). Writing a screenplay you can cover a lot more ground with less words. It really fit my impatient nature.

To tell you the truth I still enjoy script writing for its focus on dialogue.

To that end I'm going to share one of the first lessons we learned about dialogue in screenplays because this lesson translates well to novel writing as well.

Don't use filler words.

"So", "um", "well", "uh", anything like that. You've probably cut them out of your dialogue in the middle, but look at the beginning of your lines.

"So, I was walking down to Walmart the other day..."

"Um, I guess I could go with you."

"Well, there was a gun under the desk."

"Well," is a great way to give yourself some extra time to think about what you're going to say before you say it. We do it all the time when we're speaking. But it doesn't help your story. Go through every line of dialogue and if it starts with "Well," simply cut the "Well," and leave the rest. The same goes for the other filler words. Try this little trick out and see if it snaps up your dialogue.

"I was walking down to Walmart the other day..."

"I guess I could go with you."

"There was a gun under the desk."

The feeling of the lines change. They're snappier. Now that you cut your filler words out you can use them to add a sense of indecision or hesitation because they'll stand out.

"Well, have fun writing...I guess."