POL-ish, like what you do to scripts & furniture, not Polish, like Pope John Paul II or Lech Walesa.
Doing it now on the script, and I am reminded of a tic & a solve from mi Amigo Shelley Eriksen --
Go through your dialogue. Take out the 'just'-s.
If you have this tic, (and I do) it's a humbling exercise.
16 rumbles:
Second tic -- take out "going to". Most common extra verbiage.
Losing it also makes your dialogue more active.
Me, I'm incapable of using the simple past tense. I always write "had been" instead of "was," etc. I do a pass for that habit, because I can't seem to break it.
"Listen", "Well" and "Just" are my top three... I'm sure I've even written, "Well, just listen..."
oh I also try to take out question marks. I've noticed a lot of my more horrible dialogue is just question and answer.
"Okay,..." "Okay, look..." "Okay, listen..." "Okay, here's the thing..."
Awful and yet I can't stop.
Guily, guilty and guilty. *hangs head in shame*
It usually gets trimmed in the revision though. Like the others here, I just can't seem to break the habit.
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for me it's the...elipsis...I guess I think it makes dialogue ...funnier...or more thoughful...instead of looking amateurish...
and splelling mistakes. like elipsis instead of ellipsis...
or splelling instead of spelling.
Mef, you make me LOL.
here's the most useful polish note I know. print your script. read it on paper with a pen in hand. read tricky passages aloud. do not do it on a computer screen
Read it all out loud to yourself.
The ellipsis is kinda ugly and looks like the writer is thinking of the next line but people speak with them so you gotta employ them.
Oh, yeah, that's a must in my final polish. I have a few things that trip me up. When I go through the draft specifically in search of them, I cringe. And cringe, and shudder and strike them out with the red machete.
"Just" is one of them. "So" is overused -- both in life and on the page.
And there's often way too much sighing.
Thank goodness for the polish pass.
People saying "clearly" in response to someone else's line.
and one character says something, and then the other character says, "What are you saying?"
D'oh.
And lazy.
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