May 12th, 2010 by Neal

Happiness is playing with the word count function and realizing that the word “Just” appears 450 times in a 98,000 word document. It makes the pulse quicken, and you begin to excise the “just” from your book. Sometimes “only” will substitute. Usually it’s a character doing what people do when they talk in real life, just doing this, just doing that, I was just using just to just, I don’t know, Justify something.

There’s that old maxim that good dialogue sounds how people really talk. I disagree, as do some of my writer pals I’ve talked to about it. Good dialogue makes you think you’re reading how people really talk while still showing craft.

Nonetheless, it’s when you’re talking and you realize you say “like”, “All right?” or “Right?” all the time. You realize that it’s damned near impossible to remove your personal habits, no matter how practiced you are. For instance, the last sentence read “it’s just damned near impossible” until I saw it and went back before I made an ass of myself.

Point remains, after looking at the word “just” for an hour, I doubt I’ll be less conscious of it in the future. If only to avoid going mad.