Han Solo’s writing hack
George Lucas’s storytelling in the Star Wars saga is captivating.
The dialog though, could be pretty atrocious.
For my money, the “prequels” were by far the worst in this department.
(If you want a chuckle, here are 50 Quotes from the Star Wars prequels, ranked in order of terribleness.)
But the original movies have some pretty clunky dialog too.
At one point Harrison Ford reportedly stopped mid-scene to complain, “You can write this $#*^, George, but you can’t say it.”
The fix for this is simple:
Read what you’ve written back to yourself.
Outloud.
Ask yourself, does this sound like something I would say in an actual conversation?
And can I get through it without tripping over the words?
If not, tweak until both answers are “yes.”
Writing that flows smoothly is much more persuasive.
Plus you avoid that epic Han Solo eye-roll.