Smile,

Great thoughts from you and your writing professor! I agree with all of them. Since I joined Toastmasters, I am so much more conscious of how many times people use filler words such as "um, uh, ah, like, so, and, etc." We definitely don't want to write dialogue like that. OTOH, I do throw in the occasional um or ah when I want a pause in the conversation or for effect. And because I think that it is REAL.

I hate nonstop profanity. I never watch it with the exception of The Sopranos, which I love. You could probably count the swear words in my 240 page book on two hands! But I'm not counting them anymore. I am not out to impress anyone. Expression is my only goal. All I want to do is write a good book.

Thanks for the great feedback :-) Sigrid