David Mamet says that when you are stuck / lost in a scene, just have the character say exactly what they are feeling. I think this is fantastic advice that I have perhaps OVER-taken. While working through Long / Happy I’ve noticed that my lady protagonist says what she’s feeling about 1100 times, and this made me nauseous, and I angrily wrote ON THE NOSE all over everything. But the real question is: what is most truthful? What do people actually do? It’s true that we tend to say the same thing over and over when we are irked, when we are complaining. But: if it’s a deeper feeling, a frightening feeling, do we not say everything BUT that thing?