“What are you doing?” We could ask you the same thing.

If you read your draft and see a line of dialogue that says, “What are you doing?!”, that’s a neon sign pointing at an opportunity to make your writing better.

For example, if you have a character looking at a guy who’s running with a knife pointed right at him and he says, “What are you doing?”, he probably looks like an idiot. Harsh. But true.

“What?”
”What are you talking about?”
“What do you want?”
“What is that?”
“What did you say?”
“Is that a gun in your hand?”
”Are you hammering nails into the coffee table?”

That kinda thing. We see these all the time and they are generally tip offs that the line should be improved.

Don’t have someone ask an obvious or repetitive question! Figure out a way to let that valuable space on the page help move the story forward…

MOM
Oven’s ready. Let’s get these cookies done before Gran gets here.

NOLAN
I don’t wanna bake these cookies.

MOM
What?!

NOLAN
I’m not feeling it.

MOM
Are you outta your mind? She pays your tuition!

Could be shorter. Could be better.

MOM
Oven’s ready. Let’s get these cookies done before Gran gets here.

NOLAN
I’m not feeling it.

MOM
Are you outta your mind? She pays your tuition!

See? The scene is tighter without the unnecessary “what?!”.

Check your script to see if lines like this are there… then change ’em or remove ‘em!