What to Do When You Run Out of Things to Say

Sometimes in conversation, you’ll run out of things to say. This is especially true if you’re kind of shy or you’re not a very good conversationalist. At certain points, you just won’t know what to say next. But you can overcome this situation quickly enough.

There are a few effective techniques that you can employ in a conversation when you run out of things to say, in order to handle the situation effectively. Here they are.

1. Think about your day.

There has to be something that happened to you during the day that you can talk about. If it’s early in the morning, then during the day before, or the one before that. And you can talk about it, even if it’s trivial.

So when you run out of things to say, think about your day a bit and see if you find something to share: a short story, something you heard on the news, something you enjoyed doing, almost anything goes.

2. Know and use your strong topics.

As an exercise, take at some point a few minutes to think about some stuff that constitutes good conversation topics in general and you can talk about. It could be books, movies, travelling, career, music, sports, politics; there is a wide range of potentially good topics.

Pick the ones that fit you best and create your own short list of conversation topics. Then when you’re chatting with someone and don’t know what to say next, think about this shortlist, pick a topic from it and continue the conversation on that topic.

3. Let the other person speak.

You don’t have to necessarily continue a conversation when it comes to a stop. Very often, if you just wait a bit and say nothing, you’ll notice that the other person will say something and thus move the conversation forward.

So sometimes when you run out of things to say, it’s a good idea to not try to say something else yourself. Instead, let the other person have the floor and continue the conversation. And usually they’ll do it.

4. Dare to speak.

Many times if seems that you ran out of things to say, but you haven’t. You have things to say, but you won’t allow yourself to say them because you think they’re not good enough. So you keep searching for something better to say.

In my experience as a coach helping others improve their social skills, this perception is typically wrong. What you have to say is worth saying. So the best thing you can do is to speak your mind. Be bold and say what you have to say.

Apply the advice I gave you and your conversations will visibly improve. There is a long way that your discussions can go and plenty of opportunities to learn how to take them there.