Author Archives: Jeff Elkins

In the first solo episode of 2022, Jeff answers questions posed by the Dialogue Doctor Community – the Dialoggers. The topics covered include: defining what dialogue is, using body language in dialogue, suggestions on using inner thoughts, what to do when your character is alone, and how to redeem unlikable characters. To listen on Spotify,Continue reading “Episode 87 – Jeff Answers Questions from the Dialoggers”

In this episode, Jeff sits down with writer Angela Haas to look over a space opera scene Angela has written. They discuss lining your character’s voice up with their personality, including inner thoughts as part of your character’s voice, contrasting characters to increase the intensity of the scene, and when to modulate a character’s voice.Continue reading “Episode 86 – Jeff Elkins and Angela Haas Talk Inner Thoughts”

In this episode, Jeff and Laura and joined by Dialoggers to discuss The Network Effect by Martha Wells. They talk about writing amazing character voices in science fiction, putting in backstory and info-dumping, using unique point-of-views, writing in a way that sucks the reader into a character voice, and using punctuation tools to make aContinue reading “Episode 85 – The Network Effect by Martha Wells”

In this episode, Dialogue Doctor Book Coach Laura Humm sits with Dialogger Faye Whyte to review two scenes Faye has written. This session is jam-packed with incredible tips for writing. During the discussion, they cover creating a natural feeling back-and-forth for the reader, incorporating world-building into the dialogue, writing children’s voice, and a tone more.Continue reading “Episode 84 – Laura Humm and Faye Whyte and Engaging the Reader in Character Voices”

In this episode, Jeff is joined by 6 Three Story Method Editors to discuss writing the wants and needs of characters. The group defines wants and needs, talks about how the needs connect to the internal wound, discuss how to show characters maturing in their needs, and debate if needs can change in the middleContinue reading “Episode 83 – Understanding a Character’s Wants and Needs”

In this episode, Jeff and Eric look at two scenes together. They start with an interrogation scene that transitions into a fantasy world. They discuss how to launch a scene by giving the reader a visual of the scene to kick off their imagination, using body language to communicate emotion, leading emotional change with yourContinue reading “Episode 82 – Jeff and Eric Heuser Setting a Scene and Emotional Flow”

In this episode, Laura sits with author Jon Howard. Looking at one of his chapters together, they talk about character voice consistency, identifying first person POV for the readers, pulling the reader in by helping them feel what is happening, finding the process that works for you as a writer, figuring out an AI voiceContinue reading “Episode 81 – Laura Humm with Jon Howard on Keeping Readers Engaged”

In this Q&A episode, Jeff and Laura answer questions from the Dialoggers. 1. What are you reading and writing? 2. What would you say are the 5 authors that you recommend for learning story and dialogue together? 3. What do you tell writers who have mono-mouth? 4. Is 1st person narrative actually dialogue? 5. I’mContinue reading “Episode 80 – Jeff and Laura Q&A”

In this episode, Jeff talks with author Carmen Dillion about writing in a way that empowers the reader’s imagination. They talk about how Carmen has empowered the reader to imagine her character playing an instrument, how to write a Big Cast scene, providing spacial awareness for the reader, giving us a descriptor of each characterContinue reading “Episode 79 – Carmen Dillion and Cinematic Writing”

In this episode, Laura sits down with author Lon Varnadore to look at a science-fiction and fantasy piece Lon is working on. They talk about building emotional beats in a story, creating a sense of intensity, breaking up larger paragraphs with dialogue, and they take a deep dive into the pacing of a story. ToContinue reading “Episode 78 – Laura Humm and Lon Varnadore Talk about Pacing in a Story”