Author Archives: Jeff Elkins

In this special holiday episode, Laura puts Jeff in the hot seat. To listen on Spotify, click here. To listen on iTunes, click here. To listen on Google Podcasts, click here. If you would rather watch Jeff and Laura chat, check out the YouTube video:

In this episode, Jeff sits down with author JM Bedard to look at a science fiction piece Jeannette wrote. They talk about strategically utilizing self-talk and nonverbal characters. They also discuss keeping all the characters engaged in a “big cast” scene and ensuring you know how your characters feel about each other. To listen onContinue reading “Episode 48 – JM Bedard”

In this episode, Jeff and Laura talk about the “he said,” “she said,” “they said” (dialogue tags) that are the bane of an author’s existence. They break down when to place them in a sentence and why, how to use them with different size casts, and why Laura wants authors to change it up aContinue reading “Episode 47 – Dialogue Tags”

In this episode, Jeff sits down with middle-grade author Emmie B to look at a scene from a new series she is currently working on. Jeff and Emmie talk about changing points of view, choosing to be in a scene rather than summarize, and writing dialogue with three or more characters. For more of EmmieContinue reading “Episode 46 – Emmie B”

In this episode, Jeff and Laura are joined by a few attendees of the conference we held this weekend to talk about takeaways from the weekend. They discuss what they learned, Laura gives us a deeper breakdown on how to design a voice, and Jeff goes into what makes up a personality of a character.Continue reading “Episode 45 – Understanding Characterization After Party”

In this episode, Jeff and Laura get together with Dialogue Doctor gang members Tom Holbrook and Vincent Stanley to talk about the book Borrowed Time by Tracy Clark. Grab your copy of the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Borrowed-Time-Chicago-Mystery-Book-ebook/dp/B07H1YCW7C/ To find Tracy Clark on the web, go to https://tracyclarkbooks.com/ To listen on Spotify, click here. To listen onContinue reading “Episode 44 – Book Club – Borrowed Time by Tracy Clark”

In this episode, Jeff is joined by Laura Humm, Faye Whyte, and Tom Sullivant to build a character wheel for the Flannery O’Connor short story A Good Man is Hard to Find. They talk about how to build a character voice chart from a short story and how to use that chart to expand theContinue reading “Episode 43 – Flannery O’Connor Character Wheel”

In this solo episode, Jeff talks about what deconstruction is and then applies it to story structure in hopes of helping authors move past difficult moments in writing. Jeff shares the journey he’s been on with story structure, he breaks it down to its three basic components and then talks about scene construction. Jeff encouragesContinue reading “Episode 42 – Deconstructing Story Structure”

Matty Dalrymple is the author of the Lizzy Ballard Thrillers and the Ann Kinner Novels. She is also the host of the fabulous Indy Author Podcast. (Matty first appeared on the Dialogue Doctor in session 12.) In this episode, Jeff and Matty talk about dialogue attributions, introducing characters effectively, adding big personalities to spice upContinue reading “Episode 41 – Matty Dalrymple Returns”