Comments on: Subterfuge in Dialogue

By: Monthly Wrap-Up: December 2017 – Cat on the Bookshelf

Monthly Wrap-Up: December 2017 – Cat on the Bookshelf — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 16:42:05 +0000

[…] of writing, the next two come from Writers in the Storm. First, Becca Puglisi advises on how to write good dialogue. This requires knowing what your characters want and what they want from the conversation. She also […]

By: Fae Rowen

Fae Rowen — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 16:49:14 +0000

You've given us an amazing amount of resources to take our dialogue writing to the next level, Becca. Thanks so much for the bullet points and your shared resources. Your post reminded me that I do most of these things for one character, but the other character not so much. More revisions today!

By: Top Picks Thursday! For Writers & Readers 07-13-2017 | The Author Chronicles

Thu, 13 Jul 2017 17:01:25 +0000

[…] Readers love the book if they love the character. Janice Hardy discusses creating your characters, while Becca Puglisi show how to put subterfuge in dialogue. […]

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 16:40:09 +0000

In reply to carrienichols. Thank You Carrie, Please have a restful and creative day.

By: carrienichols

carrienichols — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 12:43:06 +0000

In reply to Jack. Jack, you make a good point! I'll keep that in mind in the future.

By: Jack

Jack — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 19:37:59 +0000

Thanks for the article Becca.
I couldn’t help but think that your characters location, his or her environment can also have a direct or indirect impact on how your characters dialogue should be presented.
Image for a moment a conversation someone is having with another person while driving or if they are having the conversation with someone on the phone while driving. In both cases, especially while talking and driving, a person’s comments are affected by what is going on around them, traffic, weather, stop lights, etc.
Now if you take those same two characters and they are sitting on a bench in a park, at a mall, even at a restaurant, or an office or a police station, the nuances of their discussions are going to be affected by their environment.
In any case, the tone being used in a characters dialogue, should reflect directly or indirectly how the environment affects it. Perhaps you covered this and I missed it-in either case, I look forward to your feedback and those of others that shed light on this aspect of writing proper dialogue. Thanks again.

By: Debbie Herbert

Debbie Herbert — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 14:55:52 +0000

Dialogue doesn't come as naturally to me as description. In the first draft, my characters are too formal and polite. Thanks for the great article!

By: beccapuglisi

beccapuglisi — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 12:50:46 +0000

In reply to littlemissw. Lol. I wonder if that was a cultural difference. I might expect something like that in a book translated from another language, but you're right. That would drive me over the edge.

By: littlemissw

littlemissw — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 09:24:10 +0000

This is a fantastic post. I once read a YA book where the 15 year-old protagonist kept saying 'for' as in, "I knew they were coming for the dog started to bark." It drove me mad. In the end it was all I could think about. Thanks so much for the post.

By: Jenny Hansen

Jenny Hansen — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 07:09:48 +0000

In reply to beccapuglisi. But no pressure.... :-)