Using Vocal Cues to Show Hidden Emotion

By Becca Puglisi, @beccapuglisi

Part of The How They Do It Series

JH: Tapping into the hidden emotions and subtext of a scene is a wonderful way to pull readers into that scene. Becca Puglisi visits the lecture hall today to share her tips on creating subtext and using vocal cues to show the hidden emotional layers of your characters.

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and author of bestselling books for writers—including her latest publication: a second edition of The Emotion Thesaurus, an updated and expanded version of the original volume. Her books are available in multiple languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.

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Take it away Becca...

Don’t Speak: The Power of What’s Left Unsaid When Crafting Dialogue

By Bonnie Randall

Part of the How They Do It Series (Monthly Contributor)

As a writer, and a therapist, dialogue is sacred to me; conversations convey so much: personality, preferences, desires, motives, and, yes, a person’s story. Yet in fiction, as in life, sometimes the most powerful message delivered is what isn’t said. The unspoken, the implied, and the evaded can turn up the volume of a story, creating poignancy, pathos, and the tension we are always striving for as writers.

How to Write Characters Who Don’t All Feel the Same

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

In a novel, all readers have to get to know the characters are the words on a page. Sure, characters speak and shrug and move around, but even the dialogue is read, not heard. As writers, we know our characters better than any reader ever will because we know all the details that don’t show up in the words.

We know what their voice sounds like, we know how they move, their little quirks and mannerisms, their smell, their physical presence and whatnot. We know the things that make a person a person and not just a group of words that describe that person.

Want Better Characters? Get Rid of the Dialogue

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

In novels, we often rely on what a character says to show who they are. Their actions also play a role, but the focus is usually on the big stuff—the choices made, the sweeping gestures, the plot-driving tasks. Yet, it’s often the little things people do that make them memorable.

I once read a book (I don’t remember which one or who wrote it it was so long ago), but there was a scene where something had happened and the police were talking to witnesses. The protagonist did not want to be remembered. So a character with her scrunched up the side of his face so it twitched, limped over to police, and answered questions with a strong southern accent. She was appalled, and thought he’d just given them away. He said, “Nope, all they’ll remember is the twitch, the limp, and the accent.” Funny thing, after probably twenty years, that’s all I remember about that book as well.

What Are You Really Saying? (The Use of Subtext)

By James R. Tuck, @JamesTuckwriter

Part of the How They Do It Series (Monthly contributor)

Ah, subtext my old friend. It's good to see you again.

As a quick catch up, subtext is the meaning that falls under the words spoken in a conversation. It is all the things inside your characters that color their word choice coming to bear weight on what they say and how they say it. It can add a lot of texture to your writing.

What Are Your Characters Not Saying?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

I was working on a fun scene yesterday, with two characters having a conversation. Each character’s goal was to get information out of the other without giving away what they knew. They had just met, didn’t trust each other one whit, but were the only clues to help both of them solve a mystery they both need to solve.

While they had particular plot reasons for keeping quiet, this verbal dance is a technique that can benefit a variety of scenes, because it adds tension and conflict, and can create mystery. People hold back information all the time. We don’t say what we think, we keep secrets, we don’t want to embarrass ourselves, and all for a myriad of reasons both good and bad.

A Trick for Writing Subtext

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

While working on my current novel, I reached a pivotal scene that involved a lot of subtext (where the characters aren’t talking about they’re really talking about, or what's going on has greater meaning under the surface). Two sisters are having a conversation, and one assumes it’s about Problem A, while the other is actually referring to Problem B. It’s one of those lovely conversations where readers won’t realize the double importance of the words until later in the story when they get a missing piece of the puzzle, and suddenly, this conversation will have much greater meaning.