Episode at a glance:

[02:56] Give Each Character a Competing Agenda

This is the fastest way to energize any conversation. Make sure each character wants something different from the exchange, not necessarily opposite things, not necessarily conflicting things, just different things.

Here’s the key people rarely enter conversations with the same goal. One person wants reassurance, the other wants to end the conversation and get back to work. One person wants to confess something, the other wants to avoid emotional intensity. One person wants to connect, the other wants to win. When characters have competing agendas, even a simple conversation about dinner plans becomes interesting because each person is trying to steer the conversation toward their own objective.

[06:44] Let Characters Misunderstand Each Other

Real people constantly misunderstand and misinterpret each other. We hear things through our own fears, insecurities, past experiences, and assumptions. We project, we mishear, we fill in gaps with our own interpretation. Your characters should too. The most interesting dialogue happens when characters think they’re having the same conversation, but they’re actually having completely different ones. They’re responding to what they think the other person means, not what was actually said.

[09:38] Use Subtext 

This is what separates good dialogue from great dialogue. Subtext means the real conversation is happening underneath the surface conversation. Your characters are talking about one thing, but they’re actually talking about something else entirely.

Sometimes characters should just say what they mean. But for your most important emotional scenes, ask yourself, what’s the conversation beneath the conversation? Just make sure your reader can feel what’s really happening. The reader should understand more than the characters do. They shouldn’t understand less. Then let your characters dance around it. Let them approach it sideways. Let them talk about something else or talk in metaphors while they’re really talking about the thing that matters.

Links Mentioned In This Episode:

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste NG

Normal People by Sally Rooney

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

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