Showing posts with label and Conflict. Show all posts
Showing posts with label and Conflict. Show all posts

Thursday, June 25, 2026

Does Your Character's Voice Change? How Dialogue Reveals Personality, Growth, and Conflict

From Edie: Henry McLaughlin answers the question, "Does your character sound the same in every scene?" Learn how changing dialogue based on relationships, conflict, and circumstance creates believable characters.


Does Your Character's Voice Change? How Dialogue Reveals Personality, Growth, and Conflict
by Henry McLaughlin @RiverBendSagas

While preparing a class on dialogue recently, I came across a concept I hadn’t noticed or considered before: our character’s voice may change based on the situation they’re in. 

Consider our own daily lives and the various situations we find ourselves in. If we have a day job, we speak in a different manner to our boss than we do our co-workers. If we’re in customer service, we often react differently with different customers. Some we can be playful and joke with. Others are strictly business and we maintain the professional decorum they demand, even if only non-verbally.

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

How to Know the Ending of Your Story from the Beginning: Using Goal, Motivation, and Conflict

From Edie: Discover how to predict your story’s ending from the first page by mastering Goal, Motivation, and Conflict—your key to stronger plots and characters.


How to Know the Ending of Your Story from the Beginning: Using Goal, Motivation, and Conflict
by Sarah Sally Hamer @SarahSallyHamer

One of my favorite things to do when I teach a writing class is to brag a little. I love telling the eager, bright-faced, writers (newbies or oldies) that I can tell them the end of their story if they tell me the beginning. Of course, they don’t believe me but, truly, if you know the system, it’s not hard at all.

So. Tell me the beginning of your story. Tell me who your main protagonist is, the one the book is really about. Give me a couple of character traits. Then, tell me what that character wants.