A young hero is about to make a decision that could change everything.

But will the reader feel the weight of that choice?

In this coaching session, editor Laura Humm works with author Liz Woodwiss on Chapter 21 of Liz's epic fantasy novel. The scene centers on Terry, a 14-year-old reluctant hero who is being pushed toward a terrifyingly grown-up decision: petitioning the King directly during a Day of King's Grace in order to expose the Queen's manipulation.

Laura helps Liz strengthen the chapter by bringing the reader deeper into Terry's point of view. Instead of letting the scene become a room full of adults discussing politics, Laura shows how Terry's fear, hope, confusion, and urgency can guide the reader through the complexity of the moment. You'll learn how to open a scene with emotional stakes, how to keep third person close narration anchored in your protagonist, how to remind readers what matters at the start of a chapter, and how to use teenage reactions, whispers, and shared panic to make political fantasy feel immediate and personal.

The session also digs into world-building through character-specific imagery, including how Terry's lace-making background can shape the way he sees danger, pressure, and choice.

Watch this session if you're writing YA fantasy, political intrigue, a reluctant hero, or any scene where a young character has to stand in a room full of adults and decide who they are going to become.

Your dialogue can be sharp. Your scene can move fast. Your characters can have real chemistry.

But if the reader doesn't spend enough time inside the emotional turn, the biggest moment in the scene can fly by before it lands.

In this episode of The Dialogue Doctor Podcast, Jeff Elkins works with sci-fi author Leanne Robinson on a dialogue-heavy scene between an alien woman and the hero who has complicated feelings for her. What begins as a fun, flirtatious reunion quickly turns into something much bigger: a relationship crisis, a betrayal, a pregnancy reveal, and a major turning point in Randy's emotional arc.

Jeff's core advice is simple but powerful: emotional depth often comes from time on the page.

You'll learn how to slow down the right moments without dragging the scene, how to expand key utterances so readers feel the emotional shift, how to use inner thought to clarify what a character is really reacting to, and how to separate romance, suspicion, betrayal, fear, and responsibility when they all collide in the same conversation.

This session is especially useful if you write dialogue-heavy scenes, sci-fi romance, multi-POV stories, character-driven conflict, or emotional turning points where a character has to become more serious, responsible, or honest with themselves.

Watch this episode if you want to learn how to take a scene that already works and make it hit harder.

How do you make readers root for a character who has done something terrible?

In this episode of The Dialogue Doctor Podcast, Jeff Elkins sits down with new author Aubrey W to talk through one of the hardest emotional arcs to pull off: repentance.

Aubrey is working on a thriller built around a character who has done real harm, but she does not want the reader simply waiting for punishment. She wants the reader to long for redemption. That creates a powerful craft problem. How do you make a morally compromised character compelling without excusing what they have done?

Jeff and Aubrey dig into what makes readers forgive, follow, and even love difficult characters. They talk about redemption arcs, unlikable protagonists, hidden wounds, vigilante logic, unreliable narrators, and the emotional difference between justice, revenge, repentance, and mercy.

The conversation pulls examples from Six of Crows, Les Misérables, Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, Dexter, and Spider-Man to explore how authors can give readers permission to care about characters who are lying, hiding, hurting people, or justifying their worst choices.

They also get into the practical craft of first-person POV, how to create two distinct narrator voices, how inner thought changes pacing, when a character should lie to the reader, and why some stories only work when we are trapped inside the character's head.

Listen in if you are writing a thriller, a redemption arc, an unreliable narrator, a morally gray protagonist, or any character who needs the reader to think, "I hate what you're doing, but I still want you to change."

Because redemption only works when the reader still believes there is someone inside the character worth saving.

For more, check out Dialogue Doctor.com