Give & Take / Characterization (Stare)

Hello, dear! I am so, so excited to be your tutor for this session. I hope you already know that you're an extraordinary writer, and I look forward to helping you tap into that enormous depth of talent so you can write a tribute you love!

Having introverted characters in the Games can be really tough. When everyone is spouting absolutely stunning speeches or even oneliners, it can definitely feel disheartening when you can't because it's not something that your tribute would realistically do. It is also, like you said, important to make sure you're giving the people that you're threading with enough to work with.

In my experience, working around these issues involves a combination of the way you craft your dialogue, body language/significant actions, and expressing your tribute's very unique perspective. I'd like to dive into the first of these techniques to start us off.

Even though polite, introverted characters might not be prone to spouting sonnets, they do still talk. They just don't dive into the deep stuff right away or feel comfortable being at the center of a conversation with people they don't necessarily trust at first. They may, however, skirt around issues or imply things as a means of trying to communicate without drawing too much attention.

Exercise!

I'd like you to write a short scene in which Bette needs information from someone. You can decide what kind of information, how much, who the other person is, and how sensitive the issue is. I want you to have Bette heavily imply what she wants, to the point where it's very obvious to the reader, but don't ever have her directly state it. You can make this scene all dialogue or flesh it out if you'd like - whatever you're most comfortable with. If you'd rather do this in blurb form so you have someone to work with, feel free to shoot me a DM! I'm more than happy to help in any way I can. Good luck!