Speaker 1: Hello, Jane Cleland here with an interesting question about dialogue. You say that dialogue should do something, not just say something, and you mentioned subtext. Can you give us an example of subtext? Yes. Dialogue should either reveal information about character or move the plot along, and one of the most effective ways to do that is by adding subtext, hidden meaning, hidden information, implications that are not directly spoken, but nonetheless reveal information about character or move the plot along. Now the excerpt I'm going to read you is from Hidden Treasure, the thirteenth in my Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery Series. Josie is interviewing Gerard, who owns a travel agency. Maudie Wilson has gone missing and Josie's trying to find her. This is a hundred and forty-eight word excerpt, of which only nine words are exposition. I encourage you to have as little exposition as possible. Try to keep it under twenty percent, and that includes tags and anything else that you may be writing, interjecting amidst the dialogue. Josie is speaking. It might help find her. Maybe she doesn't want to be found. Have you spoken to the police? My conversations with my clients aren't privileged like a lawyer's would be, but I consider them confidential and do my best to protect their privacy. If I spoke to the police, which I'm not acknowledging, I'd tell them the same thing I'm telling you. You're not going to let the cat out of the bag. I'm not even acknowledging there's a cat or a bag. I lean forward, pinning his eyes with my own. I'm worried about her, Gerard. With all respect, Josie, if she wanted you to know where she is, she would have told you. Think about what we just learned. That Gerard is direct, polite, but direct. Josie is direct, too, and tender-hearted. We learned that Gerard, and here's the big chunk of subtext, we learned that Gerard thinks that Josie's kind of a nosy parker and ought to mind her own beeswax. And we also, and this is a little bit thematic, we learned that adults are allowed to disappear. No one can make you be found as an adult if you don't want to be. Well, they may be able to find you, but they can't make you come back. And that's the dilemma that Josie is facing. Why did Mottie leave? Uh-huh, maybe she didn't want me to know where she was going. It's hard. It's worth doing. I hope that clarifies it. I know you can do it. Good luck with it. And I hope you find great strength and solace through reading and writing.