Deflection Mode
What a character does instead of answering directly when pressured.
Deflection Mode is one of three Voice Criteria fields (with Speech Pattern and Tell). Together they keep dialogue from collapsing into a single generic narrator voice.
Why it matters. Under pressure, characters reveal themselves by how they avoid revelation. Distinct deflection modes create distinct people on the page — and give the pipeline concrete behavior to inject into beats where a character is pressed.
Examples. Pivots to practical observation. Answers with a joke that changes the subject. Goes silent and waits for the other person to fill the gap. Feigns misunderstanding of the question.
How Bespoke Books uses it. On the Characters tab, under Voice criteria, each living character has a Deflection Mode field. Those values are injected into chapter beat plans whenever the character speaks, deflects, or is focal.