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Awkward Silences and How to Prevent Them: 25 Tactics to Engage, Captivate, and Always Know What To Say
Struggle to hold people’s attention and keep them interested? Always feel stuck in boring interview mode?Whether you want to befriend strangers more easily, banter more smoothly with friends, or simply avoid the crushing tension of a never ending silence, Awkward Silences is the book you need to succeed.No more conversations that end prematurely - not by choice.Discover the subtle and nuanced tactics that allow you to seize control of any conversation and create social chemistry. This book will arm you with definitive tactics, maneuvers, and replies to whatever comes your way. This book is highly actionable, with step-by-step analyses of complex concepts like sarcasm, the ultimate witty comeback, conflict conversations, and storytelling. You’ll get exact words and phrases, NOT just “be confident and make eye contact.”Avoid those embarrassing, cringe-worthy moments.In Awkward Silences, you have renowned social skills and international bestselling author Patrick King showing you the ropes. Social interaction can be boiled down to a science if approached correctly, and he’ll do it for you. Never feel boring or uninteresting again.•How to set an engaging tone right off the bat.•The vocabulary and inflection details that make you attractive.•Storytelling essentials - unlike anything you’ve read before.•Elements of sarcasm, witty comebacks, and self-deprecation.Push people’s buttons that instantly make them responsive and interested.•How to introduce conversational diversity and break out of your patterns and routines.•Six types of responses you can summon in any situation.•Your habits that lead directly to awkward silences.•Common awkward situations and how to handle them correctly.Demonstrate social value and grace.Awkward silence signals social inability If you can instead demonstrate social ability and value, you will be have the types of conversations that benefit your career, love life, relationships, and friendships. People will be more drawn to you, old friends and strangers alike. You’ll not only always know what to say, you’ll know how to approach it in a clever and witty way. You’ll never leave a conversation feeling unsatisfied and annoyed that you said the wrong thing.Pick up your copy today by clicking the BUY NOW button at the top of this page.
221 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 29, 2017
313 people are currently reading
235 people want to read
About the author
Patrick King
207 books339 followersPatrick King is a Social Interaction Specialist, in other words, a dating, online dating, image, and communication and social skills coach based in San Francisco, California, and has been featured on numerous national publications such as Inc.com. He’s also a #1 Amazon best-selling dating and relationships author with the most popular online dating book on the market, and writes frequently on dating, love, sex, and relationships.
He focuses on using his emotional intelligence and understanding of human interaction to break down emotional barriers, instill confidence, and equip people with the tools they need for success. No pickup artistry and no gimmicks, simply a thorough mastery of human psychology delivered with a dose of real talk, perfected and honed through three years of law school.
He focuses on using his emotional intelligence and understanding of human interaction to break down emotional barriers, instill confidence, and equip people with the tools they need for success. No pickup artistry and no gimmicks, simply a thorough mastery of human psychology delivered with a dose of real talk, perfected and honed through three years of law school.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 28, 2022
Patrick King gives some advice on how to have slightly more engaging conversations which I suppose can help people PREVENT awkward silences but I still got the impression that the title is somewhat misleading. I am an introvert who often struggles with social situations. I don't think I can walk away with anything new/useful after reading this book.
Reasons I couldn't give a higher rating:
- A lot of the advice in this book are extremely trivial. For example - if you want to leave a conversation, say you have to go to pee. Okay.
- Considering how short this book is I was annoyed at how many chapters have very little to do with the topic. I didn't expect to get advice on witty comebacks or how to ask for my money back.
- Every chapter assumes that you are already IN a conversation. You can maybe get a few tips on how to keep the already going conversation alive but there is nothing about how to deal with an awkward silence once you're already in it. (A lot of the examples also assume you are talking to someone you already know or friends with. Most awkward silences happen with people you don't know very well.)
- The examples the author brings up were mostly generic or things I would never say in actual conversation.
- I thought it was strange that a huge part of the book was dedicated to people who talk a lot and can't pick up on social cues that the other person is bored. I think most people who pick up this book have the exact opposite issue.
Reasons I couldn't give a higher rating:
- A lot of the advice in this book are extremely trivial. For example - if you want to leave a conversation, say you have to go to pee. Okay.
- Considering how short this book is I was annoyed at how many chapters have very little to do with the topic. I didn't expect to get advice on witty comebacks or how to ask for my money back.
- Every chapter assumes that you are already IN a conversation. You can maybe get a few tips on how to keep the already going conversation alive but there is nothing about how to deal with an awkward silence once you're already in it. (A lot of the examples also assume you are talking to someone you already know or friends with. Most awkward silences happen with people you don't know very well.)
- The examples the author brings up were mostly generic or things I would never say in actual conversation.
- I thought it was strange that a huge part of the book was dedicated to people who talk a lot and can't pick up on social cues that the other person is bored. I think most people who pick up this book have the exact opposite issue.
June 25, 2020
Great ideas for social interaction
The author provides food for thought on how to make better small talk with strangers or casual acquaintances. I wish he would have added some advice as to how to insert yourself into a group whether it be 2 or more folks standing around already engaging in warm conversations and they seem to know each other well. I will definitely try to incorporate his ideas in my next socially awkward moment.
The author provides food for thought on how to make better small talk with strangers or casual acquaintances. I wish he would have added some advice as to how to insert yourself into a group whether it be 2 or more folks standing around already engaging in warm conversations and they seem to know each other well. I will definitely try to incorporate his ideas in my next socially awkward moment.
January 18, 2018
This book is helpful, especially for introverts like me. Much of it is common sense, yet it makes you more aware of how you participate in a conversation and how to get someone to engage more. There are also lots of good tips such as how to keep a conversation flowing and how to handle people that always try to one-up you. Lots of good advice here.
February 26, 2022
Some very good ideas
I overall enjoyed this book and expect to reread it several times to help my conversation skills.
I could not give it 5 stars though, because I felt there were some points that were not valid. For example, he says having a lack of filter will make conversations more interesting. And he says within reason and suggests we go 10% out of the normal boundaries, but doesn't give examples of what that looks like. I, myself have had difficulties with people for not having enough of a filter. Once I told a woman that the food she offered me looked like dog food (due to my lack of filter). She was offended and my wife was embarrassed.
Another piece of advice the author gives is instead of asking someone how their weekend was, ask them what was the best part of their weekend. This just sounds too weird to me. I can see my coworkers looking at me like, "what?". The author has a point that "How was your weekend?" doesn't spark much conversation, so I replace it with"What did you do this weekend?"
Lastly, the author says it seems extremely rude to ask someone's name if you've met them before. I totally disagree. I am pretty good with names, but every once in a while I can't remember someone's name. I just tell them I don't remember your name and it's never seemed to be a problem. People have asked my name after having already met me and I never felt insulted. It happens.
But there was a lot of good advice on this book. I overall recommend the book, even though I don't agree with everything the author says.
I overall enjoyed this book and expect to reread it several times to help my conversation skills.
I could not give it 5 stars though, because I felt there were some points that were not valid. For example, he says having a lack of filter will make conversations more interesting. And he says within reason and suggests we go 10% out of the normal boundaries, but doesn't give examples of what that looks like. I, myself have had difficulties with people for not having enough of a filter. Once I told a woman that the food she offered me looked like dog food (due to my lack of filter). She was offended and my wife was embarrassed.
Another piece of advice the author gives is instead of asking someone how their weekend was, ask them what was the best part of their weekend. This just sounds too weird to me. I can see my coworkers looking at me like, "what?". The author has a point that "How was your weekend?" doesn't spark much conversation, so I replace it with"What did you do this weekend?"
Lastly, the author says it seems extremely rude to ask someone's name if you've met them before. I totally disagree. I am pretty good with names, but every once in a while I can't remember someone's name. I just tell them I don't remember your name and it's never seemed to be a problem. People have asked my name after having already met me and I never felt insulted. It happens.
But there was a lot of good advice on this book. I overall recommend the book, even though I don't agree with everything the author says.
March 19, 2025
Not at all what I, as a socially-awkward single woman, was looking for. The advice is surface stuff at best, and completely pointless at times (use the excuse of needing to pee to leave a conversation; how to ask for money back from a friend, etc). The examples aren't helpful and the faked dialogue is so bland, apathetic, and emotionless, not at all what anyone would say in real life. What should have been included in the book is situational conversation starters (for dating, business contacts, friends, etc), and perhaps present it as a workbook for more reader engagement.
June 9, 2022
I thought this book was fabulous--it was simply written in easy-to-follow language, logical, and very enlightening! This is a great book for people who don't know how to "break into the conversation" or just how to keep a conversation alive. The tips are helpful for just about anyone--especially useful for for teachers working with students having trouble with social or communication skills. Great job, Patrick King!!!
March 25, 2022
Patrick King is a human book-copy machine, who knows how to write an engaging title.
All of his short books basically provide the very same information in a slightly different form. And, perhaps, if you have never read a book of his, you will find some useful stuff here.
But I did not find anything particularly new.
All of his short books basically provide the very same information in a slightly different form. And, perhaps, if you have never read a book of his, you will find some useful stuff here.
But I did not find anything particularly new.
June 19, 2021
Easy read with great tactics
Awesome read! Very different from something I've read before.
Recommending for everyone that is annoyed with that awkward silences. This book includes tactics with relatable examples that can be used in the everyday life.
Awesome read! Very different from something I've read before.
Recommending for everyone that is annoyed with that awkward silences. This book includes tactics with relatable examples that can be used in the everyday life.
January 3, 2021
There are some pretty useful frameworks presented for preventing "awkward silences" which I am quite keen to try out. I think this book falls a bit short in its example scenarios, which I often thought were quite strange and not really realistic.
March 12, 2022
Some of this advice was good, but a lot of it was bad or kind of dumb, especially the chapter on witty comebacks. I didn't get anything out of this even though I should have.
June 3, 2022
Awful. I quit reading it.
November 23, 2022
Worth reading
My personal journey with this book is that the first half of the book catches more of my attention than the latter half.
My personal journey with this book is that the first half of the book catches more of my attention than the latter half.
July 20, 2024
I mean, it's not a total waste of time. There are some good useful suggestions, but I really don't have confidence that the author is an expert and his stuff feels self published.
December 11, 2020
More than about Awkward Silence
This book is surprisingly filled with tremendous and practical methods of communicating with others. It's not about just Awkward Silence. I digitally highlighted this book so often that I found myself defining a category for each color—Yellow for necessary, Blue for lists, Red for warnings, and Orange for extremely important.
The audio file is also narrated by an excellent reader who expresses all the examples and points exactly how they were intended by the author. This is a book that I will refer back to many times. It's worth owning, not just borrowing.
This book is surprisingly filled with tremendous and practical methods of communicating with others. It's not about just Awkward Silence. I digitally highlighted this book so often that I found myself defining a category for each color—Yellow for necessary, Blue for lists, Red for warnings, and Orange for extremely important.
The audio file is also narrated by an excellent reader who expresses all the examples and points exactly how they were intended by the author. This is a book that I will refer back to many times. It's worth owning, not just borrowing.
November 27, 2022
It's ok, but mainly usable in 1 on 1 conversation.
December 27, 2023
Though I did not learn anything new in this work, it may help others who need it.
♦️ Received a Kindle eBook copy via the Goodreads Giveaway Program. Thank you to the author.
💥 Recommended.
🟣
♦️ Received a Kindle eBook copy via the Goodreads Giveaway Program. Thank you to the author.
💥 Recommended.
🟣
November 27, 2017
Not exactly groundbreaking, but surprisingly useful
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews