Too Dialogue Heavy?

3. Give then something to do with their hands and it will help describe the scene in between dialogue. Also, it helps ensure the characters aren't just talking heads- they're moving and doing something at the same time.

I actually posted a question about this when I first joined. Ha. I believe the title was "too much dialogue" if you want to do a search for it, or just wait and see what everyone says. Lol.

I would say just write it out and after the first draft, read it back and how it sounds, or get a beta's opinion. Sometimes it might seem like you're adding too much of one or the other, but in reality you might have exactly what you need.

Hope that helps at least a little.

Too much dialogue generally creates what is called "talking heads." To take care of this, you add sensory details to keep the reader grounded in where the characters are. For example, if that important conversation happens in a favorite restaurant, sprinkle that conversations with cues to keep the reader there: sounds, smells, visual cues.

"I've been criticized for this," he said.

caw

1. Has this ever been a problem for you?
Yes/No. I write good dialogue with nice spacing of action to keep it from being monotonousness.

2. How do you feel about a lot of dialogue?
It's the best way to represent a character and give story, while conflict and interesting scenes can be interwoven.

3. How do you strike a balance between the two (description and dialogue)?
I don't. About 80% of my story is dialogue, and yes, I can gloat about it. I know how to do it correctly, which, as I say, was agonizingly hard to get down.

In my, and as a reader's experience, dialogue can set a book apart, to give much more to the reader and such.

I might sound like I'm justifying my writing, but I don't see the problem with dialogue. I see more of a problem with narration. There isn't that much TV shows, movies, plays, any show without a massive collection of dialogue. The point with them, is that you (as the viewer) can see what's happening.
And I do the same thing. I make sure the reader is kept along, knows who's talking and can understand everything as if they're watching it.


The best tip I can give: Get to the point with dialogue. Don't dawdle with what a character is saying, just get him to say it. In the beginning, this will make your dialogue scenes short, but as you start on it, you'll get used to it.

As a general concern, you can use the books you read for guidance. If you read broadly enough you'll probably find quite a variation in how much dialogue is used by different authors or in different scenes.

As a specific concern, you can post some of your work in the SYW forums when you get to 50 posts and see what feedback you receive.

There's no set 'balance' as such - either the dialogue is needed or it isn't.

If you were doing a Court Scene, say, with witnesses being cross-examined I assume there will be mostly back and forth dialogue apart from the odd interruption by opposing Counsel or reactions from the benches but there's no formula.

Make sure the reader knows who is speaking and that the dialogue is to the point, in character, flows, and is interesting and leads somewhere.

By 'flows', I mean the reader can follow the thread of the dialogue from one speaker to another and isn't distracted by excessive or badly placed tags.

1. Has this ever been a problem for you?

I do get dialogue runs, where I do a lot of dialogue and don't do anything else.

2. How do you feel about a lot of dialogue?
and lastly,

As a reader, I actually need more than dialogue. If I find a book with a dialogue run, I start losing focus on who is talking and getting bored because it all looks the same.

3. How do you strike a balance between the two (description and dialogue)?

I build on the description, the body language, and other things going on. I am a panster, and I bounce around a lot, so I can do the dialogue, and then bounce back to work on the description side.

Dialogue is what brings characters to life.

1. My first novel was very heavy on dialog.

2. I love dialog. It's a great way to world-building and show rather than tell, and it can give readers a strong sense of character. But only if it's written well. Stilted or awkward dialog is like nails on a chalkboard to me.

3. As long as there's something to anchor the characters to the setting, so they're not just up on an empty stage snarking at each other, I don't see balance as an issue. Including physical reactions, some description of settings, etc. is key. What are the people doing while they talk? No one just stands still and talks.

But once again, it better be GOOD dialog. Natural. True to character. And not 100% proper English. Even my strictest English teachers used contractions.

I agree with the value of dialogue in story development, however, one reason serial dialogue-heavy scenes should be carefully re-considered is because of pacing issues. Many new writers don't yet have a feel for story pacing and the need to neither bore the reader to death with detail nor fatigue the writer with unrelenting fast action.

Patches of dialogue tend to move the reader through the story at a very fast pace, which is why it's a good idea to have some action going on during the speaking parts--it adjusts the pace of the scene. Likewise, there are times when the writer may want the pace to speed up, so the balance of dialogue-action-description should be appropriately adjusted to that end.

Once we have a first draft in hand, we should take a look at every scene within the context of the surrounding scenes, specifically looking at pacing (an experienced writer has this in mind when constructing the scenes in the intitial draft). Several questions should be asked of each scene. Here are some (others may want to add to the list).

What is the purpose of the scene, not only in advancing the story, but in developing characterization, scene-specific and story-specific tone/mood, setting, pacing, etc.?

What is the pace of the previous and following scenes, and is it time to consider varying the pace of the current scene (specifically, is there is a story-related reason to either speed up or slow down the pace)?

Are we creating reader monotony by having an unvarying pace to our scenes? Are the scenes becoming cookie-cutter in terms of pacing?

Is the story being shown too much through the words of the characters rather than through their actions? This all depends on the genre, of course, but I like to recall high school locker room talk, where I had the distinct feeling the guys who bragged endlessly about their exploits were all talk and little action. I like to use this colloqualistic extrapolation to my writing in evaluation of a first draft. Are my characters all talk and little action, or the reverse, all action and little talk? There is no formula, and this does vary with the specific characters and the spcecific story, but I also like to rely on a little parenting experience, again extrapolated to my writing. My kids learn way more from what I do than from what I say. It is the example I set that has the largest impact on their behavior. The same can apply to characters in a story and their impact of the reader.

Are the dialogue scenes used to try to whiz some info-dumps by the reader? Back story can be sprinkled through a story in a way that it does double duty--informs the reader about past events, and serves as a tool of help control the pace of the various scenes. Description can also be used as a pacing tool.

Are the dialogue scenes that we think are adding depth to our characters really reducing that depth by giving the reader a numbing sense of "doesn't this character ever STFU?"

It will help to re-read some of your favorite stories with a specific eye as to how the writer controlled scene and story pacing, and how this was related to the balance of dialogue/action/description.

As a reader, I like dialog. I've only called into question one novel I've read for having too much of it. (Partly, I thought the author was "cheating" the novel length. If that thing was actually 35K words, counting them one by one, I'd be surprised. But it was 250 pages.)

That was once. On the other hand, I've tossed aside countless novels because they were almost all narrative summary and description and long philosophical asides. It's not 1820 any more! Give me dialog. Give me action. Give me voice. Everything else, minimize.

As a writer, issues around character and dialog tend not to be problems for me. I just write, and those parts end up okay. (Plot and scene structure, I have to think about.)

Dialogue is good, but it is easy to use too much. Trouble is, where that too much line falls is always a mystery.

How much dialogue to use varies from story to story, but things have to happen, a lot of things, and nothing happens in dialogue. Few things are as boring as character sitting or standing around talking about what has happened, or what they're going to do about it.

I think your best bet is to read a couple of novels you love, ones in your genre, and determine exactly how much dialogue is used.

It's a bit of a sweeping statement to say 'nothing happens in dialogue'.

If it's boring it shouldn't be there, but it is the main way people communicate with each other.

Quality of content is more relevant than quantity per se.

Jamesaritchie said:

Dialogue is good, but it is easy to use too much. Trouble is, where that too much line falls is always a mystery.

How much dialogue to use varies from story to story, but things have to happen, a lot of things, and nothing happens in dialogue. Few things are as boring as character sitting or standing around talking about what has happened, or what they're going to do about it.

I think your best bet is to read a couple of novels you love, ones in your genre, and determine exactly how much dialogue is used.

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I loooove dialogue, both to read and to write. My novel is probably somewhere along the lines of 80% dialogue tooo, and I did worry about this for a bit at first but, nah, that's my style and I like it. So much can happen in dialogue. With enough subtext and tension you can go pages without anything else. I don't think you necessarily need to describe any of the stuff they're doing while they're talking-- sometimes it's good for pacing etc., but if it's just there because you feel uncomfortable with all the dialogue, why bother? They can also be doing stuff without you describing it-- punctuating the 'real conversation' with questions about how they like their wine or have you seen my pen is great for keeping it grounded and real.

Also, don't worry too much about a particular scene being too much of one or the other. Steinbeck, for example, can have pages and pages of description and narrative without a single word, then pages with little more narrative than dialogue tags, and unless you're paying attention (because you're a writer analyzing what your favourite writers do ) you wouldn't think a thing about it.

If your dialogue is good, use it!

Bufty said:

It's a bit of a sweeping statement to say 'nothing happens in dialogue'.

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I also agree absolutely with this. If you think nothing happens in dialogue... time to read some plays.

Nothing happens in dialogue?

Omg, everything happens in dialogue.

Jamesaritchie said:

things have to happen, a lot of things, and nothing happens in dialogue.

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Complete bullcrap. If this statement was even remotely true, nobody would ever write plays.

In particular, good sharp dialogue is the most efficient builder of tension in a narrative that there is. Characters interact via dialogue, and learn stuff about each other and about their situation via dialogue and provoke reaction via dialogue.

If you're writing dialogue in which "nothing happens", you're writing crap dialogue. Get rid of it. But to assert that "nothing happens in dialogue" is about the dumbest thing I've seen posted here in a long time.

CAW

I have been wondering the same thing!

In my WIP I revised and took out big chunks of narrative and added more dialogue but I'm thinking i need to go back and strike more of a balance to help round out my charecters

This is most definitely a problem for me, I'm having the same issue! I'm trying to find a way to strike a balance. My stories are very dialogue heavy.

I like dialogue. While I understand there's a need to sprinkle action in, I don't always think it is necessary. Sometimes, the action is obviously filler, and authors will start with shaking and nodding of heads, which can get annoying after a while. I've read books where very little action is mixed in with the dialogue, and I've liked them just fine.