can a book without dialogue work?

valen_sinclair · Oct 2, 2007

Hi there peeps, me again.
Was just wondering if anyone has an opinon on this.
Amongst my (many) projects, I have a planned out synoisis, and plot etc etc of a idea I came up with a few months back.
It was about an alien invasion of Earth but told from the Aliens perspective as such...to make it even more unusual it was only to be told in the form of a battered diary left behind....(translated of course lol)
It would have no dialogue at all. Be the thoughts of the commander and the struggle he goes through.
Was wondering if this is a interesting idea that would keep someone turning the pages as we watch him and his vision slowly fall apart. Oh and just so you know...they really did come in peace.

Thanks peeps.

Bufty · Oct 2, 2007

The rather misleading thread caption drew me here.

Re your question in the posting - we appear to have defeated them. I am not so sure about my wanting to read page after page of a defeated alien commander's narrative thoughts and no dialogue. Obviously he had no connection with us humans other than via long range death rays.

And if they came in peace -why the invasion force?

But then what do I know?

Judg · Oct 2, 2007

IMHO, it would be very, very difficult. If you are a genius, you could probably make it work. But I would suggest you determine what the central conflict of this novel is, and find a way to present it that would be less technically challenging.

valen_sinclair · Oct 2, 2007

Judg said:
IMHO, it would be very, very difficult. If you are a genius, you could probably make it work. But I would suggest you determine what the central conflict of this novel is, and find a way to present it that would be less technically challenging.

Oh the conflict will be there, just don't want to give away to much about the plot on open forum....
the basics are that the planet they come from has died, they are looking for a home, stumble across earth, negioate treaties for mining basic minerals etc, but then policitcal feelings towards then change, the aliens strike back, it all gets messy, biological warfare ensues, and the aliens all die off.
The conflict will be there, as will emotion. It won't be an endless series of depressing entries.
and the whole point of the idea is too do something different, so completely orginal that it will grab peoples attention and say...look it can work....and let's be honest...it has worked in other genres.

valen_sinclair · Oct 2, 2007

Bufty said:
The rather misleading thread caption drew me here.

yeah sorry about that, don't think i can change it...didn't notice until i pressed post.....that will teach me hee hee

Gillhoughly · Oct 2, 2007

Write what turns you on, don't worry if it will work or not for others.

Just do it.

Good luck!

ChaosTitan · Oct 2, 2007

valen_sinclair said:
Oh the conflict will be there, just don't want to give away to much about the plot on open forum....

*snipped*

and the whole point of the idea is too do something different, so completely orginal that it will grab peoples attention and say...look it can work....and let's be honest...it has worked in other genres.

You're right, the format has worked in the past, and I'm sure it will continue to work again in the future. However, without any real plot details, it's difficult for anyone here to offer up advice.

The first book I always think of when someone mentions a diary is "The Notebook." However, that novel is still bookended by scenes that explains the contents of the titular notebook. Are you planning on doing something like this?

ETA: fixed the thread title for you

Roger J Carlson · Oct 2, 2007

The only way to answer this question is for you to write the novel and see if it works. So much depends upon execution. In the hands of a master story teller, perhaps it could work. In my hands, not so much.

AzBobby · Oct 2, 2007

Gillhoughly said:
Write what turns you on, don't worry if it will work or not for others.

Just do it.

Good luck!

Speaking for myself -- whether it works or not for others seems to be the constant problem to address in selling anything.

ChaosTitan · Oct 2, 2007

AzBobby said:
Speaking for myself -- whether it works or not for others seems to be the constant problem to address in selling anything.

Fair point, however it's also the cart before the horse. The OP needs a finished, edited and polished product on their harddrive before they even begin to worry about selling it.

Maybe in eight months to a year, diary-style SF novels will be the new big thing.

Doodlebug · Oct 2, 2007

AzBobby said:
Speaking for myself -- whether it works or not for others seems to be the constant problem to address in selling anything.

Here, here!!

Yet, in the end, if a story calls out for me to write it, I generally do. Hopefully there's a willing buyer out there somewhere...

FennelGiraffe · Oct 2, 2007

valen_sinclair said:
It was about an alien invasion of Earth but told from the Aliens perspective as such...to make it even more unusual it was only to be told in the form of a battered diary left behind....(translated of course lol)
It would have no dialogue at all. Be the thoughts of the commander and the struggle he goes through.
Was wondering if this is a interesting idea that would keep someone turning the pages as we watch him and his vision slowly fall apart.

If your question is mainly about the format, google epistolary novel.

Sunkissed27f · Oct 2, 2007

The first book I always think of when someone mentions a diary is "The Notebook." However, that novel is still bookended by scenes that explains the contents of the titular notebook. Are you planning on doing something like this?

A few of Nicholas Sparks books are this way.

I have read a few books with no dialogue, set up in a way as if you were reading the persons diary. But the feel of a dialogue was still there when there were confrontations with other people.

J. R. Tomlin · Oct 2, 2007

valen_sinclair said:
the whole point of the idea is too do something different, so completely orginal that it will grab peoples attention and say...look it can work....and let's be honest...it has worked in other genres.

Well, as with most "revolutionary new ideas" it's actually a rather old idea, and the problem you might run into is that it is an old idea that fell out of fashion at least a hundred years ago.

If it's a good story and one you really want to write, then I'd say write it using the best way to do so--whether using this device or another. I wouldn't do it because it is something "different." The number of things that haven't been done one way or another is pretty slim.

sunandshadow · Oct 2, 2007

Have to say it sounds terribly boring, like all epistolary and diary novels.

badducky · Oct 2, 2007

Gillhoughly said:
Write what turns you on, don't worry if it will work or not for others.

Just do it.

Good luck!

What Gil said.

Deirdre · Oct 2, 2007

sunandshadow said:
Have to say it sounds terribly boring, like all epistolary and diary novels.

Some of us love well done epistolary pieces. I'm not as thrilled about diary ones, though.

I it's easier to do epistolary with a co-author.

Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (Sorcery and Cecelia et seq)
Steven Brust and Emma Bull (Freedom and Necessity)

Chameleon · Oct 2, 2007

probably not for me. I like characters to interact. I usually skim paragraphs with no dialogue when I'm reading. But hey, if it works, it works. Just probably not for me.

J. Weiland · Oct 3, 2007

I started yawning when I read the title of this thread. Books, IMAO, need some dialogue to have enough action to keep the reader going.
Yeah, it could probably be done without dialogue, but it would likely be a bit on the boring site. :e2yawn:

I need some coffee. And a cookie.

valen_sinclair · Oct 3, 2007

wouldn't that depend on the action that is taking place.
you can still have conflict even though it is one sided.

Was also thinking about having a double book as it were, like you can get magazines.

The diary of the commander, then you flip the book and then have the diary of the antagonist.....
this way you would have conflict....it is a different approach to doing something. I like the concept....you will all be eaten your words when i set a trend hee hee

Momento Mori · Oct 3, 2007

valen sinclair:
It was about an alien invasion of Earth but told from the Aliens perspective as such...to make it even more unusual it was only to be told in the form of a battered diary left behind....(translated of course lol)
It would have no dialogue at all. Be the thoughts of the commander and the struggle he goes through.
Was wondering if this is a interesting idea that would keep someone turning the pages as we watch him and his vision slowly fall apart. Oh and just so you know...they really did come in peace.

When you say that it would have no dialogue at all, do you mean that your protagonist wouldn't speak to anyone but would report conversations had by other characters, or do you mean there would be absolutely no conversations at all (whether reported explicitly or by referral)?

MM

Doodlebug · Oct 3, 2007

I think anything can work, but its just that some restrictions are very hard to work with.

I read the book, "A Prayer for the Dying" which is written in second person present tense ('...you go to the store. You buy a loaf of bread...') Never in my life had I read, let alone imagined, a book written like that! And yet, amazingly, the story was so gripping I couldn't put it down.

Anything is possible.

desertcomet · Oct 3, 2007

I would read it. But I think if you made it too long of a book it would end up being pretty boring. I think its a great idea. Go for it.

PeeDee · Oct 3, 2007

Of course, if it's written in diary form, then the prose itself is written in a voice, and so in a sense, the whole entire thing is dialog. Which I realize isn't what you meant, or were asking, but it's there nonetheless.

Some writers could do it. I would read an Elmore Leonard book written this way, because he has a musical ear for voice and so even the prose itself would have a quality of dialog to it.

If Ayn Rand had done it, I would have hung myself.

Give it a shot. Worst that can happen is it sucks, you have some fun, you learn a lesson.

Doodlebug · Oct 4, 2007

PeeDee said:
If Ayn Rand had done it, I would have hung myself.

LOL. For sure.

can a book without dialogue work?

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