Writers Tricks of the Trade Issue 2 Volume 8 | Page 8
DIALOGUE SATURATION
F RED R AYWORTH
Narrative is the foundation, or the building blocks of the story. Dia-
logue is what moves it along, breathes life into it. Without dialogue,
you have no characters, no people to interact within the foundation.
D
on’t get me started with those
single-character novels because
they at least have internal dia-
logue or the characters talk to themselves.
I would never read them anyway. Too
boring. Maybe that’s something for you
though.
On with the show…
SOLID WORDS ON THE PAGE
I’ve said many times that I don’t like e-
readers because I can’t leaf through the
book first. One of the things I look for, be-
sides point of view, is solid words, page
after page. That sends up a red flag. If I
don’t see empty spaces on the pages, that
means the author is very wordy.
Now, to my point on dialogue satura-
tion. To avoid too much narrative, some
authors go for talky. Instead of endless
paragraph after endless paragraph of sol-
id narration describing scenes every-
which-way, they’ll have the characters do
it for them through dialogue.
Not good.
How many people do you know talk in
half or full page paragraphs without tak-
ing huge breaths? How about letting
someone else get a word in edgewise? I
read one book where the author did, but
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE
the other speaker replied with half and
one page paragraphs as well! Aaagh!
Who might do that in real life?
Valley girls and politicians.
Okay, maybe I’m being facetious, ste-
reotyping a bit. You get the point.
AVOIDING SHOW NOT TELL CONUN-
DRUMS
By changing your long narrative to di-
alogue, you’ve found a cheap and easy
way to avoid the show not tell conun-
drum! The problem is that it’s not realis-
tic. In the real world, most people, espe-
cially detectives, action heroes, spies,
whatever, don’t talk in long speeches.
They especially don’t describe their sur-
roundings, what they’re doing, and what
they’re about to do to everyone.
Can you believe that I’m citing exam-
ples of published books? No, these are not
self-published novels, but conventional
novels, some of which are sitting on the
shelves right now at Barnes & Noble.
DON’T CHEAT THE SYSTEM
Dialogue needs to be realistic and
should not be used to cheat the system to
avoid show not tell. It should not be used
to substitute for narrative.
P AGE 3
S UMMER 2018