I recently read Carol Shields' Larry's Party, which has an extended sequence of dialogue during the final scene, which goes on for several pages. It just about works in the hands of this very capable author, but I must admit I began to find it confusing and tedious reading all that dialogue. It felt like I was reading a screenplay rather than a book.

For me it's all about getting the right balance and ensuring that if there is lots of dialogue it's there for a purpose.

Hi, I've only just joined so please excuse my butting in.

Reading dialogue, she reckons, is like watching TV. She also says it's the best way of avoiding too much 'tell'. Dialogue is the easiest way of ensuring 'show' - letting characters speak dircetly to the reader themselves so the reader can form her own impression.

When watching TV, you are seeing the action as well as hearing the dialogue; dialogue alone cannot fulfill all story functions.

I would have said that dialogue can lead to falling into the 'tell' trap and that action is far better for 'show'. How your editor could see it the other way round is puzzling.

all the white bits make it go quicker!

That's very true, but if you're enjoying the book, do you really want it to go quicker? Just a thought!

I must admit I began to find it confusing and tedious reading all that dialogue. It felt like I was reading a screenplay rather than a book.

I find too much dialogue tedious, too, unless it's Austen. Besides being famously clever and witty, she used it to reveal character more than advance story, I think. If I open a novel randomly and see great swathes of dialogue, I tend to close it again.

Dialogue can do more to hold up a story than advance it, much like a car chase, a sex scene or a battle scene does (to my mind, at any rate!).

Anyway, just my twopennorth. We all have different tastes, of course. I'll duck out again now.

I agree, dialogue can fall into the 'tell' category, especially where one character is 'leading the witness' by feeding them lines so their dialogue turns into little more than an info dump.

& welcome to WW midnightmodern.

- NaomiM

It’s the ‘as you know, Bob’ danger, isn't it. As in: ‘As you know, Bob, your mother died when you were born and you were brought up by your grandmother… blah blah’ Using implausible improbable dialogue to tell the readers some backstory. However, well-written realistic dialogue can avoid that and show readers a great deal about the story and the characters.

Welcome to WW, midnightmodern.

Dee

Thank you both for your welcome.

It's a really good site with some very interesting contributions.

When watching TV, you are seeing the action as well as hearing the dialogue; dialogue alone cannot fulfill all story functions. I would have said that dialogue can lead to falling into the 'tell' trap and that action is far better for 'show'. How your editor could see it the other way round is puzzling.

Just to clarify what I mean, midnightmodern, my editor wasn't talking about the balance (in what are essentially 'dialogue passages' between the actual words spoken ahnd the snippets of action in between which help you 'see' the people talking. She meant the balance between those passages (where there are two or more people in the scene and the substance is that they are basically having a conversation) and the other kind - either description, or a character on her own engaged in internal monologue (basically thinking about stuff!). What she was saying was that for commercial fiction, you could never have enough 'dialogue passages' as opposed to descriptive or introspective ones - which are the ones which aren't like TV!

Rosy

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And can I add my 'welcome', too?

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Unintentional winkie!

I am in an almost unique position. I was expelled from school at fourteen and I never attended much before that. I've had a poor education.

To make matters worse! I have not read a work of fiction in my adult life. But decided to write a novel anyway. It's done, 140,000 words.

http://michaelscott.weebly.com/absolution.html

All these things you discuss, I can only look at retrospectively.

My first chapter:- A woman drinking vodka and thinking, regretting leaving her husband. NO DIALOGUE

Chapter 2 :- A man talking to his brother about his wife leaving him – ALL DIALOGUE.

It happens, as for whitespace and ease of reading? - Give a tree break! We're adults, what? Do you want some pictures too?

Oh sorry – Hi to everybody!