Dumb dialogue question.

Dumb question? No, it's a valid question.

IMO, good dialogue does many things, among them.

It propels your story forward and assists with pacing
It asks/answers story questions
It feathers in back story
It serves to flesh out your characters

I also think that it’s your character’s responsibility to do any necessary revealing and not the narrator’s.

Can you tell, I like dialogue? I’m sure others will be along to offer their opinions.

You could always post in SYW and get some feedback.

If you're still working on your first draft, don't worry about it for now. Keep writing.

In revision, take a look and make sure the scenes are flowing. Are the characters doing more than just talking? Does the talking carry the story forward? Is the dialogue natural and more than "As you know, Bob" exchanges?

Just make sure the reader knows who is speaking, the dialogue is interesting and the characters are not talking in an 'As you know, Bob..." manner.

If the dialogue is propelling the story onwards - no problem.

The phrase i seem to use speech to let the reader know of things that i suppose be revealed by the narrator, is this bad? makes me worry that the OP is in fact using dialogue in the "As you know, Bob..." manner. How often do people really stand around and tell each other everything that has happened and is going on around them? This is what the narrator is for. Especially if 1. all characters involved are aware of what's been happening so have little reason to be explaining events to each other, or 2. the characters involved have no need or desire to know of what's been happening and so wouldn't be telling each other everything. Also, the characters don't always know everything that's going on, so there's the danger they could be talking about things they have no right to know.

An example of "As you know, Bob..." in action:

Character 1: Hey, remember yesterday when we went to the park together?

Character 2: Oh, yeah! Boy, that was fun! I loved when we swam in the lake.

Character 1: We swam in the lake for three hours straight!

Character 2: And had ice cream afterwards!

Character 1: I had the chocolate and you had vanilla. And then we both threw up!

(Such dialogue works only if the characters are prone to reminiscing a lot. It should not be used to inform readers of what they did yesterday when they went to the park.)

I'm sure somebody else around here can clarify it better than I did. Lots of dialogue is fine but it's no crutch for narration, when narration is necessary.

At a rough guess, on average, my novels and short stories consist of around 70% dialogue. The fact that I started writing in the form of stage scripts may have something to do with that, but I find it a good tool.

Is there really such a thing as too much dialogue? As far as the "show, don't tell" rule goes dialogue is an excellent way of doing it. I'd much rather read a conversation to indicate somebody is angry than "Sheila became really angry."

Dialog is good. However, there are two major pitfalls to watch out for.

As You Know, Bob - as discussed above.

Talking Head Syndrome - disembodied heads talking in a featureless gray void.

Make sure your characters interact with their surroundings. Make sure they have arms and legs and lungs and stomachs. Make sure they squint when the light is bright and shiver when the wind is cold. Make sure they perceive things with all five senses.

FennelGiraffe said:

Make sure your characters interact with their surroundings. Make sure they have arms and legs and lungs and stomachs. Make sure they squint when the light is bright and shiver when the wind is cold. Make sure they perceive things with all five senses.

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I like this Fennel. Something I could do well remembering more often.

eyelash said:

I don't know if this will be possible for anyone to answer but I want to ask anyway- how much dialogue is too much dialogue?

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There are whole novels written in dialogue, so it's not a question of how much is too much. But it has to be done well, whether it's 5% dialogue or 95%.

Cheers,
Rob