Conversation vs. Prose

Personally, I feel like I can get into the heads of the characters if I am reading dialogue. I love novels heavy on dialogue. I think your answers in this thread are going to vary widely. It's all personal preference, I would think. For me, dialogue makes the characters real. It sets them apart from one another when done well, too.

To me, pages after pages of narrative without dialogue is like watching a movie for 20 minutes without a single character saying anything... for some stories, that may work. For most, it's major boredom.


(I admit, I'm a movie fiend first, a reader second... )

I think it might have to do with the difference between being told about something that has already taken place and feeling like you're "in the moment" of something that is still happening. Dialogue is more immediate and when handled properly, can be much more revealing in only a few lines than reams of exposition and description.

For a lot of stories I read, the first lines of dialogue are also like the step into the story. Sort of like the invisible narrator has finished their setup of the story, and now our players will open their mouths and start the show. If you see what I mean.

I like stories about people and their interactions with others. Dialog is an ideal vehicle for that. If I have to go through page after page of narration, I'll wonder if/when I'll get to the good stuff.

Dialogue

Real people talk to each other, and so should characters. I find page after page after page without dialogue both boring and unrealistic. For me, dialogue makes or break a novel.

katiemac said:

I know there are a lot of people won't continue reading a novel if there isn't any dialogue within so many pages of the first chapter(s).

I was thinking about this the other day, and I was wondering why this is. Is it solely for speed, to break up the pace? Or is there something (character points, plot, etc.) that's more inherit in dialogue than prose, and therefore missing if you don't have the dialogue right away?

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I think think dialogue serves all the functions mentioned above.

A reader will blow right through page after page of a book when there's dialogue. If the dialogue is good, it's like listening to a fascinating conversation or an argument. They can't resist. They'll eat it up.

Plus dialogue is one of the more effective ways to depict a character. Through the character's words and their interactions with others the reader gets a birds eye view of who the person is. And in a much better way than the formulaic height, weight, hair color style.

It's also a great vehicle for drama and conflict. Having somebody think to themselves how a certain person is stupid is one thing; having your character actually tell that person that - now a reader will sit up and read with wide eyes. Woohoo!! Who can resist listening to that conversation?

Listening to lots of internal monologue gets old, for me at least, unless done very, very well. That requires a truly fascinating character like a serial killer or some other different type person.

And page after page of description is boring also. Description implies no action. You're standing around looking. Readers want some type of movement, forward motion, advancement of story.

I think dialogue gives the impression of action, something happening - so while I don't have a set limit on how far I'll get into a book before I want to see dialogue, I do expect something to happen fairly quick.

Dialogue is one of the better ways to move a story forward and show what you want to show. Just another tool in the toolbox.

I read strictly for entertainment purposes, and I never analyze what I'm reading for structure, grammar, rules of fiction writing, etc.

My one and only standard: If its interesting, I keep reading, and if its not, I don't. So whether dialog is present or not, it doesn't matter to me as long as the narration keeps my interest.

Another reason is visual variety. Dialogue looks different on the page than narrative does. It's the piece of pork fat in a can of beans, the slogan on a T shirt, the diamond in an engagement ring, the moon in the sky, the single tree growing out of a cliffside crevice, the squashed bug on a windshield. My attention is drawn to dialogue because its format sets it off: short paragraphs, quote marks. Having proper names there helps, too (names have more psychological interest than other words do). I also tend to look at indented extracts and sidebars instead of reading a magazine article straight through from the beginning.

No one gets to smack me down for saying this ok..............I have a middle grader that I had to get through alot of background before I could really get to the dialogue (they had to know what was happening but if I'd try to put in dialogue it would have ended up not only very confusing but very long) Remember I was writing from a POV of a 10 year old who's friend was newly diagnosed with cancer and I wanted to let the reader know the starting symptoms that Mandy noticed first....to when she went in for test....then was diagnosed.....scheduled for surgery..then the dialogue began in the story. I felt that it worked and that way I could do the story well and not go 10,000 over my word count. I know your first thought would be well cut the story and start with the dialogue...wouldn't have worked and with it being from Mandy's POV it wouldn't have worked with the dialogue because through the whole book the doctors and parents of Lilly tend to shield the girls (they flat don't tell them what the docs are saying overly much). Lilly's mom follows the doctor out in the hall to talk to him after he sees Lilly in the hospital.......what can I say? I've worked in pediatrics and that is how it goes. SO....did I mess up or am I ok here? The narration takes up about 2 pages before things get going and the narration is more like the character is talking to the reader and herself.....kind of like how you write in a diary type talking but I don't want to write in diary form because then it would be confusing for kids to try and read it because I really do like the dialogue. Also you have to remember you only have so many words on children's divisions (pic book, read aloud, middle grader, YA) only get so many words if you know what I mean. I had someone critique it that went through wanting a scene with dialogue in places that it just would have ended up with talking head type stuff that would have increased my word count without really adding anything as far as info to the story. I realize how tempting it is reading through something to say I want to hear more show me some action but on a story this complicated sometimes that isn't going to work for example....on one part I said that Mandy pleaded with Lilly's mom to let her go with Lilly and her to when they went back to the doctors (not exact wording by all means) and she wanted in shown in dialogue .....I was afraid had I done that my character would have sounded whining and bratty....and beside by the time she weedled her way into going what were they going to do....the doctor wasn't going to tell them anything and even if he had the explainations would have been to complicated for the readers...to many big medical terms etc.

Man, all the threads about what readers will and won't read makes me think I'm not a very discerning person....

However, early dialogue is helpful. It usually lets me know under a page if the book is worth reading or not. I cannot abide an author with a tin ear for dialogue, and I won't sit through an entire book thinking "Man, nobody talks like that. What the **** is this?!"

Of course, if there isn't much dialogue, I probably wouldn't even notice or care. I only notice and care about bad dialogue.

I don't think it;s the dialogue that has to grip me in the first pages, but the character hreself/himself, and how ell he.she is brought across, her situatuion, etc. I've just started Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, and though there's no dialogue in the first pagfes, the characterisation is brilliant and has me gripped (A woman going into labour). The writing, too, is excellent' that's important.

I just finished a very badly written book with lots of dialogue; the bad writing kept me contantly outside the story. I just couldn't get into the minds of people whose eyes kept rolling, whose hans keep flying to their mouths, who keep laughing hysterically. So dialgue per se doesn't do the trick for me.

I decided long ago to give each and every book i open 50 pages. if the story, characters etc haven't grabbed me by then, i put the book down and move on to the next. I think if the story was gripping, with or without dialogue, i'd still read it.

Too much narration (ie. very little dialogue) often makes reading a book feel 'heavy', or even dull and lifeless. Dialogue often makes it easier to 'grab' a reader and draw them into the story.

However, as ever, it's all in the execution, and I've read many a book where long periods of narration haven't bored me for a second. I wouldn't shove dialogue into a scene where it simply didn't belong. At the same time, dialogue fits neatly and naturally into most scenes, so...

Dialogue

Dialogue, like everything else, must be done well, else it takes away from the story.

But if writers knew how often editors flip through a manuscript looking for white space, and how often the average reader does the same with a novel, they'd probably think twice about the value of dialogue.

I don't think dialogue should ever be forced. You can't make a character say something just because you think it's time for more dialogue, but you can set the situation up so dialogue is called for, and then allow the character to say the right thing at the right time.

If a book is written well enough, I don't think most readers consciously notice what they're reading at the time, but flip through any bestselling novel and odds are you'll find a lot of dialogue. My guess is you'll also find a good bit of dialogue if you flip through your favorite novel, whatever it is, bestselling or not.

Pure narrative does start to read like a textbook after a while. Though I'm not at all sure what can really be done about it. Good dialogue, both in quantity and quality, seems to me to be something that's done more by feel, by instinct, by story sense, rather than by any sort of careful planning.

Depending on the type of novel, dialogue may play a much more prominent role than others. Most books seem to open up with tons of exposition and little dialogue, but most of the time, a conversation between two people (or more, but two is good enough to start a book on, you don't want to throw everything out at the beginning) can tell a lot more than ten pages of prose. Oftentimes, too much exposition in the beginning becomes boring, because really nothing is happening, you are merely reflecting on the past. You can do the same thing with dialogue, but now its different because two people are talking--now something is happening.

In the end, most novels should be about 50% dialogue. After all, characters are the core of the story. They are changed and affected by the events taking place. It is always interesting to see how a character changes throughout a novel by hearing them talk.