Please, just stop talking!

It's easy to get carried away with dialogue, because banter is fun to write. So that's what I look for when editing: what was the point of this scene? Does the dialogue continue after that point has been made, or go on too long before? Should I have spent a few lines on reaction or scene setting instead? Sometimes if I cut lines I really like, I find I can recycle them into other scenes, so even killed darlings can be resurrected.

You might try putting up a scene in SYW, and getting specific feedback from the writers here.

How is omniscient in anyway related to dialogue? Sounds like you're either overthinking it or confusing dialogue for something else.

Dialogue should be interesting and/or move the story forward. If it does that, leave it in. If it doesn't, cut it. No such thing as too much or too little if you follow this.

I'd trust my instincts--if you feel like there's too much dialogue, then do a separate edit just for that. Of all the facets of fiction writing, dialogue responds best to stringent editing. First you cut out all the repetition and the social noises ("Hi, how are you? Nice day! How's the wife?") that lubricate our daily existence but just slow fiction down. Then you want to make sure that your dialogue multi-tasks. Here are some of the things to look for:

Does the dialogue advance the novel's plot?

Does it advance characterization and define relationships?


Does it convey a sense of thought underlying speech, of an inner life?

Does it contain unnecessary social noises and repetition? The latter includes the back-and-forth sort of arguments typical of real life but tedious in fiction, as in: "Yes I did!" "No you didn't!" "Did too!" "Did not, you liar!"

Is the dialogue misused to convey exposition or backstory that ought to be provided thru other means?

Do characters censor their thoughts? Do they sometimes use language to withhold or deceive? In any dialogue, what's unsaid is just as important as what's unsaid.

Hope that helps.

paddi, when your car scene was in SYW I don't recall anyone thinking too much dialogue was a problem. It sounds to me a little like over-familiarity with your MS. Sometimes when I'm reading I "hear" my characters in my head so that compounds the sense of "talking" when reading--because they have voices, which is a good thing, right? It's possible that's what you have going.

And I don't think the "looking for faults" thing ever goes away. Published authors find faults in their published work all the time...or think they do. If people read it, and like it, that's what matters. At some point you have to test the market. But it might be worth putting another section--pick one of the super colorful ones--up in SYW. Don't ask about dialogue or "talking." Just see what the feedback looks like. If no one mentions it, you're probably in fine shape.

Hmm, maybe I'm an (idiotic) outlier, but I prefer getting 411 through dialogue as long as it isn't clunky and an obvious info dump. If your readers didn't tag it, maybe it's all up in your noggin? Maybe post a bit of the problem areas on SYW and get some input?

Barbara's comment was excellent. I just thought I'd add that dialogue serves a completely different purpose than "real life talking". When you converse in real life, you are communicating to your partner in the conversation. In dialogue, you are communicating to the reader, not the other character. So in Barbara's 4th question, she is discussing "small talk" that is (sometimes) important and interesting between people in real life, but brings your story to a stand still when you include it in dialogue. Dialogue must be disguised as real conversation. It cannot be real conversation.

http://www.literautas.com/en/blog/post-697/ten-keys-to-write-effective-dialogue/

We don't see your dialogue to critique, so if it meets the criteria and objectives of both Barbara's comment and the above blog, you're fine. If it doesn't, you're looking at more revision if it needs "fixing".

I once saw dialogue taken to the extreme. A few years ago I was asked to review a work that was TEN NOVELS LONG (in one Kindle file). The writing was 100% dialogue. The author was delighted with herself at the "experimental achievement". Me? I couldn't get through the first chapter of the first book.

VRanger said:

I once saw dialogue taken to the extreme. A few years ago I was asked to review a work that was TEN NOVELS LONG (in one Kindle file). The writing was 100% dialogue. The author was delighted with herself at the "experimental achievement". Me? I couldn't get through the first chapter of the first book.

Click to expand...

Good Lord. It's an interesting idea but she'd have had to be a genius to pull it off. Ivy Compton-Burnett's novels are 90% dialogue, and they're riveting...but she is a genius.

paddismac said:

The manuscript has been through three readers, and it wasn't pointed out as an issue, but none of my readers are (fiction) writers.

Click to expand...

This part stood out to me. Sometimes writers can be overly persnickety about the little things that an average reader wouldn't care about.

It's just not necessarily a bad thing to not have other fiction writers give feedback.

Barbara R. said:

Good Lord. It's an interesting idea but she'd have had to be a genius to pull it off. Ivy Compton-Burnett's novels are 90% dialogue, and they're riveting...but she is a genius.

Click to expand...

I should have included that when I mentioned 100% dialogue, I meant 100%. There weren't even any dialogue tags. Characters referred to each other early in a conversation, and you had to keep track of it from there. I was reminded of this when I just checked out a Compton-Burnett preview and saw a dialogue tag. LOL

I don't go by amount or percentage, but by how important the dialogue is. I always try to show, rather than tell, and dialogue is usually tell, but, for me, it comes down to how important the dialogue is.

If a character has something important to say, and that is better with tell than with show, I let the character say it. I really don't care whether a story is almost all dialogue, or has no dialogue at all. I care about show versus tell, and about the reason the character speaks.

I use dialog for both show and tell, but agree that balance is the key. Pacing really. I agree with the idea of posting a scene in SYW. Leave a link here so we can check it out.

She also writes great descriptions, and the voices are so individuated that it's never hard to tell who's talking. Give her a try--I think she's brilliant and much more fun than her contemporary, Virginia Woolf.

Another one it might be worth your taking a look at is Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. She mixes 'quoted speech', reported speech and inner thoughts so that the pace never slackens. It keeps the feel fresh and interesting.

Good luck with the edit!

paddismac said:

The manuscript has been through three readers, and it wasn't pointed out as an issue, but none of my readers are (fiction) writers.

Click to expand...

If it didn't bother them and they didn't give you other feedback that could possibly be a consequence of too much dialogue, then you are probably good.

paddismac said:

I'm combing through my manuscript for a section I feel is representative of what I fear may be "overly talky" to post in SYW. It's tough to find something that illustrates my issue, but won't take a ton of explanation to set-up.

Click to expand...

Just post a big chunk and don't worry about backstory/set-up. We'll figure it out.