Examples of Stories Written in All-Dialogue

Spy_on_the_Inside

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At the moment, I'm working on a story written in the form of a Youtube vlog, so this is going to be a story where all the storytelling is told through the dialogue. I would love to read some other stories written in a similar style (no narrative, just dialogue) so I have some ideas for how to make the piece stronger.

Does anyone know of any stories written like this that you would recommend?
 

NateSean

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When you're writing a story, even if it's all dialogue, you kind of have to have some kind of narrative by consequence, otherwise it would be no different than a chat room transcript.
It's not a short piece, but the story that comes to mind is Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, which if you were to interpret it literally would be two guys sitting in a room with a tape recorder running.
 

StoryofWoe

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Vox by Nicholson Baker is an erotic novel written entirely in dialogue, specifically a phone conversation between a man and a woman. It might be worth reading the sample on Amazon.
 

gettingby

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Am I missing something? Because the vlogs I've seen on youtube are usually one person talking. Writers often pull things off that aren't the typical story or story format. But I'm a little confused as to what you are trying to do. And I don't know why you would want to limit yourself to only using dialog in a short story. I've read short stories that are heavy on the dialog, but never one that is fully dialog unless it is done like a play or more likely is a play.
 

guttersquid

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My first three stories to be published contained nothing but dialogue. No narration, no exposition, not even dialogue tags. I wrote them as an experiment and as a kind of challenge to myself. (Can I write a story that way?) Then a publisher read them and asked if he could publish them. Was I supposed to say no?
 

InspectorFarquar

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I've written some flash pieces that I'm fond of that are a series of magazine (zine) interviews with an after-hours club owner/operator. My experience is the reading can get tedious quickly if the dialogue doesn't shift direction often enough. I think tension is a must.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Anything can be done, but not everything can be done well, or for a purpose. Not even everything that gets published is worth an old sock. Some of it is pure crap, usually when it's in the experimental area, and no offense meant to anyone, but especially when it's "erotica".

If you want to write a story that's one hundred percent dialogue, I'd suggest not asking advice, or looking to see how anyone else did it. Be original, have a good reason for telling it this way, and then sit down and just do it.
 

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I don't know of any good ones but I'll just say I think it's tricky. I've tried all dialogue flash stories and I think one way to make them interesting is to have it become apparent that something important is going on but not being said. In any case, the ones I did weren't very good, even at a very short length.
 
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NateSean

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If you want to write a story that's one hundred percent dialogue, I'd suggest not asking advice, or looking to see how anyone else did it. Be original, have a good reason for telling it this way, and then sit down and just do it.

This is one of the rare times I fully agree with James. When you're trying to be experimental, or doing something that's unconventional, your best bet is to just go ahead. If you succeed, you can claim all of the credit for yourself, but if you fail, you can't blame anyone because their advice was off.
 

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I wrote something like this. I think Jesse Eisenberg wrote like that, and his book was great. Also, David Foster Wallace wrote brief interviews with hideous men. That was pure one-sided conversation.

Both were great books.
 

jdp1886

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Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway is an example of a short story with a lot of dialogue, but it'd be difficult to write one completely in dialogue. Try it...who knows.
 

Shoeless

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Vox by Nicholson Baker is an erotic novel written entirely in dialogue, specifically a phone conversation between a man and a woman. It might be worth reading the sample on Amazon.

This was actually the first book that popped into my head as well when I saw this topic. Man, I can't believe that thing was written in the 90s, doesn't seem like that long ago...
 

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Some of Dorothy Parker's stories were pretty much all dialogue, IIRC, and they were effing brilliant.
 

Harlequin

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Oooh I love it when this question gets asked!

Kiss of the Spiderwoman by Manuel Prig :D

It is 100% dialogue, NO narrative. Not a single iota of it, unless my memory fails me.

Every line begins with a dash, and each new line is a different speaker. The story follows two men who are in prison, and talking to each other about old films they've seen. Novel-length talking heads--breaks all the rules.

Sounds dull but it's amazing. One of my favorite books. The similarity to a film script is of course intentional.
 
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Joe Quenell

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Wow, good luck and godspeed! I've tried to do it and it's very hard.

One story comes to mind that pulled this off incredibly: Sugar, Spice and Everything nice by Damien Angelica Walters. It's a chilling, breathtaking piece with an unreliable narrator.

Somebody suggested plays as a good way to get the feel down--I think that's a good start, though in plays there's physicality adding to the story which writers cannot necessarily pull off. But I think the heavy reliance of dialogue in plays would be good to study for your project. Also, any archived police interviews with suspects, witnesses or the ilk might be of help.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh crap. I just saw this thread dates back two years ago. Hopefully you've finished your story by now.
 

Nuwanda

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Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway is an example of a short story with a lot of dialogue, but it'd be difficult to write one completely in dialogue. Try it...who knows.

I was going to suggest this as well. Hemingway is one of the masters when it comes to setting a scene through dialogue.

If the story you're planning on is going to be a blog, why not make is 1st person narrative? That way, the readers are the viewers who log into YouTube everyday and watch your character. I'm not sure how to set up other people that will be in the vlog but there must be a way that it could work.

Best of luck!
 

flowerburgers

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"Spokane" by Peter Orner is all dialogue and it's one of the most compelling short stories I've ever read. It's in the collection "Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge" which I recommend to every short story writer.
 

sideshowdarb

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Good examples here, particularly Hllls Like White Elephants. IMHO, that's required reading if you're planning on writing short stories.
 

tharris

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In my creative writing class, I wrote a short story where the first scene was all dialog with no tags (similar to the Terry Bison story linked to above) and my teacher slapped my hand (verbally, not physically) and told me not to do that. Evidently it's a cliched troupe that a lot of new writers try to use...

So I'm not saying not to do it, but just know that there are people out there that will think it's amateurish, evidently.
 

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At the moment, I'm working on a story written in the form of a Youtube vlog, so this is going to be a story where all the storytelling is told through the dialogue. I would love to read some other stories written in a similar style (no narrative, just dialogue) so I have some ideas for how to make the piece stronger.

Does anyone know of any stories written like this that you would recommend?

Avram Davidson's "The Golem" is written almost entirely in dialogue. Most of the plot and revelations unravel through conversation