Young Writers Society

Hello,

I noticed that when I write, I tend to use a lot of dialogue to progress my story. But sometimes I feel like I use too much, and I’m not sure if that’s a problem or not. I would be thankful if someone could explain what situations would be suited for dialogue and other situations where descriptions of the character’s actions would be better.

Thank you :3

Hi LittleBird,

I think I do use lots of dialogue too! And it's not a bad thing. Dialogue is a handy tool for developing characters and their relationships with each other. But as with actions/exposition, dialogue that doesn't move the story forward (whether it drives on the plot or deepens the characters and setting) probably needs to be edited or trimmed.

Dialogue, naturally, is good for when people talk (meh. You already knew that xD). And you know, you can combine dialogue and actions. For example, if they're sitting at a dinner table and talking, they might be eating too! You could intersperse character actions like action beats like this:

"A lifted a forkful of salad to her mouth and chewed on it. 'Mom, my friend B invited me for a sleepover this weekend'".

You know, quite a bit of actions can be conveyed through dialogue. Like suppose some characters are moving through a maze and they're discussing how to get there and meanwhile fighting their way through monsters! That's a nice chunk of action (the traveling and fighting) and some talking too(like directions).

Distinguishing between situations about which require dialogue and which action seems a tricky question to me, so I'll answer it best as I can. Basically, I think that if a scene needs dialogue, I don't think you should force it out of the way and put action instead! And the same for action. I believe that you will know whether a scene needs it or not simply through writing more, reading more, getting and giving feedback on writing.

Hope this helped! I'm not really experienced at writing myself, so take my advice with a grain of salt!

-Ink

Dialogue, like Ink said, is really handy as a tool!

If you find, though, that ~75% of your writing is dialogue... It might be time to break out the Editing Gloves. While dialogue is useful, if you have too much, with too little description, it can turn into something like talking heads -- where all we have is characters talking and nothing more.

And don't be afraid to edit in descriptions later! As the reader, we want to see and feel how the main characters feel about what's going on. We want to have a chance to interpret the world through their eyes. And if the dialogue is most of the story progression, you have to be careful about remembering to include all that.

But don't worry! Writing goes through drafts, and you can always stop and edit something if it's not coming across how you want it to.

Happy hunting!

Thank you, @PrincessInk, @Lareine (is that how you tag people...? I have no idea, don’t use this website often.)

I think I got a better idea of how to use dialogue. I feel relieved knowing that I can add in dialogue freely without worrying too much about if I’m adding “too much”, since it seems like as long as the descriptions balance it out, it will be okay (I hope I didn’t misinterpret that.)

Thank you for the feedback!

- Birdie