Hi everyone. Me again! While working through the list of recommended reads so helpfully provided by some of you, I've decided to start a new ms too (when inspiration strikes and all that!). It's in the first person but I've noticed there's a lot of dialogue in it. Does anyone have any thoughts on dialogue and how much is too much. It reads ok to me, for now.
Thanks in advance :)
Dialogue should advance the plot and storyline. It should be as blunt as possible - not long-winded. Avoid irrelevant or purposeless talk.
Dialogue is, 'Show, Don’t Tell'.
Remember that dialogue is part of the action of fiction. Dialogue doesn’t tell the readers about the characters, it shows who characters are.
Four key qualities of good dialogue are that it:
1) keeps the story or novel going;
2) reveals the characters;
3) is believable;
4) interests the readers.
Thanks Helen, that's helpful. I tend to write like that usually, I'll keep going until I've got the story on paper and then see how it reads.
Hi Clare,
I don't know if there's such a thing as too much dialogue. You can tell an entire story in dialogue if you want to. However, dialogue that's repetitive, or doesn't move the story along, or is just an information dump - that's the sort of dialogue to be avoided.
Honestly, just keep writing the story as it comes to you. Once you've written this draft, let it rest for a while then go back to it. It should be very obvious then which parts you need to delete.
Hope that helps a little :-)