I have read in various places that a huge percentage of novels should be made up of dialogue, but don't really know how to get it in there right. I don't want them to go off track and start bleating random thoughts or descriptions of the setting. But I want my story to be very dialogue based, supplying the reader with the information they need, without the characters acting in a way that they wouldn't in real life. Any help? Thanks!
There's no added value in dialogue for its own sake. Dialogue in fiction is only the illusion of dialogue. If we wrote as we really speak, as much as we speak, it would become unreadable. But it has to be credibly natural for all that, and what helps me is reading aloud. The false notes jump out to my ear, when my eye might not have spotted them.
Adam,
We all seem to be of a similar opinion here. Do the show don't tell thing. As to the dialogue; I think once you have started writing it it will soon fall into place. I always worry about the amount of dialogue that should be in anything I write. I have found that from my own experience I just have to get on with it and soon I see whether it is going to work or not.
I have no preconceived idea about dialogue. What I remember being advised is that dialogue in books is subtly different from real life as it is there to progress the story.
If dialogue builds on a character or moves the story along it is worthwhile, but if it is there because that is how people would speak normally, then a reader, in my opinion, is likely to get bored. Cut such sections down as much as possible to balance the integrity of the story with a plausible conversation.
That's my two bob's worth