How much dialogue in one burst?
Wed, 2002-01-30 14:03
#1
How much dialogue in one burst?
hello everbody. I would appreciate some advice. I am attempting to write a novel. I don't haveany great hopes that it will get published but its something I want to do.
Toward the latter part I am writing a chapter in which one ofthe characters has a confretation with her parents about her buried feelings about things that have happended in the past.The thing is is about a chapter if dialogue and i was wondering if that is too much in one burst.
andrew pack
A common problem. If you ping-pong the dialogue His Girl Friday style (Think Maddy and David from Moonlighting, if that reference is too old), it is fizzy but gets dull quickly. It is best to have something else happen, some physical activity, or even just have one of the characters distracted by something else.
If in doubt, cut away then cut back. Like in a movie. You don't have to show all of a five minute conversation - show some, cut away and come back to reaction - you can even do it with * * * as a break. The reader will then fill in the gaps for themselves, get the gist of the thing without being bored.
Particularly if the character is talking to her father, you may want to get that awkward feeling coming across, that father is trying to get out of the conversation. Think of the way that most fathers talk to people on the phone, "Oh hello Sarah, are you alright ? Hold on, your mother's right here. "
And good luck. Stick with it. You learn a lot more from writing a bad novel than not writing twenty masterpieces. The first one is best treated as an exercise, to see how you cope with it.