Dookie

I started writing yesterday and have been writing non stop since then. Except for sleep obviously. I am now on chapter nine but have had no dialogue in my story so far. There are only four characters and only two have had contact to far but I am still wondering. Does it matter that there is no dialogue yet, even though I'm so far in?

Achilles

I personally like books without much dialogue, but it is hard to pull off. Without dialogue, there must be enough action and interesting details to keep the reader's attention. Ever read Life of Pi? It has almost no dialogue until about a hunderd pages into it, (and even then very little) yet it is one of my favorite books.

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The Palace Flophouse

When Newton closed his eyes beneath a tree
and took the apple from the serpent, he
conceived the urge of humanity, plea, plea,
procreant desire and tendency.

Julian_Gallo

I don't think it matters at all. It may be an interesting way to approach the novel. Something different. I can think of one book off hand where I don't believe there is any dialogue at all: "Tropic of Capricorn" by Henry Miller. I may be mistaken, but I don't recall any dialogue in that novel. I have to double check this, though.

Of course, there's the opposite, where a book is almost exclusively dialogue and no descriptive passages. The one that comes to mind is "Eternal Curse on The Reader of These Pages" by Manuel Puig. The book tells the story through almost 100% dialogue through the two characters in the book. I think at the very very end, there is a descriptive passage. Otherwise, it's almost exclusively dialogue. A very interesting way to approach a novel and in my view, he pulls it off amazingly well.

playstation60

I would say it depends on the story. You can always go back and add any dialoge later on. I prefer stories with dialoge, it helps move along the plot, in my eyes, and also makes the characters more engaging.

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Dookie

This is quite strange because I am currently three quarters of the way through Life of Pi at the moment and I have only just realised now that you mention it that it has almost no dialogue! I agree it is a very good book so far.

My story does have a lot of action and it has an ongoing enigma in it so I hope it is good.

Dookie

Playstation60

Thats what I'm worried about. I am planning on killing one of the characters sooner or later and who will care if the readers dont even know him?!

TsuTseQ

Dialogue isn't the only way to let readers become close to your characters. Memories, thoughts and actions are also ways through which a character becomes known.

I suppose it all depends on your tone and the voice you've chosen for the story.

I adored Pi Patel and he barely spoke.

Anyhoo, you should worry about that later -- that's what editing is for. Just enjoy the writing for now.

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Dookie

Good call.

Whende

It just depends on the type of person who is reading it. Some people (like me) love dialog. Other people don't really care while yet others love it with out. Maybe they even hate it with out. It just depends on the type of people you want to read it.

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Hodge

Dialog is a staple...

Most stories simply do not work without dialog.

I've only encountered one exception, and it's called Raptor Red. Rather than including dialog (dinosaurs can't talk except in that sitcom and some horrible children's movies), it details what the raptors feel. Pretty cool.

But you need dialog unless you aren't including characters that can talk.

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damien_frosst

I figure that without dialogue, the story would naturally lean towards first person. That way you can cover the thoughts and feelings of the narrator. There wouldn't need to be much actual dialogue. Most of it could be written as assumed, but there's probably a few ways to do something like this.

I've got a partial idea for a story that's likely not to have much dialogue. I'm just working out how exactly to write it.

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Damien

In my world, there are no heroes, only really polite villians.

Kikster

I personally like dialogue, and have a little bit of a hard time reading books that are too descriptive... BUT, as many people said, it depends on what kind of story you are writing. if there's a lot of action or a lot of introspection then you might pull it off.

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Kira the wanderer

Hmm.. You should have some dialog...