Do I have to force myself to conform? - Writers Forum

dark+stormynight · 08-01-2006, 03:43 PM

Overall, I’m happy with the progress I’m making on my first novel. But one major concern becomes apparent whenever I read through any well known published works. My previous writing experience mostly involved non-fiction magazine articles, where I would describe things in great detail; either concepts, technology or historical events.

You may see where this is leading… I constantly catch myself writing four or five pages of narrative with no dialogue. Then my characters will interact for a page or two and then its back to more narrative, usually the thoughts of my main character. But when I look at any successful books, it seems that the reader is never more than two modest paragraphs away from dialogue; it seems like the entire story is often told through dialogue. I’m not sure if I could write that way if my life depended on it, nor do I think it’s appropriate for my story, which is very much the story of a single individual, a decision he makes and the events that result from that decision.

But am I dooming myself to an unpublishable manuscript? Or one that is not ‘reader-friendly’ even if published?

I’m at the point now where I’m considering re-writing sections for no other reason than to include more character interaction and dialogue. Can anyone provide some insight regarding this situation? (FWIW, the book is a murder mystery told from the assassin’s point of view.)

mandax · 08-01-2006, 06:24 PM

I don't know. I just read 1984, and a lot of that was definitely just narrative. It wasn't just constant dialogue at all. I think if it's good enough, it'll work.

SilkFX · 08-01-2006, 06:52 PM

I'm going to co-sign this part of Mandax's statement:

If it's good enough, it'll work.

Write how you want to write.

mwd · 08-01-2006, 07:12 PM

As long as your narrative is interesting, it will be fine. If your narrative is boring, that's when you start to have trouble.

cbrmale · 08-02-2006, 12:13 AM

The heading of your thread indicates a bias. There is no hard and fast rule, all writers play around with the ratio of dialogue depending on whats happening in the story. If you were to write a sequence on a man on the run from, say, a Prisoner of War camp in Germany, it would be 90% narrative because he just wants to keep his head down, not take a risk with his German language skills, and use his wits to get out of there.

Generally, if you take something that you have written and turn it into good dialogue, you will find that generally it will read a lot better. It will be lighter, brighter, fresher, leap out of the page at you. Generally too, turning narrative into dialogue is not too difficult, unless your character is alone with his thoughts such as my POW evader above.

I am a non-fiction writer like you, and I had to adjust my writing style to suit creative fiction. Once I crossed the bridge, so to speak, I find that a good proportion of dialogue does work better.

imrhati · 08-02-2006, 12:58 AM

if you could have put in dialogue and didn't that is probably a bad thing.

Talia_Brie · 08-02-2006, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by imrhati

if you could have put in dialogue and didn't that is probably a bad thing.

I sort of agree with this. If you're deliberately avoiding dialogue, then that's not a good thing, but it doesn't sound like that's what you're doing.

The most important thing to remember is that for a novel to be successful now it needs to be well paced. That's the determining factor. Dialogue is very well paced, and dense narrative description is not.

So weigh that question up, and decide for yourself.

dark+stormynight · 09-25-2006, 04:50 PM

There is no hard and fast rule, all writers play around with the ratio of dialogue, depending on whats happening in the story. If you were to write a sequence on a man on the run from, say, a Prisoner of War camp in Germany, it would be 90% narrative because he just wants to keep his head down, not take a risk with his German language skills, and use his wits to get out of there.

Generally, if you take something that you have written and turn it into good dialogue, you will find that generally it will read a lot better. It will be lighter, brighter, fresher, leap out of the page at you. Generally too, turning narrative into dialogue is not too difficult, unless your character is alone with his thoughts such as my POW evader above.

Thank you! Your POW example really hit home as my main character is the murderer (story told from his POV) and a lot of the story revolves around his plotting and planning the upcoming murder. And of course, he does not discuss this with anyone, so it takes place in his head.

But please talk me out of this cliched idea that came to me the other day. I thought that my murderer could have a long running email corresponance with an old college roomate who lives on the other side of the country that he hasn't seen in person in nearly twenty years. He could request that the old roomate provide constructive criticism on a murder story that he is thinking of turning into a screenplay. That would allow me to describe everything in my lead character's head, only as an email to his old friend. There could be several rounds of back and forth between them to work out the details. It works in terms of getting the job done, but it just seems like a terrible cliche. Comments?

Policeartist · 09-25-2006, 05:02 PM

Your murderer probably has a life to lead that would be independent of his plans--people he works with, family, friends (even Jeffery Dahmer had family, and Yates had four children or so.) You can use dialogue in those cases--making him quite normal--and therefore his murder plan soooooo much ickier.... Sometimes it's the contrast between the "normal" outside and the "horrible" inside that makes for a great story. Again another real person--Ted Bundy--was so frightening because he seemed so normal.
-Just a thought.

cbrmale · 09-25-2006, 05:37 PM

There are probably times when narrative is the only way to go, I wrote a prisoner of war in Germany evading capture and returning to his lover in France. About eighty percent narrative 'cause he had to keep his head down and out of trouble. But even then I had snatches of dialogue to break it up, and I hooked into his character trait of obsession with pretty females and have him converse with a young and attractive widow on a train to make a point of the tragedy of the conflict that he was involved in.

Reading it back just now, without him chancing his German language skills on the train, it would have been too dense and slow. It needed dialogue to lift it.

Kimba · 09-25-2006, 06:48 PM

I read an Australian crime series a while back by Gary Discher. It was from the POV of a petty crminal known as Wyatt [cant' remember his first name]. It was written soley in the first narrative and work quite well.

Admittedly, it's been a while since I read it so if anyone else has read it, you might be able to elaborate on it.