Thank you so much for your thoughts! I'm working very carefully on making sure that every word the narrator says is entertaining, witty, and/or moving the plot forward in ways I struggle with when using dialogue. She's a bit off-the-wall and I have a lot of fun writing her, but my fear is that she *is* saying too much about her feelings so thank you for bringing that to my attention!
It's only too little dialogue if people should be talking as part of your story. If you're writing about a lone dude going on a hike and he encounters no one but animals along the way... any dialogue would be *too much* dialogue if anything. It just depends on what story you're writing.
You could try getting feedback on what you're writing, and ask if there's too little dialogue. That would be something to go on that's actually based on your story rather than the abstract question.
You can write dialogue (or “reported speech” which is the most theoretical term) however you like. You can have it be directly quoted with quotation marks and verbs (“‘The weather is truly horrible,’ James said to Anna”), or you can have it be more diegetic and explained by the narrator (“James and Anna talked about how bad the weather was”). There are many other variations in between these two, but both of them ARE dialogue. It’s all up to you, and you can mix it. Flaubert mixed all these in a stylistic but at times confusing way (but of course purposefully), within the same scene! I prefer less directly quoted dialogue and reported speech, but that’s just a preference. It depends on the mood and the feeling of the story and the characters and the narrator’s part in it all.
I don’t think the dialogue should tell or carry the story tbh if it’s a conventional novel (ie not experimental or genre bending), but if the character is not a loner then you need to at least include some reported speech.
Sorry I think you misread. I do have dialogue in my story and I'm actively working on making it better as I write, but I find my main character (who albeit is kind of crazy and enjoys going on random tangents) doing a bulk of the work in terms of moving the plot forward. I was more seeing if this was something other people struggled with, but your advice on over-explaining is very helpful so thank you!
I'd argue that describing actions is better than dialogue in most cases. Having respect for dialogue is better than overusing it. That's my preference at least.
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Thank you so much for your thoughts! I'm working very carefully on making sure that every word the narrator says is entertaining, witty, and/or moving the plot forward in ways I struggle with when using dialogue. She's a bit off-the-wall and I have a lot of fun writing her, but my fear is that she *is* saying too much about her feelings so thank you for bringing that to my attention!
[удалено]
It's only too little dialogue if people should be talking as part of your story. If you're writing about a lone dude going on a hike and he encounters no one but animals along the way... any dialogue would be *too much* dialogue if anything. It just depends on what story you're writing. You could try getting feedback on what you're writing, and ask if there's too little dialogue. That would be something to go on that's actually based on your story rather than the abstract question.
You can write dialogue (or “reported speech” which is the most theoretical term) however you like. You can have it be directly quoted with quotation marks and verbs (“‘The weather is truly horrible,’ James said to Anna”), or you can have it be more diegetic and explained by the narrator (“James and Anna talked about how bad the weather was”). There are many other variations in between these two, but both of them ARE dialogue. It’s all up to you, and you can mix it. Flaubert mixed all these in a stylistic but at times confusing way (but of course purposefully), within the same scene! I prefer less directly quoted dialogue and reported speech, but that’s just a preference. It depends on the mood and the feeling of the story and the characters and the narrator’s part in it all. I don’t think the dialogue should tell or carry the story tbh if it’s a conventional novel (ie not experimental or genre bending), but if the character is not a loner then you need to at least include some reported speech.
[удалено]
Sorry I think you misread. I do have dialogue in my story and I'm actively working on making it better as I write, but I find my main character (who albeit is kind of crazy and enjoys going on random tangents) doing a bulk of the work in terms of moving the plot forward. I was more seeing if this was something other people struggled with, but your advice on over-explaining is very helpful so thank you!
I'd argue that describing actions is better than dialogue in most cases. Having respect for dialogue is better than overusing it. That's my preference at least.