What do you think of a book driven by dialogue?

[Kuroneko97]

I'll be Simple and Clean, because that's the way I'm feeling tonight.

I'm writing a story, but I was told that it seemed to be driven to much by dialogue. I initially started writing so since I wanted to write a light novel, and such books are usually short, easy to read, and driven by dialogue. Now, I understand that a book cannot be driven JUST by dialogue, and perhaps I could improve on incorporating other elements. However, I'd like to hear the opinions of others.

(For any who don't know what a light novel is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_novel)

 

[Vault101]

ummm...well thats kind of like a comic book, purely diaoglue and context/action is privived by the picutures

I think its only a problem if it feels bland or you actually cant tell whats going on setting wise

 

[Veebs]

If it's a good story where character development is a strong focus, dialogue can be a great way to show that. There does, though, need to be some action, or really it's just two people sitting across from each other having a conversation, it gets boring and hard to follow after awhile. Even in the most interesting conversations being a viewer makes that, well, boring for lack of a better term. Depending on how you write the story, first or third person, there are a lot of ways to do this without necessarily breaking the flow of dialogue. If it's a first person, having the person's inner monologue play a key role in the story can be a great way to move the action along while still keeping that dialogue rolling. It's hard to tell without seeing the work though whether or not you are using too much dialogue or not though.

 

[The Emissary]

It depends on the the author, the dialogue can be brilliant, but I'm not going to read a book full of he said, she saids.

 

[requisitename]

Too much dialogue is something that will cause me not to read a book.However, I haven't read what I would consider a "light novel" based on the wikipedia page and other sources since junior high and I've never read one that would fit into the anime/manga classification. I've found that most authors aren't very good at keeping dialogue easy to follow when there's a lot of it, so I end up doing a lot of frustrating backtracking to figure out who is saying what.. and that totally ruins my immersion in a book.

 

[Lilani]

I'll be Simple and Clean, because that's the way I'm feeling tonight.

I'm writing a story, but I was told that it seemed to be driven to much by dialogue. I initially started writing so since I wanted to write a light novel, and such books are usually short, easy to read, and driven by dialogue. Now, I understand that a book cannot be driven JUST by dialogue, and perhaps I could improve on incorporating other elements. However, I'd like to hear the opinions of others.

(For any who don't know what a light novel is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_novel)

I don't know about JUST dialog. Just experiment, I guess. You'll have to make sure the setting and context is simple enough that you can seamlessly reveal it in the dialog. Either that, or present it somewhat like a screenplay, only providing narration when a major scene change or action is occurring.

You may try playing with point of view, as well. Try looking into an objective point of view--no inner monologue, no intruding into the character's head. All of the narration is driven specifically by what happens. In other words, no subjective reflections or embellishments regarding what is happening. The only ways the reader is getting information is through either the character's words or physical actions. Hills Like White Elephants is a good example of this, and it's nice and short.

 

[rabidmidget]

What are the characters doing while they're talking? If it's something dynamic (like taking a walk), you could occasionally focus attention on whatever different sights they see and even reflect this in their dialogue.

 

[PotluckBrigand]

If you can make it compelling then more power to you. I am always interested in fiction that shirks convention as long as it's good. I don't think it's always necessary for an author to tell the reader everything, so if your dialogue can provide contextual clues that allow us to use our imagination, I'm all for it. I'd be happy to read it if you have a rough and give feedback. (I'm not a professional by any means. I used to write for a now-defunct comic book company and I was a runner-up in Blizzard's writing contest two years ago, that's it haha. Still, I always need a second pair of eyes.)

 

[Amarok]

Anything can be done well, or badly.

I've seen short stories that were 100% dialogue which really benefitted from the change of pace, but that style wouldn't work for every story, and adding to that of course, your dialogue would have to be good. Strong, believable character voices. If the dialogue is nothing special but we have LOTS of it, then there might be problems.

Just crank out a first draft, go through it yourself for a bit, see if you find anything immediately fizable, then get some feedback from people you can trust to be honest with you and not just say they like it to avoid hurting your feelings*.


*Of course, if your feelings are actually hurt by criticism, you may be in the wrong field.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Depends what the dialogue is.

In university I saw a lot of stories that were 'driven by dialogue' and they were absolutely shocking, because the dialogue was all about dickhead students doing dickhead things (obviously my classmates drew on real life experience badum tish) They were probably intended as 'dramatic real life expose' type stories but frankly, I don't want to read about what you did on a Saturday night.

Now on the other hand a horror story driven by dialogue, where the psychological terror is brought out by the character's speech, is fantastic. A political intrigue thriller, where obviously speeches and speaking play a large part, would make for very interesting plays on the expected.

In general, find a profession or genre where a lot of talking would be required (psychologist, politician, teacher, Star Trek captain) and build the story around the ways that speech influences and affects their lives.

 

[SckizoBoy]

It... can...

But you need to weave the active narrative into the dialogue to the extent that it's informative, but not flow-breaking. I tend to avoid such an approach unless you deliberately intend to give the core of the dialogue (i.e. the reasons behind what's said) particular meaning, otherwise, yeah, as some people have mentioned, it'll just seem like a bunch of people talking in a room and that can go flat very quickly...

 

[BathorysGraveland]

I'm an aspiring author myself, and I just try to use an equal balance. My characters interact with each other a lot, so there is going to be loads of dialogue. But they are also out on adventures and shit, so there is a lot of exploration and interaction with the environments and stuff, and sword fighting action and stuff like that. So I'd say keeping a balance is the best idea, but of course it all depends on the genre.