How Much Dialogue is Too Much | Writers Start Here

[@m.e.fair.9683]

This is exactly what I need right now! I'm finishing up the first draft of a novella and am trying not to worry about my messy dialogue ('cause first are always messy!) This video came out at the perfect time to prep on problems I'll be taking care of in the editing phase. Thanks so much for all your advice! Hope you have a wonderful day! 📚📚📚

[@isabellenygren8651]

Said is not dead, I am married to said and we live in a beachhouse and spend our time holding hands and frolicking on the sand

[@gabyfraga9294]

The dialog tags drive me insaaaaaane I swear! This was really usefull advice :D

[@Writing-Theory]

Those pesky dialogue tags 😅 I totally feel you.

[@Amie13Hussain]

I hope he addresses action beats, because in real life, a lot of our communication is nonverbal. As much as "said is dead" is bogus, having the characters not move when theyre talking makes them seem more like statues or mannequins. So much can be said without words. She fiddles with her shirt sleeve because she's worried about the wrinkles in it. He clenches his fists in an argument, trying to contain his anger. She touches her locket when her late father is mentioned, because she has his picture in there. Nervous ticks, quirky habits, they make the characters come alive for me.

[@kilobyteqt]

Thank god for my friends in the discord community for helping me with the formatting for my dialogue in my short story!!!

[@r.e.holding]

It's interesting to think that improperly formatting dialogue can disconnect a reader... something I never thought about, but it makes total sense!

[@woclass-w2g]

I personally hate No Country For Old Men for the lack of dialogue indicators. It felt like chaos to read it. I didn't know who said what, or the new paragraph is a dialogue or just a description. Without quotation marks, it really feels like it's being told by your grandpa sitting next to a campfire. You can hear the voice of the writer in your head, and I really hate those stories.

[@GilmarGirl]

Super agree on use of the word "said." You don't want dialogue tags to be the focus in dialogue, you want your eyes to glaze over it and see what is actually being said. Coming up with weird alternatives reads as amateurish to me and it's immersion breaking most of the time.

[@kaleidokai11]

the way i was asking myself this question literally yesterday

[@xChikyx]

i like dialigue, and I have lots of it in my stories

[@vCoralSandsv]

Let's talk Dialogue!

[@ElicBehexan]

I had someone complain about using "said" in a story. I agree, they get tired of hearing them read aloud, but most stories are not read aloud. And this was from someone who wrote a new chapter for every scene change, even if it were just waiting a bit for something. She was "published" via a vanity press...

[@futurestoryteller]

My thoughts are almost entirely verbal, if you write "said" I'm gonna hear it.

[@ElicBehexan]

@@futurestoryteller "said" is a nearly invisible dialogue tag. I won't be "Tom Swifty" about it.

[@futurestoryteller]

@@ElicBehexan Sounds more fun to me.

[@jannisk.484]

Hi, I am curious about how to establish organic dialogue that does not sound too much like big exposition or just the big bad explaining his evil plan. I wanna write real dialogue and let it sound epic and meaningful. Best regards from germany :)

[@cebee2106]

I hope you'll also mention how many dialogue tags are appropriate and how much beats of body language description is good. I feel like I nail the speech every time, but not the descriptions. I always feel like I use too much

[@doctorkiro]

Does ProWritingAid have support for Brazillian Portuguese writers?

[@Red-in-Green]

I’ve been really insecure of late about how much dialogue I have (it’s a lot). But also my story is entirely character driven, so hm.

[@futurestoryteller]

Said is not "invisible". I've always wondered why people who insist on this framing don't opt for something even *more* practical; the character's name followed by a colon. If the ONLY purpose is to let us know who is speaking, and what they said, not like _how_ they actually said it, this should be the most appealing option, yet for "some reason" no one uses it, and no one proposes it. Perhaps because it's reminiscent of plays and screenplays, and that's "low brow" compared to prose. I'm reminded of a comment I saw on a video recently that was like "'You need to use more descriptive words, don't just say he walked across the room. Did he prance? Lumber? Shuffle? Mosey? Swagger? Always look for the most descriptive verb' and then 'NO, no NO, don't say he asked, grunted, snapped. Yelled? Ridiculous *always* said!'" It really is a total and complete contradiction in artistic logic. What's even sillier about it, the MOST invisible dialogue tag would _obviously_ be a non-existent one. If a writer can consistently bury the relevant information in lines of action, always allowing the reader to know who is speaking through context, *that* would be invisible. I also get that amateurs especially need to temper their expectations when it comes to skill level, but "You can be great when you already are." is probably the most condescending and disingenuous way to prepare them for disappointment.

[@ordinaryguy1414]

About the one long dialogue, can I just break it into pieces by putting descriptive sentences. Something like: "he sat down and continued..."

[@shootingstars6762]

Yes, you can. People do it all the time.

[@MrRosebeing]

About this much.

[@dcle944]

You make it hard to measure. Is a line of dialogue one sentence or ten sentences? One word or 100 words? You’re using lines out of 1000 words rather than 1000 lines. 1000 words is about 4-5 pages and about 80-100 lines. So 1/3-1/4 of the text?