This is another question I’ve seen authors ask online. It’s a good question. Dialogue is a necessary part of fiction, because dialogue it drives a lot of the plot.
But it is possible to have too much dialogue?
I suspect the answer is yes. It is possible to have too much dialogue. And like the old story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, it’s also possible to have too little.
As with Goldilocks, it’s partly a matter of taste. Some readers like fast-paced dialogue-heavy genres. Other readers prefer slower-paced narrative-heavy literary fiction. It’s a matter of personal style and author voice. But there are some instances where there can be too much or too little dialogue, and that’s often a writing issue rather than a style preference.
Too Much Dialogue
Too much dialogue, and the reader will start feeling that nothing is happening. And they’d be right. Dialogue without action is doesn’t move the story forward—in real life, or in fiction.
When else can we have too much dialogue?
- When the dialogue isn’t adding to the plot.
- When the dialogue is telling, not showing.
- When the dialogue is telling and showing.
- When the dialogue overwhelms the action.
- When the dialogue is too predictable.
Lets look at each of these:
When the dialogue isn’t adding to the plot
Each scene in a novel has multiple purposes:
A good scene will enrich character, provide necessary information to the audience and move the plot forward.
Les Standiford in The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing
In the same way, good dialogue will enrich character, provide necessary information, and move the plot forward. This means avoiding conversations where nothing happens. Small talk is a natural part of everyday life, but it’s something we should avoid when writing fiction. If there is apparent small talk, then it should serve a larger purpose e.g. foreshadowing a future event.
Click here for information on foreshadowing, not telegraphing.
When the dialogue is telling, not showing.
One of the primary “rules” of modern fiction writing is to show, not tell. In general, dialogue is a form of action, and action is showing. As such, it’s easy to think there can’t be too much dialogue in a novel.
Click here for more guidance on showing, not telling.
In theory, dialogue is showing where narration is telling. But not always.
Sometimes there is an “as you know, Bob” conversation.
This is where two characters spend pages and pages sharing information they already know. That’s not a conversation real people would have in real life. It’s telling, because it’s the author using dialogue to share backstory or an info dump.
The fix here is to determine exactly what information the reader needs to know at this point of the story, and share it through a single line of dialogue, or through interior monologue.
Sometimes the conversation is shown rather than the action.
In this case, two characters sit down over a cup of tea or a meal and share information about an event that’s just occurred. This is different from the “as you know, Bob” conversation in that only one person in the conversation knows what happened, so the other person is learning this information at the same time as the reader. However, it’s still telling.
The fix here is to determine whether the events being related are significant enough to write as a scene. If so, write them as a scene. If not, keep the conversation brief and ensure the plot keeps moving forward.
When the dialogue is telling and showing.
Sometimes an author will show a conversation where a proposed future action is being discussed. For example, the teenagers are planning a party, or the Navy SEALs are planning their hostage rescue attempt. They will then show the event—the party or the rescue.
The problem here is that they are showing the same scene twice. If everything goes according to plan, it’s repetition. And while words or phrases can be repeated for effect, the same isn’t true at the scene level.
Also, readers have been trained to expect that we won’t read the same scene twice.
If we see the characters planning the party or the rescue attempt, we then expect it to go wrong. If it doesn’t, we wonder why the planning scene was included (and we’re secretly disappointed). However, this combination of scenes can be used to add tension when you do plan for something to go wrong. Your reader expects something to go wrong, but they don’t know what or when.
The fix is easy: if you show the planning scene and the action scene, cut the planning scene or tighten it to focus on the point where something will go wrong in the execution of the plan.
When the dialogue overwhelms the action.
A good novel has a balance between action, dialogue, and narration. Adding dialogue adds white space to the page. This gives the impression of pace in fiction, not least because dialogue tends to be short sentences and paragraphs.
In contrast, interior monologue and narration tend to have longer sentences and paragraphs, even when that narration is describing action. Too many long sentences and paragraphs, and the text will feel dense to the reader. They may start skipping (and they’ll probably be skipping ahead to the dialogue).
The fix here is to make sure each page has a balance of dialogue, action, interior monologue, and narrative.
When the dialogue is too predictable
We want to avoid predictable dialogue, in the same way as we want to avoid predictable plots. If the reader can predict the next line of dialogue, why do they need to read it? They don’t. And give them too many lines of predictable dialogue, and they’ll start skipping.
Some instructors warn writers against writing “on the nose” dialogue. That’s another way of saying predictable dialogue.
The fix is to mix up your dialogue. Have your characters give an unexpected response, or change the subject (something which is entirely normal in regular conversation).
Too Little Dialogue
It’s also possible to have too little dialogue. This is just as much of a problem as too much dialogue, because it can slow the pace of the novel and give the impression the plot isn’t moving forward. The main reason a novel has too little dialogue is because it has too much of something else—usually description or interior monologue.
Too much description
We need some description in our novels. In particular, it’s important to anchor the reader in the setting at the beginning of each scene. But too much description soon becomes telling, which is a problem.
Too much interior monologue
The other too much is interior monologue. While interior monologue is generally showing, too much can easily become telling. In particular, be wary of interrupting dialogue for long passages of interior monologue. Too much introspection and the reader can lose the plot—literally. I’ve read novels where I’ve had to turn back two or three pages when a character speaks so I can remember what was last said.
Click here to read my tips for writing interior monologue.
The fix here is to use interior monologue as a form of speaker attribution, but keep it to a sentence or two, and make sure the conversation (and the plot) keep moving forward.
