Dialogue vs. Description

As I've mentioned in the past, my stories tend to be pretty heavy in dialogue. To me, there's nothing more frustrating than encountering a giant, unbroken, rectangular block of text on a page. I don't care how vivid the description is--if nothing's happening, I'm not interested.

However--I feel the same way about long expository sections. It's the same feeling I get when someone describes a movie to me in excessive detail. Why isn't that the same as seeing it myself? Because we don't see a movie to learn about a specific plot. We go to see that plot unfolded before us through the actors' portrayal.

In that case, what do I like? For me, that's character. A story is only as interesting as the people who are participating in it. If you don't believe me, consider this.

Did you hear that Ellen just started going out with Jim? What do you think Larry will do when he finds out?

Ah, gossip. There's nothing more interesting... if you know the people being gossiped about. Otherwise, you might as well listening to static and watching a television test pattern. It would take an unusual event to get you to start listening to gossip about people you don't know, and even more to keep you listening.

But really, that's what storytelling is. It's gossip about people you don't know. Over the course of the story, you may come to know them, which is called becoming invested in the characters. If you don't get to know them like that, one of the biggest motivations to keep reading is gone.

Now, the point of all of this was dialogue, as opposed to description and exposition. The function of dialogue is character interaction, which is the heart of what drives plot forward. Just try to find a story with only two characters in which those characters don't interact. (Yes, they can interact without speaking. I'm saying that dialogue is a kind of interaction, not the only kind.)

But dialogue has other effects too. When a person speaks, he's not just getting across his message--he's also revealing things about himself. Through dialogue, you can move the plot forward in a way that doesn't rely on huge paragraphs of exposition, and you can shine a light on character in a way that engages the reader.

Dialogue has one other side effect that's all thanks to the way English grammar works. The typical rule is one speaker per paragraph. So when there's dialogue, those huge blocks of text get broken up into smaller pieces, and the eye can fly down the page. You want to write a page turner? Then stop spending six pages describing the sunset. If it's important, get a couple of characters talking about the sunset. Then we learn about those characters based on the way they describe the sunset, their reaction to it and each other.