Is it possible to use too much dialogue?ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Published:
February 16, 2012
Q: Is it possible to use too much dialogue?
A: Here’s one
answer: No, a story can’t have too much dialogue. Look at Dorothy
Parker’s celebrated short story “Here We Are,” which follows a newlywed
couple on the train ride to their honeymoon destination. In the short
story collection Fiction Gallery,
“Here We Are” takes up approximately nine pages. The opening paragraphs
are narrative and the rest of the story is almost entirely dialogue. I
didn’t count how many words make up narrative after those opening
paragraphs, but I could have without losing too much time. Plenty of
stories, including many by Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver, rely
heavily on dialogue.
Of course, the opposite answer is true, too: Yes, it’s possible to use too much dialogue. |
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