Dialog alone

[ambiguousbob]

"What do you all think of stories that are told purely via dialog between two (or more) characters?"

"Always annoying."

"Nah, sometimes creates a useful atmosphere of urgency."

"For the love of God, if you must do it, at least keep it short."

"I wonder if there's another viewpoint on this."

 

[NotWise]

I won't read it.

 

[DwellerDark]

It sounds like a gimmick.

 

[RejectReality]

Going to be difficult to pull off erotica with dialogue only and not have it sound worse than the cheesiest of god-awful porn flicks.

 

[lovecraft68]

Going to be difficult to pull off erotica with dialogue only and not have it sound worse than the cheesiest of god-awful porn flicks.

But with the stroke faction here it could work.

 

[lovecraft68]

"What do you think of a dialogue only story?"

"Well, it depends is it literally all dialog?"

"That's what I asked."

"Well, they could do things like 'Get over here' Tommy beckoned. Meaning they threw some descriptions in there as well to break up the endless words and help painta brief picture."

"It would still suck."

"Fuck you."

"No, fuck you, I"m writing this piece, not you."

 

[RejectReality]

But with the stroke faction here it could work.

I don't know about that. You're going to have to describe everything with dialogue.

I get this image in my head of Engrish Ikea furniture directions sprinkled with dirty words.

 

[lovecraft68]

I don't know about that. You're going to have to describe everything with dialogue.

I get this image in my head of Engrish Ikea furniture directions sprinkled with dirty words.

Hmm, probably right.

"Oh, Oh, I'm using long hard strokes!"

"Um, ohh, my pussy is quivering around your cock."

 

[Ewobbit]

I remember doing this as an exercise in a writing seminar. It was pretty fucking tough. I admit that I probably go way, way, way overboard on expository text (hence the reason I went to that particular seminar). I try to cut back on inter-dialogue exposition (like, she said with a twinkle in her eye and a twitch at the corner of her luscious mouth), but I freely admit that I can't do dialogue for shit anyway. So a whole thing of nothing but dialogue makes my eye twitch.

As far as reading it, I don't think I would. I mean, maybe if it was really well done by someone able to to thread linguistic cues through the lexicon used by the two (or more) talking... But, it would have to really grab me by the nuts right out the gate or I would most likely bail at about a page or so.

 

[GoldenCojones]

I read a story by Hemingway once that was mostly dialog. Not entirely, but mostly. I wish I could remember the name. It was a couple sitting and talking and only at the end did you realize they were talking about the woman getting an abortion. Or at least that is how I remember it. But it could have been something totally different.

Anyway, it was a good story, but not erotic. I don't think I could pull off erotic with only dialog.

 

[Ewobbit]

I read a story by Hemingway once that was mostly dialog. Not entirely, but mostly. I wish I could remember the name. It was a couple sitting and talking and only at the end did you realize they were talking about the woman getting an abortion. Or at least that is how I remember it. But it could have been something totally different.

Anyway, it was a good story, but not erotic. I don't think I could pull off erotic with only dialog.

"Hills Like White Elephants", I believe. Where "the American" was trying to convince "Jig" to have an abortion, right?

 

[GoldenCojones]

"Hills Like White Elephants", I believe. Where "the American" was trying to convince "Jig" to have an abortion, right?

That sounds right. I'll have to look for it now that it's in my head.

 

[Weird Harold]

"What do you think of a dialogue only story?"

"Well, it depends is it literally all dialog?"

"That's what I asked."

"Well, they could do things like 'Get over here' Tommy beckoned. Meaning they threw some descriptions in there as well to break up the endless words and help painta brief picture."

"It would still suck."

"Fuck you."

"No, fuck you, I"m writing this piece, not you."

As an experiment, I wrote a story that was not only all dialog, but had no dialog tags. It was more a humor piece than it was erotica and not a very good story.

What feedback I got was more on the poor story than the lack of dialog tags or exposition. I consider the experiment a success, in that the problem wasn't the dialog or lack of tags and exposition but the rather rudimentary story.

It isn't a technique I would use for a stroke story or most other erotica, but It's a handy writing technique for short sections of a larger story or for some non-erotic works.

 

[Hypoxia]

Dialog alone, sure, it CAN be done, but SHOULD it? In anything longer than a vignette? For anything but the author's mental masturbation? Yes, it's a gimmick. Yes, gimmicks can be made to work if carefully constructed. But I wouldn't want a steady diet of such,

 

[sr71plt]

About anything can be made to work and will be a standout when it does (I've recently seen second person work when I didn't think it ever could). And sometimes a gimmick works too. I won a mainstream contest with a story that was all dialogue that started in midsentence and ended in midsentence. It was short, of course. But I think that I did it and made it work was what got a check sent to me. To me, working to formula to either win a contest or get good ratings is a sellout.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Dialogue alone?

After a while I reckon I'd be thinking, will you lot shut the fuck up and take in the scenery for a change. Silence can be louder than words. For a vignette, maybe it would work (it would want to be a bloody good conversation!) In my experience, when most people yap on too much, it becomes drivel real quick...

How would you even manage it for more than two people? Wouldn't it then become a play?

---------

She couldn't hear a word he said. She'd been born completely deaf, and he didn't know any sign language. Their conversation was, therefore, non existent. That didn't matter, because the touch of their fingers on their skin was exquisite, there was no need for words....

 

[Bramblethorn]

As live conversation it can be difficult to sustain, but epistolary stories (told through letters) can work very well. Screwtape Letters, 84 Charing Cross Road, Les Liaisons dangereuses, etc. etc.

 

[Carnevil9]

How would you even manage it for more than two people? Wouldn't it then become a play?

That's what I was thinking. You are basically talking about a screenplay. Those can work.

 

[Hypoxia]

As live conversation it can be difficult to sustain, but epistolary stories (told through letters) can work very well. Screwtape Letters, 84 Charing Cross Road, Les Liaisons dangereuses, etc. etc.

And Dracula. But epistles are monologues. Want a pretty-much dialog-only format? Radio plays! Okay, so they use sound effects, and narrators may intone. Alas, we don't hear words the same way we read them.

Is transparent writing a goal? Do you want readers to forget that they're reading printed words and instead be absorbed into a dreamworld? Dialogue without setting is usually not transparent to me. Neither are POV+tense tricks like 2nd person present or 1st person future. NOTE: Such tricks are common in songs; like dialogue-only storytelling, they sound better than they read.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

http://jacklimpert.com/2014/08/writers-work-elmore-leonard-learned-george-v-higgins/

Try some George V. Higgins.

Elmore Leonard, a successful writer for 25 years before Higgins came along, said Higgins taught him how to write.

Dialog was pretty much all Higgins wrote.

http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/2011/09/13/george-v-higgins-an-appreciation-of-boston’s-balzac/

 

[Handley_Page]

It sounds more like a script.
Difficult, I think, but possible, maybe.

 

[blin18]

Want a pretty-much dialog-only format? Radio plays!

I tried it. It worked, kind of. Was it as hot as a narrative? No way, but it was a bit of good fun.

https://www.literotica.com/s/tech-support-5

 

[oggbashan]

It can be done. Whether it works?

It is difficult but not impossible, and might annoy some readers.

This one of mine is mainly dialogue:

https://www.literotica.com/s/two-tarts-in-a-kitchen

It is a parody of a television advertising standard ploy, two women discussing a domestic product.

 

[redzinger]

I often use dialogue between people to develop the plot, or add info, instead of internalising it. Been contemplating recently if it's too much.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

I don't know if I could tell a long erotic story solely through dialogue, but my highest rated story in BDSM (and a real favorite with my fans) starts out with pages of dialogue and first person reflection. One of the characters effectively tells a story about something that happened to her, and it's very erotic. See https://www.literotica.com/s/why-i-hate-my-roommate-ch-01

BDSM doesn't have to mean pages of whipping and fucking, and I'd argue that it sucks when written that way.

Dialogue reveals a lot about characters. If you're not writing a stroker, the more the merrier.