A question about dialogue

[Guest]

I'm pretty new to short story writing. I've mostly written commentary style articles but have started writing a romantic short story. My question to you is.......How do you feel about stories with no dialogue? What if the main character is looking back on something that happened quite some time ago and the story is taking place in her mind. Is this making any sense? I guess what I'm trying to find out is how you all feel about stories without dialogue?

Have a great rest of the day, all.

WildHoney

 

[Mickie]

The trouble with no dialogue is that makes the story into nothing but exposition. It has less action, and becomes less interesting to most readers. Have you ever seen a movie with no dialogue? Did you like it?

A main character looking back on something is a flashback, and those should be handled with care. It's better to use dialogue, even in a flashback, because it gives the scene a sense of urgency, of happening in the now, even though it was in the past, that draws the reader into the story. Exposition tells what happened, and action shows it. Showing is always better than telling.

Mickie

 

[Weird Harold]

A story without dialogue is like...

a silent movie.

There are two kinds of "dialogue" -- Internal, and External.

Internal is a character's thoughts, puntuated with Italics intsead of quoation marks

External is words spoken aloud (even if there is no answer.)

Any time I see words like "said", "told," "asked," "replied," "thought," et al, I subconsciously expect to see either quotation marks or Italics.

 

[Whispersecret]

I agree with Mickie. I prefer to read stories that have action. (No, I'm not talking sex action, necessarily!) If you have your heart set on having the character reminisce, try a flashback. Then you can have her looking back on a memory and still have the characters actively talking and doing.

 

[WildHoney]

Thank you all for the great advice. I understand what you've all written and will incorporate some kind of dialogue into the story. I appreciate your help with this. I guess just having a story without dialogue would be like reading an essay in English class. ha!

Have a great day, all.

WildHoney

 

[Closet Desire]

It can work...

...but it's difficult.

You could try writing it as a memoir, but interject dialogue for certain events to breathe life and action into it. This is a fairly common technique and not too hard to do. Be sure to check out the accepted rules for writing dialogue. You can use a reference book or you can just pull a book off the shelf and see how someone else did it. Always copy from the best...