How to handle small talk

[XXXHacker]

Writing a story for the first time and looking for some help. The story is a guy's chance encounter with a woman he's never met, goes on a date, and has a one night stand. I'm working on the date portion of the story and wondering how I should handle small talk i.e. talk that would occur in the course of the date but not relevant to progressing the story forward. I'm thinking of just glossing over it, something like "[Male] and [Female] spent a few minutes talking before hitting the dance floor." rather than spend multiple paragraphs writing dialog that ultimately serves no purpose to where the story is headed. Any advice?

 

[JackLuis]

If it more that a stroker, I'd split the difference.

Noisy bar, danced, in the interlude, He says ( Slightly suggustive), SHe says(something encouraging), the band starts up.

They go home an fuck....

You need some reasonable reason to fuck an pick up. I'll bet she's attractive right?

 

[CyranoJ]

If the small talk actually provides some relevant information about the characters, even if it doesn't advance the plot, it can be worth including, depending on how much you care about character development. Small talk that isn't serving that function you can probably just gloss over with a passing reference IMO.

 

[XXXHacker]

The story is based on a date I had in real life while I was traveling and met woman at hotel where we both were staying at IRL she didn't come to bed with me because of extenuating circumstances. The story is an adaptation of that night where she did come to bed that I've been masturbating to since. Rather than have to come up with all new dialogue and full backgrounds for these fictional characters, I'm thinking of cutting out dialogue that doesn't progress the attraction between the two characters. For example, we share a similar hobby, so rather take multiple paragraphs to discuss said hobby, reduce it to a sentence saying they talked for a while discussing their careers and mutual hobbies.

 

[Weird Harold]

Rather than have to come up with all new dialogue and full backgrounds for these fictional characters, I'm thinking of cutting out dialogue that doesn't progress the attraction between the two characters. For example, we share a similar hobby, so rather take multiple paragraphs to discuss said hobby, reduce it to a sentence saying they talked for a while discussing their careers and mutual hobbies.

As Jack says, it depends on whether your story is a stroker or character driven-romance, or something in-between.

Personally, I think discussing shared interests could well shed a lot of light on the characters if you do more than a casual mention of discussing shared hobbies without even naming the hobbies...

Mix in a few double entendres and the discussion of hobbies can advance the seduction as well.

 

[SandraMustard]

If you leave out small talk, discerning readers will complain about lack of character development. If you put it in, one-handed readers will complain about running out of lubrication. (Meaning: you won't please everybody)

 

[JackLuis]

Is this first person, immediate then? A memory of an almost event?

You could just describe their internal dialog amid the noise of the Hotel Bar, (or your's) as the case maybe.

Or cut to the chase and use three paragraphs to describe the path to the Hotel room and get to the good parts!

 

[XXXHacker]

First-ish person. The story is told through a narrator, but through the eyes of my character. I think I know what I'll do. There's two parts of that night in particular that I'm thinking about reducing down the small talk. I think I have an idea on how to do it now. Thanks for the help.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Just write the dialogue, see if it works. In some of my stories there is no dialogue at all, it's all descriptive; and in others I'll use some dialogue. Sometimes it progresses the story, sometimes it doesn't. Generally, dialogue establishes something of a personality, but it can also be a way to quickly establish key plot points.

My dialogue tends to be minimalist, and written as people really speak; whereas my usual narrative style is deliberately "over written" in the sense that I use a lot of word games, plays on words, smart arse stuff, really

 

[elfin_odalisque]

With a one-night stand there surely has to be a degree of small talk to justify her accepting a one-night stand date then going to his hotel room to have sex.

It isn't just slot A and tab B, we scruffy readers want to follow the trail as they get together. a bit of erotic romance.

A noisy dance floor or talking about hobbies seems inappropriate to me.

I would just use a bit of small talk to pave the way for her to jump into bed with him.

 

[shutterpsb]

In a situation like you describe I usually just gloss over small talk, because it's small. The reader will appreciate your thinking they're smart enough to know what small talk is.

 

[RetroFan]

Definitely put small talk dialogue in if is relevant to the story.

For example, in my story "The Babysitter & the Waterbed" set in 1992, the babysitter and her boyfriend discuss cell phones, saying how they are large, cumbersome and not practical, which I put in to clearly set the story in the early 1990s, and show the difference of how young people thought years ago when compared to today.

In another of my early 1990s stories, "Shy Steve Meets Sexy Stacy", set in 1993, the main character Steve calls at his friend's house and is invited in by the friend's sexy college girl older sister Stacy. I quote their dialogue as they greet each other, then reference that they engage in small talk before Stacy takes him down to the basement on a pretext so they can make love.

I hope that this helps.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

There are two types of small talk. That which promotes the story and builds characters. And that which is meaningless.

Relevant small talk...

"You look very pretty tonight, Susan," Cal said, his lips next to her ear in the noise bar.

Susan smiled, touching his arm and saying, "Thank you Cal, you look very handsome tonight."

Cal beamed with pride as he looked into this beautiful woman's eyes.

Irrelevant small talk...

During dinner they talked about the weather, how they felt about what was going on in the world and what they would be doing after dinner. Movie or dancing.