Narration only, no dialogue.

[jaF0]

Have you done it? How often? How did it work out? Did you find it difficult to carry the tale?



He said in no uncertain terms "Get undressed and get on the bed".

vs.


He directed me to get undressed and get on the bed.



Could you only make it work in shorter passages, or across multiple parts or chapters?

 

[SimonDoom]

I haven't done it, and I don't plan to.

I don't like reading stories containing only narration. I like to see it mixed with dialogue. It's much easier to process a story that way. Putting dialogue in quotes rather than handling it as narration also makes the dialogue more immediate, without the narrator as an intermediary.

If authors want to enhance the readability of their stories, they definitely should include dialogue.

None of that is to say that an author shouldn't try doing this as an artistic experiment or exercise. That can be worthwhile.

 

[jaF0]

I get that. And I usually do it.

But as noted in the style thread, I often do first person, past tense. It isn't happening now. The person is telling a tale of something that has already happened, maybe long ago, more or less in the form of writing in a diary. Or a memoir.

 

[TadOverdon]

I haven't tried it.

Often enough in a long story there will be a recounting or memory of a past event, at length (say, several thousand words) that is done in summary. And it can work well for me in that context although even there sometimes a snatch of dialogue shows up.

 

[PriestOfIshtar]

And it can work well for me in that context although even there sometimes a snatch of dialogue shows up.

Haha. Sometimes on literotica a snatch of dialogue shows up. Hahaha.

 

[jaF0]

I've read dialogue about a snatch.

 

[NotWise]

Have you done it? How often? How did it work out? Did you find it difficult to carry the tale?

Several of my stories (the two "Third Ring" stories and parts 2-4 of "A Valentines Day Mess") include other stories narrated by one or more storytellers. I experimented with a few different ways to tell the stories -- including 100% narration -- and it seemed necessary to use some dialog. Those segments tend to be heavy on narration, but they're not completely free of dialog.

 

[TxRad]

A story where everyone wears a ball gag.

Writing without dialog drives me crazy. I find it so hard to advance the plot.

 

[TadOverdon]

Trouble is I get lost in the dialogue and often throw out half or more of what I've written. Long blocks of characters who think they're clever chattering away. Okay, it's the writer who thinks they're clever and has to be walked back from the ledge. Every day.

 

[KeithD]

Yes, I've done it--usually when I'm focusing fully on the protagonist experiencing something.

 

[8letters]

If I remember right, "Gulliver's Travels" and "Robinson Crusoe" are all narration. There's a reason why people don't write novels that way anymore - it's not as appealing as having dialogue.

 

[yowser]

The only story I have done that way worked (I think) but has to be done carefully. I got one comment: “The lack of proper dialog style almost made me change my mind on the "five", but your description of the sex carried the day.” As a stylistic practice it is potentially off-putting for readers, the story really has to be an “inside the head of the narrator” piece.

I had a forest-dwelling demon in Non-human (who could not speak) narrate a tale, but even he managed to render the human’s speech appropriately, with quotation marks in the right places and all that.

 

[Comshaw]

I've tried it, but as a reader a story with no dialogue feels flat, the characters don't come alive for me so I don't write in that style much.

Comshaw

 

[jaF0]

My plan is for the character to recall portions of a difficult journey over a period of time. It would be unlikely she could recall specific conversations from years back exactly as they were spoken.

She would be speaking directly to the reader in effect.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I find dialogue hard, so I'd be more likely to try a story that's just dialogue, maybe with a few tags.

My least-chatty story was my first, and still has seven brief phrases spoken on the first page. It's not a good story - it's not a bad write-up of a scene, but not a story.

Even a diary-type narrative I think I'd have to use imagined dialogue, thoughts, etc to give it a varied pace.

 

[jaF0]

I plan to use things like;

My husband and I talked in depth, discussing our options. We read the contract together and asked each other if we'd be able to follow through knowing full well what it might lead to, yet not knowing just how far it might go, or how long it might last. We discussed our limits, or lack of.

 

[KeithD]

The stories I've written that didn't have dialogue in them were very short. They have tended to be intense too in showing character sensations/feelings and to be in the first person.

For example: https://www.literotica.com/s/licorice-centered-milk-chocolate

 

[SimonDoom]

I plan to use things like;

My husband and I talked in depth, discussing our options. We read the contract together and asked each other if we'd be able to follow through knowing full well what it might lead to, yet not knowing just how far it might go, or how long it might last. We discussed our limits, or lack of.

A few thoughts:

When you write this way, you are telling, not showing. You act as an intermediary between what happens in the story and the reader. You may have your reasons for doing that, but think carefully about it and ask yourself why.

An alternative would be to add dialogue to the passage above:

"You know where this might lead, don't you?" I asked him.

"I do."

"How far do you think you'll be willing to go?"

He didn't answer right way.

"I don't know, but I want to find out."

 

[LAHomedog]

An intriguing question. As some have noted I think there are some famous books that are only narrative. Here is a question in return:

If you tell a story this way when does it become an essay or an article rather than narrative prose?

Does Malcom Gladwell or Michael Lewis have dialogue in their great books like "Outliers," "The Blind Side," or "Moneyball?" What about my favorite music journalist Joel Selvin. He uses quotes. Does that count as dialogue? (BTW: If you haven't read his latest on the California Sound, it's great.)

(I'm actually asking the question since I don't remember...)

Anyway, it seems like a fair question. When does your story become an article vs. a narrative prose story?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Anyway, it seems like a fair question. When does your story become an article vs. a narrative prose story?

It's a good question. I'd say when it falls over into distancing language, where it starts to read like an assembly manual or a book of instructions - Simon's point about showing, not telling, is important. Taking dialogue out of a story completely would do that for me, I think, unless the writing was exceptional.

Even when someone is recalling past events without remembering specifics, most people would recreate conversations in some way, I think, rather than present reportage.

 

[jaF0]

My writing is far from exceptional in any way, but this is something I feel is the best way for this particular story. Once posted, if I decide to post it at all, I understand that many, maybe all of you will disagree.

In fact, every person on the planet may disagree with the story and the content.

 

[SamScribble]

I might argue – in fact I would – that even in a ‘fully-narrated’ story, the narrator usually employs dialogue. The narrator ‘speaks’. For example:

The man behind the desk introduced himself as ‘one of the producers’, and instructed Anna to remove her dress. Was he one of the producers? As far as Anna knew he could just as easily have been the second unit director’s third cousin. But she also knew that she wasn’t going to even be considered for the part unless she removed her dress. And so, remove her dress she did. In response to subsequent instructions from the spotty upstart, she also removed her bra and then her knickers. And then, again in response to instruction, she knelt on the edge of the couch with her pulchritudinous girly arse on show to whomsoever was present in the room. Was the part now hers? No. No … now he wanted her to ‘spread her cheeks’. For a moment or two, she hesitated. This was becoming tiresome. But she really needed the part. She really needed just the whiff of a chance. Anna steadied herself, and then reached back and ‘spread her cheeks’.​

 

[jaF0]

That's very similar to where I'm going.


She is relating what she was told and how she replied.

I get tired of the:

Bob said "Blah, blah, blah"

Carol replied: blah, blah, blah"

Ted told Alice "yadadayadada".

 

[TadOverdon]

I guess it can work, maybe best in a short piece that's mostly about a first-person narrator's reaction to past events that they're relating. In that case, though, the entire narrative is in a sense the protagonist speaking dialogue - just without an opening quote at the beginning of the story and close quote after the final period.

 

[SimonDoom]

I might argue – in fact I would – that even in a ‘fully-narrated’ story, the narrator usually employs dialogue. The narrator ‘speaks’. For example:

The man behind the desk introduced himself as ‘one of the producers’, and instructed Anna to remove her dress. Was he one of the producers? As far as Anna knew he could just as easily have been the second unit director’s third cousin. But she also knew that she wasn’t going to even be considered for the part unless she removed her dress. And so, remove her dress she did. In response to subsequent instructions from the spotty upstart, she also removed her bra and then her knickers. And then, again in response to instruction, she knelt on the edge of the couch with her pulchritudinous girly arse on show to whomsoever was present in the room. Was the part now hers? No. No … now he wanted her to ‘spread her cheeks’. For a moment or two, she hesitated. This was becoming tiresome. But she really needed the part. She really needed just the whiff of a chance. Anna steadied herself, and then reached back and ‘spread her cheeks’.​

I do not agree with this point. There's no dialogue in a meaningful sense in this passage.

No quotations exist in this passage. At no point is it revealed EXACTLY what words came out of a particular character's mouth. We have three instances where you use three-word single-quote phrases, but I don't know why, and I cannot tell whether these represent exactly what words came out of the character's mouth or whether this is the narrator's spin on what those words are. In America, the use of single-quote phrases of this sort would be the written equivalent of someone talking and using air quotes.

Why would you write it this way rather than having the female character just say:

"I really need this part," she said. "I need the whiff of a chance."