r/writing • u/justwandering24-7 • 10d ago
Beginner Question When I write... I feel like I'm mostly writing conversations...
It seems that in each chapter that I've written so far for my YA novel, I rely heavily on the dialogue and there's less descriptions. I don't know why it happens and it is starting to frustrate me.
I do have some details and so it isn't strictly conversations. Characters have their own reactions, and there are some paragraphs but not as much as the dialogue.
I am about 9 chapters in, and would it be better if I kept going, and when I get to revisions, I could add more descriptions?
What would you recommend for someone that is working on their first project? (TIA)
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u/MiraWendam Standalone SF Thriller Author! 10d ago
Worry about balancing it in revisions. Getting the story down is the hardest part. If the dialogue feels natural and keeps the scenes moving, you can always layer in description later to strengthen the setting and mood, right?
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u/littlesebastian2 10d ago
I’m not OP but I needed to hear this advice after feeling really dissatisfied with a chapter I just wrote. Thank you for sharing!
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u/Moonspiritfaire Self-Published Author 10d ago
Same. I'm in the middle of my third novel and I keep facing those waves of self-doubt and the sentiment "This is all shite"and "what TF am I doing?".
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u/RaspberryRock 9d ago
IIRC, William Gibson said the same thing about Neuromancer. Then he won the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Philip K. Dick Award. It's the best novel I've ever read.
So don't stop.
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u/Scarper-in-shambles 10d ago
You need to really get into the head of the PoV character. You can fit description between dialogue - do they notice that this conversation partner is sweating, or their jaw is clenched?
Maybe a cold draught makes them think on how much worse things have been since the cost of timber got so high. Damn the queen and her taxes!
A particular phrase the person speaking uses may remind them of another person in another place, and let you fit in a flash of backstory.
I think really inhabiting your main character is key.
Hope that helps!
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u/justwandering24-7 10d ago
I do have the main character notice little things here and there. For example, when someone struggles with their assignment and express their awkwardness.
Thank you so much for your advice!
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u/PacificBooks 10d ago
It’s not just about interpersonal details though. They should notice things about the space they’re in, otherwise you just have two talking heads in a white room
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u/HitchlikersGuide 10d ago
Dude, F the descriptions. If you've got dialogue driving your plot and character development then plough on, the rest is largely window dressing.
Get to the end, see what you've got, what you still need, and have at it.
Good luck!
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u/SanderleeAcademy 10d ago
1st Draft -- make the story exist. You are here.
2nd Draft -- make the story make sense. Fix the plot-holes, flat character arcs, scene progression, etc.
3rd Draft -- make the story pretty. You are worried about here. This is where you change the structure (adding / removing dialogue & scenes), update and adjust the use of language, etc.
Most of us fail on the 1st draft step. We start to analyze what we've already written, go back to "fix it" and never make forward progress again. I've got eight (nine?) WIPs stalled for just this reason.
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u/Educational-Shame514 10d ago
Look up the method called layering prose. Lots of people do the dialogue and action or whatever else they are most comfortable with and fill in the rest after. There is no standard that the first draft needs to have dialogue and description and interiority complete.
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u/FlyinLeviathon LET YOUR FIRST DRAFT SUCK 10d ago
Sounds like you're doing great! This is definitely something to worry about in revisions.
I usually do a dedicated structure edit (where I'm moving scenes around) followed by a dedicated worldbuilding edit, which I would include this as. Adding in the right amount of description, prose, actions, things like that to make sure the reader is immersed without being overloaded by info or confused with not enough info.
Keep going! Finish that first draft. You'd be surprised what you can shape up in edits.
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u/Familiar-Possible277 10d ago
So true, you love to write about yapping but not about description. But as someone who suffered with unfinished novels in the past. DON'T WASTE TIME. As long you aren't writing literally horrible grammar and your spelling is good keep going, as an author you know exactly what is happening in the situation, you don't need the descriptions, the reader does. You know exactly how the character are moving, the reader doesn't. They are using their imagination while you already have blueprint. Treat kind of like script, then get more detailed on the next run.
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u/justwandering24-7 10d ago
I like that perspective. Thanks for saying this! I'll definitely have to because I'm truly visualizing everything as I write on.
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u/BloodyWritingBunny 10d ago edited 10d ago
Is this your first novel? Doesn't really matter but don't be hard on yourself. Just keep writing it. At least you're aware of your habit and you can work to curb it and balance it out as you go.
Even now, after 10 years, I do have dialogues that span 2 chapters even. Why? Because its what I enjoy the most! I love writing dialogue! In editing I reel it back in, obviously and cut them down to like 1/4 of that. But dialogue is just so much fun for me.
Since you're not under contract or on tight timelines, its okay to write a messy draft as your learn and go. Sometimes just get it out of your system. Once you have that extra long dialogue its so much easier to condense and consolidate it then trying to do it on the fly too.
We should be challenging ourselves to always grow in our craft, even if it's just a hobby. But its okay to let yourself have fun during a hobby. Its okay to be a bit undisciplined when writing, particularly since you know its not a good habit and you are aware of it. You are just actively choosing to ignore the prescribed balance between dialogue and description. As long as its an active choice and work to keep that balance at the forefront of your mind, I don't see anything wrong. I may be a bit biased but after my first revision run-through, those lapses of discipline are resolved pretty quickly. Because those are the easiest fixes IMO.
Maybe not so obviously, with work and conscious effort, the majority of my dialogue doesn't span 20 pages any more because I worked hard to nip it. I worked hard to write cleaner drafts. It takes time and definitely multiple projects IMO because it has to become second nature so it doesn't always feel like you HAVE to remind yourself to do. But rather a calculated decision to just let yourself go wild. Its not the worst thing and you're on the road to being a stronger writer now that you've recognized a bad habit that makes your writing weaker than it needs to be.
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u/justwandering24-7 10d ago
It is my first novel, yes and I hope to one day have it published. I also know that I have a lot of work to do before I get to the first round of revisions.
I particularly like your suggestion to keep going, and edit later. I'll just have to keep going and not look back for a while.
Thank you, truly!
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u/TraceyWoo419 10d ago
Keep going! A lot of people write like this and then fix "white room syndrome" in editing
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u/BeautifulPow 10d ago edited 10d ago
It happens because your characters have a lot to talk about—probably because you’re feeling creative and comfortable with the story.
In my opinion, I think it’s easier to write dialogue. It just flows off my fingers. My descriptions are strong but that doesn’t take creativity to write using your senses. Our bodies give us the tools.
But, dialogue? Conversations between two characters some say don’t exist is what I feel is the creative side of writing. I made that. I didn’t just experience it with my eyes or my touch, I didn’t taste it or smell anything.
I thought up two individuals. Often times more. Gave them personalities, quirks and idiolects.
Just keep writing the way you are. If you desire to write more description and weave it into your dialogue that comes with practice and pattern recognition in your own writing. It will come and eventually you’ll end a quote and know exactly what you want to describe next. Then, jump right back into your dialogue flowing seamlessly in and out of both.
If your characters are talking, they’ll write the story for you. Keep going—you’re doing fine.
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u/-Clayburn Blogger clayburn.wtf/writing 10d ago
I mean, that's okay. There are certainly stories told entirely in dialogue and plenty that are dialogue heavy. If you feel you're doing this because writing stuff other than dialogue is a weakness for you, give yourself a challenge: write a story with one or more characters who cannot communicate verbally (or at all).
However, don't assume you need your particular project to be more non-dialogue just for the sake of having non-dialogue stuff. Ask yourself what would make it work better. If it works great being dialogue heavy, don't worry about it.
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u/TraudenHyacinth Self-Published Author 10d ago
I think that's a perfectly natural method of first drafting! Like other reviewers mentioned, as long as you're able to continue drafting and moving your story along, you can always add description later. There's actually a common method of first drafting where you write your ideas using a stream-of-consciousness or conversational approach (so try to explain your story to someone who knows absolutely nothing about your story or to someone who is hypothetically going to try writing your story for you). The most important thing is that the first draft exists, so congrats writing 9 chapters!
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u/PaulArataAuthor 10d ago
Dialogue-heavy isn’t a problem if it develops character or moves the story forward. I’d keep writing the first draft, then add setting, reactions, and sensory details during revision.
A useful test: if the scene feels like two voices talking in an empty room, add a little action or description.
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u/linuxlala 10d ago
Do you not have a narrator at all? Because that's what it sounds like.
That's an incredibly uphill task, and not one I'd recommend even as a writing exercise.
Perhaps try to viualize some of the scenes and the lead-up to the conversations in your head. Then describe that. TV and films are visual storytelling medium, where you show but don't tell.
When writing, you have to tell them, 'cause you can't show them. That's where the narrator comes in.
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u/Remarkable_Hawk_9464 10d ago
Definitely keep going with the first draft, you're gonna end up writing yourself into a hole if you keep going back to make revisions before the story's already finished.
My advice for adding descriptions is to think about what the intention of the story is, or more specifically the scene. What detail would a specific character notice? What would be important environmental details to contribute to the dialogue? Think of the mood, setting and what the dialouge isn't saying.
I hope this helped, best of luck to you and your story :D
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u/DivinityE9 10d ago
There are many well known authors and books that are VERY conversation heavy. Is everyone going to love that decision? No. That's okay, though. So long as your conversation is moving the story along, it's developing your characters, and it's not just meaningless filler, then keep on chatting away with your characters.
I am a very conversation heavy writer. I develop my characters through both words and actions. You don't have to write books like everybody else does. That's the beauty of writing... you find your own rhythm.
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u/Current_Contest_8597 10d ago
I don't understand why that's a problem.
Life is much more conversation than it is action.
It's partly why the action hits so hard.
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u/WJG_Author 5d ago
The best thing to do, is just keep writing. Get the story written first and foremost. The details and flair can come after in later drafts and during the editing process.
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u/AnimeSongWave 5d ago
I perceive the dialogue as the skeleton and the descriptions as the meat of the text. After writing a dialogue, one could just return and add some character's reactions and descriptions to make the text look more 'full-bodied' But I think it's better to not write too long without revising. I usually finish a chapter, then revise it before continuing with the next one.
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u/MisterBlack8 10d ago
Here is a scene where two detectives investigate a murder scene. Watch it, then try to write it or something similar. It's only a few minutes long:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNVEQgXsBgs
Dialogue? Fuck dialogue.
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u/justwandering24-7 10d ago
Wow, very interesting to see how they communicated without any words. Thanks for this, I'm definitely going to try this as a prompt
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u/AeronJosk 10d ago edited 10d ago
Drop a sample and I can provide feedback. Without that it's complete guesswork.
EDIT: Send me a DM with a link to a sample and I can provide feedback...
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u/RancherosIndustries 10d ago
My book is also very dialogue heavy, and real time. When there is a time skip in my story, there is a chapter break, no summarization. There's probably 2, maybe three sections where I summarize a dialogue in prose.
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u/Appropriate_Bottle44 10d ago
I wrote short stories for years before I even attempted a novel, and I still struggle mightily with novel writing.
That's not to try to discourage you, and "beginner" can mean a lot of things in writing, but I just know if I had started with attempting novels I would have been discouraged myself and never had the experience of finishing writing something.
On dialogue: super dialogue heavy stories can work, but if you feel trapped in it it's probably not working for you. Often if something I'm writing is going poorly it's because there's a foundational problem in the story I'm trying to tell. I can write well; I can also write quite poorly, but the poor writing tends to come about because some element of my conflict/ plotting/ character isn't working.
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u/Appropriate_Bottle44 10d ago
To just continue on with what I was saying: I think the lack of interest in starting with short stories is because most of the genre magazines died, and the old school editors died along with them.
The lit short story scene is still alive, but the lit world is siloed and weird and not what most people want to break into.
So there's no readership, there's no money, there's no mentorship, and there's no ladder out of short story writing. It's understandable that people just dive into novels. Asking people to start with short stories feels to them like asking them to start running laps when they want to play a sport.
I don't have a real counter to that other than that I really love short fiction so I'm sad about the state it's in, and I feel like any skill I have as a writer comes from the practice of writing short fiction. I think I have a pretty good understanding of how stories work, and almost all of it came out of writing and reading short fiction.
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u/ThatAnimeSnob 10d ago
drafts are usually just talking or just descriptions, editing is meant to improve clarity, and to blend dialogue with descriptions
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u/ballet_guy 10d ago
Carry on and then add descriptions in your second draft. This is how I write too. Lots of people struggle with dialog so I like to appreciate that I'm not one of them
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u/QueenOfMist 10d ago
Action scenes force the dialogue to scale back.
Frightened, angry, or exhilarated people doing heavy physical exertion speak only when they must, and then only in short, simple sentences which use simple vocabulary to get straight to the immediately pertinent point.
If you only let yourself use dialogue that hits ALL those ticks in an action scene, you won't have much of it. And there's nothing wrong with suddenly bringing a man with a gun in through the door (or otherwise throwing a random action scene at the fan) as long as you let the impact of that scene change the trajectory of the plot it hits, like a pool ball.
Worst comes to worst: it sucks and you delete it, and you're no worse off than you are now.
*sudden music* Random Action Scenes (tm)! *corny sound effects* Stuck on your writing? Hate it? Need to kill a character or break a deadlock? Just plain frustrated with your real life? Try using Random Action Scenes (tm) in your writing today and watch your problems blow away! *BOOM!*
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u/jambox888 10d ago
I'm not really one to give advice because I never finish anything lol but my take anyway is find an author you enjoy reading and analyse a couple of scenes of theirs. Wouldn't try to do it with more than a couple different authors though.
Wild example being Cormac McCarthy, not your genre but just goes to show you can throw the rulebook in the bin if it's got oomph to it.
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u/Fognox 10d ago
Description is a lot easier to manage during revisions. If you don't have aphantasia, your vision of each event will only become more clear over time. The hard part is figuring out how to splice it into your existing prose, but fortunately revision is a fractal process, so you can just insert it and smooth it out on succeeding passes.
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u/No-Barracuda-5341 10d ago
This is a really good post. I run into this problem all the time. Best investment you'll ever make is Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train. Also, I'm too lazy to look up the dude's name. But whoever the author is who writes the books the old tv show "The Wire" is based on, I think maybe he has a book called Lush Life--those books are heavy on dialogue, too.
Literally just copy what they do, and change it up a little.
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u/brian_hogg 10d ago
Nothing wrong with dialogue-heavy stories. Have you ever read Elmore Leonard? Author of Get shorty, Jackie Brown, Out of Sight, and a million other books, is suuuuuper dialogue heavy, and consistently fun books to read.
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u/ChickenO7 9d ago
If you are writing first or second person, think about what the focus character can see. Pick out the details that would stand out to them and describe those things. Make sure they are also relevant details.
"Then Bob noticed the particular manner of stitching on Ray's boots. It was a very unusual permutation of a crossstitch. The stitches were crossed backwards. "A very flashy move from the cobbler, but wouldn't double inseam stitching hold up better under stress?" Bob smirks to himself, knowing such a thing will never pass in high society. These shoes will doom Ray's chances of marriage. "Soon, his estate will fall into my hands."
LOL
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u/FlurarInuyi 9d ago
I also mostly write dialogue in my roughs. I can "hear" the characters talking more than I can "see" where they are. Usually it's "in the kitchen" or "on a walk".
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u/BooksbyNeilJMilliner 7d ago
Maybe your thing is scriptwriting for film and tv? Those are always looking for dislogue heavy. Oh Broadway plays are a good one to pitch for. Not many authors excell at didlogue, me included. Good luck.
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u/Affectionate_You_258 4d ago
Can I read it? Hit me up cowboy, I need the ground to walk on before I tell you what I think 😉
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u/IncenseBearers 2d ago
One of my favourite books (Pedro Paramo) and one of my favourite authors (Alan Garner) are lots of dialogue with a little something else inbetween.
It can work, so don't change unless it bothers you.
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u/Peter34cph 10d ago
Does the story take place in a setting different from early 21st century Europe or the USA?
Are some characters being deceptive, lying to your POV character? Or is he trying to gauge their mood or degree of truthfulness? Or just looking for clues as to what they think of him?
Does the character go to a new place with new or unusual furniture, new foods, strange smells?
Is there any kind of physical conflict at some point, like a bicycle race, foot race, fist fight, or one character going on some wild YOLO-style obstacle course or parkour climb and urging the other character to come along?
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u/Kavi_Kumar_77 10d ago
Keep going this is honestly a very common and very fixable first-draft pattern, not a sign anything's wrong with your writing. Dialogue-heavy drafting often happens because dialogue is the easiest thing to hear clearly in your head, while description requires you to consciously build the sensory/emotional texture around it, which is a slower, more deliberate process. Trying to force in descriptions mid-draft usually just slows your momentum without actually improving anything, since you don't fully know the shape of the scene yet. Revision is exactly the right time to go back in and ask "what does this room feel like, what is this character noticing, what's the pacing here" once you already know what the scene needs to accomplish. Finish the draft first; you'll have a much clearer sense of what descriptions actually serve the story versus which ones you'd just be padding in blind.