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Writing a Story and Leaving Out Dialogue in Some Scenes

rjssimrjssim Posts: 1,335 Member
edited March 2022 in Off Topic Chat
I have been writing a lot of dialogue, but I am finding that it is getting tedious and it is getting repetitive on repetitive scenes such as getting from one area to another. I am using TS4 and another game as the visual aspect to my story. I am wondering is it okay to just not write character dialogue for every single one of these scenes just to pass time etc? Although I enjoy writing, I am still just a rookie compared to other advanced writers out there.

Comments

  • hely0thely0t Posts: 345 Member
    edited March 2022
    Absolutely. You don't have to write dialogue that much if you don't want to, and it could end up looking like a script. I'm someone who struggles to write descriptive stuff and adore writing dialogue instead (and I crave really good dialogue; it's why I don't watch a lot of shows or films or read a lot because the dialogue I've heard/read often makes me cringe too much). I basically just write what my characters "tell me" they want to say. I have to feel it makes sense for them to say something, and it has to be realistic and natural, and remove extra, unnecessary dialogue to turn into the descriptive parts.

    I've been writing as a hobby for over 20 years, wanted to be an author as a kid after being inspired by the wonderful stories by Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll and Beatrix Potter, and I was always very good at English at school, but writing's not something I'd consider myself good at. I'd feel very pretentious if I said I was.

    Always write what you want though, and don't limit yourself to too many "rules" out there. I mean, the main, common rule would be to show, not tell, and if you think you're writing too much dialogue, as I said above, what I do is remove unnecessary dialogue and turn it into descriptive parts, explaining what's going on, what's being felt or thought by the characters. Think about what you're doing, feeling or thinking while not talking to someone when you're with them. There are so many unspoken conversations we have with people too, if you think about it.
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  • ignominiusrexignominiusrex Posts: 2,680 Member
    Some of the best graphic novels or webcomics I've ever seen, use "Show me, don't tell me" to spectacular effect, carefully choosing images that speak for themselves, and only inserting dialogue or description, where it is necessary, in essence reducing the tedium and "talkiness" of it and improving the impact.
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  • SimmingalSimmingal Posts: 8,885 Member
    edited March 2022
    idk but i do so all the time cause my writing skillz are nonexistent but i have many stories to tell :lol:

    then again I don't treat my stories like novels its more like commentary on what my sims and me been up to

    +my own attention span is nonexistent so i often find long texts too much to read and i guess that also goes for my stories more pics less text nonexistent grammar :lol:
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  • WhatCobblersWhatCobblers Posts: 2,748 Member
    Breaks from written words into just images can be quite nice in a story, as this breaks up the routine of reading every page in the same way and thus reignites readers' excitement as they read on. I have come across a few novels now that include sequential imagery sections in between the main bulk of text and it's effective in terms of keeping the suspense. One that comes to mind is the Brian Selznick's 'The Invention of Hugo Cabret'.
  • rjssimrjssim Posts: 1,335 Member
    Thank you for the feedback everyone.
  • ElliandreElliandre Posts: 2,468 Member
    I love reading and writing dialogue, I find writing dialogue more difficult for me, but I don't think you need to write it for every scene. Maybe you could just do some descriptions or write about what the character is feeling internally? Good luck with your story. :smile:
  • BabykittyjadeBabykittyjade Posts: 4,975 Member


    As a long time writer since a child and currently writing my own novel I found that my writing was getting, I guess you can say "worse" for lack of a better word, due to following all the "rules".
    If you truly get into all the do's and don'ts of writing it will hinder you a lot and take the fun out of it too. The beauty of creative writing is that it's "your story, your rules, your world"

    A lot of things are personal preference but In general though it's good to avoid unnecessary dialogue while also understanding that dialogue is fundamental puzzle peice that pulls your story and characters together. You bring a lot of your characters out through good dialogue. The trick is knowing when it's becoming useless or repetitive.
    I find that's pretty easy to pick out by waiting a day or two, then reading over your story (out loud if it helps) and seeing how cringe, good, natural or unnatural the dialogue is.


    As I much enjoy reading I analyze books as I read them and I learn about what works for the story and what doesn't work. Things I liked about it and what I didn't like.. and of course not everyone likes the same thing.
    I personally like a story with a lot of dialogue and not a lot of action. But the dialogue has to be meaningful and aid in the plot and character growth. Not just talking and talking for no reason or to talk about plot.

    I'm not sure of your writing strategy but what works well for me is drafts. For the first draft don't think about a single rule. You write everything you want to say exactly how it pops in your head. Then as you revise it in future drafts it really comes together as you pick out unessesary dialogue and eliminate all the useless stuff and add what it needs to be refined until you get to the final draft and know it's just perfect. It's a process.

    It also helps to have a really good writing set up or program where you can organize and keep track of everything you are writing. Repeativness often comes from not realizing how many times you already mentioned something. Especially if it's a long story. My story is up around 800 pages. A nicely organized program is the only thing that keeps me sane lol. The program I use can also scan for words and how many times they are used and I found I was using the word "slightly" an insane amount of times without even realizing it.😂

    I also use sims as a visual guide for my story. Adds to the fun and really help me bring out my characters even more.
    The program I use is write it now 5. Best one out there to me. I've been using it for years.

    I don't know how far you are along in your story but for me, it's always hard at first in terms of making scenes flow and transition nicely. Knowing your characters well helps "a lot"
    And I mean actually spending time with them and writing them until they feel like your best friends. As I kept writing with them they each formed their own personalities, the dialogue came naturally as I learned how each character speaks, things they would and wouldn't say and rather they are characters that repeat themselves or not. I find my characters are the ones that move the scenes along. And I also went back to older chapters and followed the "show don't tell mantra" and showed everything I wanted to convey instead of me telling it like a narrator. and I find that the show don't tell model works really well and it's the one rule of writing that shouldn't be dismissed.
    It helped the flow too and naturally extended scenes. The only thing I don't show are things not worth showing or irrelevant to the story you can just tell it if the reader needs to know.

    Telling means giving a short, factual statement.
    Showing is using sensory details and description to play out a visual movie in the readers head.

    Once again the most important aspect of it all is having fun! Don't over think it and it's good to learn and know the rules of good writing but not to get stuck on them. Get creative with what you like in a story!

    Honestly it's okay to do whatever you want in a story! The only limitations are the ones you set for yourself.
    Zombies, oh please oh please give us zombies!! :'(
  • BabykittyjadeBabykittyjade Posts: 4,975 Member
    Also wanted to mention that what helps me personally too is not writing in order. That's why it helps to have a good organized program to keep track of, and easily acess all of your scenes and chapters.
    I chapter hop. Sometimes when you try to force a chapter or scene just to write in order it just doesn't come out right or maybe your just not feeling it that day.
    I jump to a scene or a chapter that I have good ideas about and work on that. Then jump to the next scene I'm feeling or have ideas for. Then I mesh it all together. I know it's unusual and sounds confusing but this works well for me. And I had a few beta readers say my story so far is very well tied together so it's not total chaos lol 😂
    But just find what works for you.
    Zombies, oh please oh please give us zombies!! :'(
  • ElliandreElliandre Posts: 2,468 Member
    @rjssim one other thing I would suggest if you want to break the habit of writing dialogue, is I think you should go back over what you have already written and rewrite your scenes without the dialogue, and just focus on the setting, actions and emotions. I had to do a lot of that in my uni Creative Lit courses and it was a fun way to experiment with different writing styles.

    @Babykittyjade that was great advice. I agree 100% with reading out loud, waiting a few days to read it again, and then editing and reordering. I do that too. My grammar is so terrible actually, so I always edit multiple drafts, but I also like to experiment with different styles too or switch things around. I've always wondered if all the practical writing organization software available is helpful. I kind of want to try one of those writing apps.

    I have so many writing books from university that I like to re-read now and then. I can recommend some good ones if you like to read. I also really, really love Masterclass. It is amazing. They have so many authors on there and it's fun to take a kind of online mini class with them and work on their assignments. You do have to subscribe though and it's a bit pricey, but I highly recommend it to anyone who loves writing. The authors all have such different ideas and approaches to writing and are just so inspirational to listen to!

    I love writing. It is my passion since I was a kid. I majored in English Lit & Creative Writing and always wanted to publish a novel, so now a lot of my Sims have to do the Writer career so I can vicariously live out my lost, abandoned dream through them lol. I haven't been writing in months though. I don't write about my Sims, because I can't take mine seriously enough lol, although I wish I could, but writing makes me so happy and takes all my stress away. I have one long novel I started years ago when I was in university so it will probably never get finished, but I still love working on it. I like to write poetry, short stories and short novels.
  • BabykittyjadeBabykittyjade Posts: 4,975 Member
    Elliandre wrote: »
    @rjssim one other thing I would suggest if you want to break the habit of writing dialogue, is I think you should go back over what you have already written and rewrite your scenes without the dialogue, and just focus on the setting, actions and emotions. I had to do a lot of that in my uni Creative Lit courses and it was a fun way to experiment with different writing styles.

    @Babykittyjade that was great advice. I agree 100% with reading out loud, waiting a few days to read it again, and then editing and reordering. I do that too. My grammar is so terrible actually, so I always edit multiple drafts, but I also like to experiment with different styles too or switch things around. I've always wondered if all the practical writing organization software available is helpful. I kind of want to try one of those writing apps.

    I have so many writing books from university that I like to re-read now and then. I can recommend some good ones if you like to read. I also really, really love Masterclass. It is amazing. They have so many authors on there and it's fun to take a kind of online mini class with them and work on their assignments. You do have to subscribe though and it's a bit pricey, but I highly recommend it to anyone who loves writing. The authors all have such different ideas and approaches to writing and are just so inspirational to listen to!

    I love writing. It is my passion since I was a kid. I majored in English Lit & Creative Writing and always wanted to publish a novel, so now a lot of my Sims have to do the Writer career so I can vicariously live out my lost, abandoned dream through them lol. I haven't been writing in months though. I don't write about my Sims, because I can't take mine seriously enough lol, although I wish I could, but writing makes me so happy and takes all my stress away. I have one long novel I started years ago when I was in university so it will probably never get finished, but I still love working on it. I like to write poetry, short stories and short novels.

    I have tried many many programs both free and paid and stuck with writeitnow5. I wanted something simple, practical, easy to navigate but complex enough to keep things well organized. Totally worth it. If you're interested you could always look up pictures on Google images and it shows the program. Seems overwhelming at first but it's not once you learn it.
    They have a new version called write it now6. I upgraded to that and didn't like it, they added unnecessary confusing things just to call it an upgrade so I downgraded again. But this program allows me to experiment and jump around without getting lost in a large story the way I use to. So worth it to me.

    I was homeschooling by someone with a learning disability so my spelling and grammar are 😖😖😖 I'm always studying and trying to learn more to help my writing.
    Google, auto correct and spell check makes my English look good lol.

    I would love to get your book recommendations!
    I never heard of masterclass but I do love writing so it sounds fun! I will look into that thank you!

    I also had a deep passion for it from a very young age. I have four complete books of poetry that I will eventually publish. And I have tons of short stories from over the years but nothing serious.
    The one I'm working on now is the first serious story and full length novel that I may or may not publish because I'm just taking my time and writing for the pure joy of it. Puts me in a good mood every single time but I just get tired of people thinking I'm crazy because I'm smiling by myself 😂😂

    The sims helped with the characters. I had clear images of the characters I imagined in my head and I was using celebrity pictures as a reference but it just was never right. That was NOT my character. With the Sims and the help of cc I was able to replicate their look and fashion exactly as I pictured so that makes it easier to write about them having a crystal clear image and reference pictures from pose player. And knowing my characters well really improved my scenes as well as inspired me to write other certain scenes.

    I think you should get back to writing if you can! I know the way life is a lot of things can sometimes get in the way but that's why I literally write "on the go"
    I will for example copy a chapter that I'm in the mood to work on or have ideas for from writeitnow5, paste it into my gmail, send it to myself, open the Gmail on my phone, copy and paste it into samsung notepad.
    So currently I have like 5 random chapters in my notepad that I am constantly working on little by little no matter where I am or who I'm with lol.
    When I'm done I send it back to myself and paste it into the chapter it belongs and title it as officially done.
    Or you can even use a real notepad. I miss writing on paper sometimes but it's just so hard to correct things and organize using paper.

    I decided not to worry about too much about grammar till I'm done with the story because the most important thing at first is just getting what you want to say, and the way you want to say it written down
    Zombies, oh please oh please give us zombies!! :'(
  • BabykittyjadeBabykittyjade Posts: 4,975 Member
    Oh and I think that program offers a free trial btw or a free sample. I remember playing around with it for a long time before I decided to buy it.
    Zombies, oh please oh please give us zombies!! :'(
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