I get asked this question a lot. “How long can a dialogue scene be? Does my manuscript have too much dialogue?”
I frequently point out that issue to editing clients. “This dialogue scene goes on too long.”
Every novel (at least the vast majority — there are always exceptions) is a mix of dialogue and narration. Sometimes there’s action: characters doing things. Sometimes it’s just a character thinking. Sometimes it’s narration describing the setting or whatever.
But scenes usually contain dialogue: two (or more) characters talking to each other.
Sometimes, no problem. The characters are doing something, taking actions, and during that action, they are also talking. It’s a blend of dialogue, action, and narration.
But sometimes, the scene might be two characters sitting down at the kitchen table or a restaurant, or maybe on the phone. They’re talking but they’re not doing anything in particular.
How do you know when that scene might have gone on too long?
The easy answer: when readers are bored, it’s too long.
So how do you avoid that?
One obvious option is to not let it go too long, anymore than you’d want any single scene to go on. But is that two pages, four pages, ten pages? There’s no set formula, although I’d question any ten-page dialogue chunk.
When dialogue scenes start to drag and the reader’s eyes glaze over, it might not be the length of the scene itself, but the lack of any movement or interaction.
If your dialogue scene is line after line of spoken words with nothing else happening, it can get old quick. Or confusing. Like in half a page or less. You want to break up long stretches of dialogue and keep readers grounded in the scene.
So few key techniques:
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