Between narration and dialogue.

[Starchaser3000]

What in your opinion is the preferred method to interject dialogue sequences in between narration/prose to not lose reader interest? Every 2 pages, 5 pages, 10 pages?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Whenever it's necessary.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I write dialogue more naturally than prose, so if a page goes by without dialogue, it would be very, very rare for me. I certainly find when I'm looking at a big amount of unbroken prose my first thought is can I get two, preferably three, people in there to talk about. But it's also about playing to strengthes - dialogue is about the only thing I don't get taken apart on - although I still have to watch the dialogue tags, but I'm working on that, so I use a lot. Suppose it depends how much you like writing it.

 

[Warren_Paul]

It depends on the story your writing, but many readers I believe prefer more dialogue than narrative, if possible. Dialogue flows better through our minds than excessive amounts of descriptions and can often get through the intent of the scene in much less words.

I try to fit at least some dialogue on every page, if possible. And if you can't, well the narrative better be well structured and interesting/relevant. Walls of text, I think, are the quickest way to get the reader to put your book down... or throw it out the window.

 

[hopewrites]

I have found in all my years of reading that there is no formula for how a story should be told.
I would liken your question to "how many times should I step on a crack while running a mile of side walk?" what you should be more focused on is how your steps work together so that you get where you are going. Not how many times they fall on what kind of ground.
which is a longer way of saying "I agree with Teresa, 'Whatever it takes'"

 

[Gumboot]

I agree there's no rule or formula. I am another heavy dialogue writer. Dialogue, I think, is more natural to modern readers because they're used to watching films and television. Dialogue is also the best way to illustrate character and relationships.

 

[Pyan]

If there is a mathematical formula for writing fiction (and I very much doubt that there is), it would appear to have been ignored by every author that I've enjoyed reading.

Every 2 pages, 5 pages, 10 pages?

If you're seriously proposing to include a page of dialogue after every 10 pages of "prose", I doubt you'll have any readers left to engage...

 

[Abernovo]

Mix it through the text, but not at any set points. I can walk and talk at the same time, so I make my characters do the same thing.

I try to do the same with my descriptions to stop them from droning on. If I was writing Fantasy, I might describe a castle wall, but I would have a siege engineer describe why a section could or couldn't be breached. A second character could lament the necessity of the action, as the tower in that section, or the church just behind it, has lovely architecture.

 

[Glitch]

However you plan to do it, the dialogue should sound natural and not forced. You could always character thoughts to break up the prose.

 

[The Judge]

A writer who is capable of writing good prose will be able to involve the reader without dialogue for longer than someone who has no idea how to string two sentences together to make sense. But if, in the latter event, the dialogue is as dire as the narrative prose, then adding speech every second paragraph is unlikely to assist in retaining reader attention.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I've read and enjoyed stories with no dialogue and I've read and enjoyed stories that are almost entirely dialogue.

A lot depends on your strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I enjoy writing writing both prose and dialogue so it tends to be pretty even and it is rare for me to go more than a page or two without either dialogue or internal monologue. I've even written solilquy or two in my stories that have been an entire page or two of speech, and feedback is they work. The situation called for a prayer, shouting at the sky type situation.

 

[Anne Lyle]

A quick flick through my own novel reveals that there's dialogue on most pages, except when the PoV character is alone - and I try not to have that happen for long unless something interesting is going on, like sneaking around. It's probably why my book has been described as a fast read, despite being almost 500 pages long.

It depends totally on the writer and their personal style, though.

 

[Coragem]

A writer who is capable of writing good prose will be able to involve the reader without dialogue for longer …

Lots of people have already answered this well.

Still, following the quote above I'd say it depends to a degree on your strengths, and also on what interests you. Are longer descriptive sections something you enjoy, and a strength for you? If so you'll maybe do them more often. Or if dialogue is your great strength you may use dialogue more to tell your story.

Personally, when I started I found dialogue came much easier than a narrative or a description. So, if I had something difficult to explain I often did it through a conversation.

That said, you have to be pretty good at everything (description and dialogue) to be published.

Coragem

 

[Starchaser3000]

I myself interject dialogue when it feels right for my story. I too believe there is really no formula to this as long as the writer is good enough to get his/her story across. I just wondered if the best selling authors had their own formula on how to they keep their readers interested without overwhelming them with either too much narration or dialogue.

It may be different for other writers, but I usually write dialogue for characters in either tense social situations or use it as buildup when an action scene is about to take place. Don't care much for writing multiple pages of dialogue of characters remaining in a single room engaged in mundane conversation for a prolonged amount of time. If it makes me bored to read that in other people's literature, I figured it would bore readers to read that in my work.

 

[Anne Lyle]

I just wondered if the best selling authors had their own formula on how to they keep their readers interested without overwhelming them with either too much narration or dialogue.

I suppose some people might be that formulaic, but it really comes down to "have interesting, plot-changing stuff happen". Whether that involves dialogue or not depends entirely on the event. A big fight scene might have little or no dialogue as such, maybe just some internal monologue from the PoV character.

Don't care much for writing multiple pages of dialogue of characters remaining in a single room engaged in mundane conversation for a prolonged amount of time. If it makes me bored to read that in other people's literature, I figured it would bore readers to read that in my work.

Totally - no-one in genre fiction is going to read that. But dialogue doesn't have to be mundane, even when it's not a ding-dong argument. I tend to intersperse dialogue and action quite heavily - characters rarely just sit around talking, and if they do it's about something important to the plot, like one character trying to get information out of another or persuade them to a course of action.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Don't care much for writing multiple pages of dialogue of characters remaining in a single room engaged in mundane conversation for a prolonged amount of time.

You seem to be confused on the subject of dialogue. Dialogue is meant to reveal character, give important information, or (especially) advance the plot. Character interactions through dialogue often are the plot. The best and most important dialogue is part of the action, not "mundane conversation."

If characters are simply engaged in prattle to fit some formula, no one will care much for it. In fact, it will bore them stiff.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

What in your opinion is the preferred method to interject dialogue sequences in between narration/prose to not lose reader interest? Every 2 pages, 5 pages, 10 pages?

Both Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and Look To Windward by Iain M. Banks have sections where dialogue goes on for 1-2 pages, without any other prose, no description of the speaker's location, not even "I said, he said" tags.

And it works.

In Ender's Game, it de-humanises the scientists who see Ender as some kind of experiment to be manipulated to the required end. Does the end justify the means, even if the end is the survival of the human race against alien aggression?

In Look To Windward, it totally does not matter who is speaking or where they are at this precise moment. They are everyman (everywoman?), representing the society the author has created, and Banks does an awesome job of infodumping through this dialogue without the reader even being aware they are being infodumped upon.

By any set of rules on dialogue/description ratios, neither of those books should work. But they do. Very, very well.