Comments on: Thoughts on Dialogue Only Flash Fiction

By: Desmond

Desmond — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:15:21 +0000

I suppose its indicative of the whore-like nature of my existence that I couldn't read this post without pointing out my own dialogue-only short story, which is here if anyone has a few minutes and there's nothing good on the youtube.

By: Scott M. Sandridge

Scott M. Sandridge — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:44:26 +0000

As soon as I finish the final episode of my podcast novel, I’ll get right on that story.

By: Jordan Lapp

Jordan Lapp — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:20:52 +0000

You might just be able to pull it off, Scott. And lord knows it’s been too long since we’ve seen one of your horrors in the slush.

By: Scott M. Sandridge

Scott M. Sandridge — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:05:39 +0000

“More than two characters. Two is hard enough. I’ve never seen a successful dialogue only story with three characters. The reader just gets confused.”

Hmmmm, something challenging…

By: steffenwolf

steffenwolf — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:09:07 +0000

I very much agree. I’ve read some good dialogue only stories, but not a lot.
I’ve read my share of slush on Baen’s Bar and have seen that often enough.

Even though I agree, my rough drafts tend to tend in this direction. When a conversation starts I tend to want to get right to the words, but before sending it to critiquers I need to go back and take the time to insert beats for pacing and characterization.

By: jordan

jordan — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:10:35 +0000

Well, that only works with markets with personal rejections. On Duotrope, out of hundreds and hundreds of markets, I think only 40 have personal feedback and most of them are closed.

By: Oso

Oso — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:16:09 +0000

Jordan,

Allow me to clarify. I worry about small-scale problems; I don’t let myself obsess over them. Like here, if I have two lines of non-dialog that unbalance the story, I’ll let an editor mention it. I also reread each story after it is rejected to get a fresh feel for it (I avoid reading stories currently under consideration) and let the rejection process help improve the story.

By: jordan

jordan — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:16:01 +0000

Scott,

Dave Farland says that you should absolutely worry about small-scale problems in stories, because for everyone you detect, there’s probably at least one more you missed.

About talent, yeah you probably have it (you’d need it to be waitlisted at Clarion), but to pull off dialogue only you need a healthy does of skill alongside it.

By: Oso

Oso — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:59:57 +0000

It takes talent to break rules well. I know I have talent, but is it the right talent?

I seldom worry about small-scale problems in stories. That’s why God created the rewrite request.

By: jordan

jordan — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:12:25 +0000

Scott, I wouldn’t worry about it. These “rules” like any writing rules, are meant to be broken…