Balancing Dialogue With Action And Narrative

Hi! I have a really hard time adding descriptions to my story and seem to only want to write dialog. Is there anyway to work around this?

Balancing Dialogue with Action and Narrative

While description is an important part of writing dialogue, when you say dialogue is all you want to write, what’s missing from your story isn’t description specifically, but action and narrative.  A good scene should have a balance between dialogue, action, and narrative. But what are they?

Action - contrary to what you might think, “action” doesn’t have to mean a car chase or an epic battle. “Action” just means something is happening–things are in motion. An action scene can be your protagonist at her job as a store clerk, stocking the soup aisle when a couple of friends come in to tell her about a party, or it could be your protagonist riding the bus to school. And yes, it can be a car chase or a battle, but it doesn’t have to be. Every scene should include some action.

Narrative - narrative is probably what you mean when you say your story is lacking “descriptions.” Narrative is when things are being explained by the narrator. This can be the narrator explaining back story, character thoughts or feelings, something that happened off-the-page, plot or setting elements–really anything that is being explained rather than playing out as an action or dialogue sequence. Every scene should include some narrative.

Dialogue - dialogue is obviously a conversation between two or more characters, but dialogue should also include description. In other words, you don’t want a dialogue sequence that looks like a tennis match of spoken words. You need to add action and description to make it more interesting. So, instead of:

“Do you know what time it is?”

“No, want me to check?”

“Sure, I guess.”

“Okay, it’s ten o’clock.”

(Which is very boring…) You would do this:

Sam sauntered into the room. “Do you know what time it is?”

“No,” Sarah said, glancing up from her needlework. “Want me to check?”

The truth of the matter was, Sam wasn’t sure he wanted Sarah to check the time. Was it better for him not to know? Was it true that a watched pot never boils? Letting out a frustrated groan, he shuffled to the window and parted the velvet curtains to peer out. Snow was still falling in apocalyptic fashion. The carriage would never make it through. They should be here by now!

“Sure, I guess. I mean, yes. Please check the time,” Sam said at last.

“Okay.” Sarah fished around in the deep pocket of her skirt until she found her pocket watch, which she pulled out by the chain. “It’s ten o’clock.”

Now that was a lot more interesting, wasn’t it? Plus it tells us a lot more than just back and forth dialogue. Here’s how all the things we discussed come into play:

Sam sauntered into the room. (action and description) “Do you know what time it is?”

“No,” Sarah said, glancing up from her needlework. (description) “Want me to check?”

The truth of the matter was, Sam wasn’t sure he wanted Sarah to check the time. Was it better for him not to know? Was it true that a watched pot never boils? Letting out a frustrated groan, he shuffled to the window and parted the velvet curtains to peer out. Snow was still falling in apocalyptic fashion. The carriage would never make it through. They should be here by now! (narrative)

“Sure, I guess. I mean, yes. Please check the time,” Sam said at last.

“Okay.” Sarah fished around in the deep pocket of her skirt until she found her pocket watch, which she pulled out by the chain.(action and description) “It’s ten o’clock.”

So, now that you know what all of these things are, how do you add them in? Well, there’s no special method. You just do it. It takes practice to do it well, but you’ll get there. For now, just try it. When you find yourself writing “tennis match” dialogue, figure out where you can add a little action, narrative, and description to flesh things out. And when you’re writing a scene, make sure you include narrative to explain what’s happening, action to move the story forward, and description to tell the reader about the characters and settings. :)