More about N & D

I am actually part of a writing circle with my college and I am having this same discussion with them (which is why I made the comment earlier!). I thought I would add a bit of what I had spoken of there, as I cannot link you to them (boo!).

"I find that the part of writing I struggle the most with is finding a balance between narration and dialogue. I often tend to have an abundance of one and not enough of the other; it's not always consistently the same through my writing. Some areas seem heavy with narration and lack the breaks that dialogue ('verbal' or 'internal') and some areas seem to be heavy with this and lack description to give a better visual image for readers.

• Have any of you ever had a problem with this?
• How do you (or how did you) find a 'balance' in your writing?

I try myself to add 'movement' inside my dialogue by indicating tone, gestures, movement, interaction, passing of time, and emotion. I very much doubt that they paused and stopped everything to have this conversation. Something's going on between, around, or within the people speaking so I try to show that as I am writing. The same with narration and description. I'm sure inner thoughts are going on, observations or problems my characters are dwelling on as they are moving or interacting with the world I make for them."




I spend so much time editing my work to try to find this delicate balance and not overwhelm readers with too much of one or the other. It can be so hard to try to make it work, especially on dialogue-heavy areas or narration-heavy areas.


-M. Hendrix