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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33046
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33046
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Dialogue is an action like any other action in a novel. The amount of dialogue in any given novel should be a function of how much of the action of the novel -- the working out of the story shape of the novel -- involves people talking to each other.

In some novels the working out of the story arc requires lots of people talking to each other. In others very little of the action is conversation. Thus this is not really a style question. It is a question of what kind of story you are telling and how large a role conversation plays in that story.

Now if you are finding the conversation dull to write, that may be an indication that the dialogue you are writing is not actually advancing the story. This is not a question of choosing between dialogue, description, and narration, but of making sure the scene you are writing actually advances the story.

The one place in which style might affect this decision is in a frame story in which the action is reported in dialogue. But even here the same basic rule applies. While a novel like _Heart of Darkness_ is technically almost all told in dialogue, most of that dialogue is actually narration by the storyteller, and within that frame the same principle applies: dialogue is used where conversation is the next step that drives the story forward.

Original score: 6