Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34212
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34212
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

> How can I avoid such long 'walls' of one-sided dialogue...

**You don't need to.** My writing style is naturally very conversational, especially in my more "slice-of-life"-esque stories: characters will sit/stand around talking to each other for pages at a time. One of them has a character deliver an expository infodump that goes on for about three pages.

There are two tricks I use to avoid these becoming boring:

1. You've said that the protagonist doesn't talk much in that scene, but that doesn't mean he has to just sit there being talked to. **Have him react to the situation** - if not verbally, then physically or internally. Have him react to what they say, and what they ask. If they refuse to believe that he really doesn't remember anything, have him grow frustrated. Have him worry about his injuries and his memory loss, and wonder how they happened. Is he in pain? Have him press his morphine button - unless the interrogators are particularly sadistic and take it away from him.
2. Make sure that what's being said is actually **interesting**. Your characters are real people with real personalities, whom your readers have never met before. **Introduce them.** Make sure their personalities come across in that opening scene. Are the cops grizzled and hard-boiled? Are they sympathetic towards the protagonist? How do they react to his claims of amnesia? How well do they get along with each other? Maybe one believes him and one doesn't? Your characters should reveal as much about themselves in that opening scene as they should about the protagonist's situation.

Original score: 7