Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40781
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40781
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

OK, I'm going to rephrase your question a little. Your problem is this: You have information to impart, which is (a) interesting and (b) important. However, **the _act_ of imparting that information is neither interesting nor important.**

I hope that sounds about right to you. And I think you'll find this way of phrasing the problem also hints and some potential solutions.

## Make the scene important

If you don't have a good reason why the scene of two people talking is important -- consider making one up. Examples off-hand:

- Your protagonist is trying impress the other character, and win their favor.
- Your protagonist hates the other character, and is just looking for a fight.
- The other character's story is a perfect echo of something that happened to your protagonist, so the protagonist has a bunch of internal reactions to almost every detail.

## Make the scene interesting

A dull infodump can be livened up if the _interaction between the characters_ is interesting, off-kilter, or fun. If the other character is _memorable_, it'll feel like a scene, not an interrogation.

- Think of the Oracle in _The Matrix_. She just tells Neo plot information -- but she has fantastic style and personality; so the scene is fun and memorable.

## Spotlight the information, not the conversation

If the problem is that _imparting_ the information is kind of dull, then... maybe we don't actually _need_ that part? Like, at all?

Maybe you can skip the conversation -- and just _show_ the reader what you had intended to tell.

You can change point-of-views, _just for the story being told_, and let the second character narrate that bit -- instead of a Q&A, you get a vivid, straightforward account.

You may even conclude that your book _needs_ more POV characters. Or that you need to position your protagonist where they can _see_ the important part, experience it for themselves, instead of just hearing about it from somebody else.

* * *

So: A lot of dialogue can be improved, not by dialogue techniques at all -- but simply by building your piece to _avoid_ having long Q&A sessions being necessary :)

Hope this helps; all the best!

Original score: 15