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Q&A What is a good way to handle lengthy monologues/lectures in a novel?

In my novel, the MC is a woman from London who gets divorced and moves to Wales. Here she meets a Buddhist master with whom she has philosophical conversations about Life, Love, Relationships, etc....

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by White Cloud‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:28:11Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/41000
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar White Cloud‭ · 2019-12-08T10:28:11Z (almost 5 years ago)
In my novel, the MC is a woman from London who gets divorced and moves to Wales. Here she meets a Buddhist master with whom she has philosophical conversations about Life, Love, Relationships, etc.

I have written the questions she will ask and his answers in a separate Word document. It accounts for 17 pages, about 5800 words in total. The length of the novel I am planning is about 200 pages.

The meeting with the master happens about in the 4th chapter, a little bit after the middle of the novel. So, I am filling the space right in the middle with philosophical lecturing, which will be a little annoying, I guess.

Is there any work-around or alternate way to handle such monologues? Will it make any sense to start two stories at the beginning, separated in time?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-01-03T14:35:41Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 9