I have been working on my novel for about three months now. I don’t want to give anything away at the moment and there is not much to say anyway. I am not nearly as far in as I would have liked to have been and I’ve certainly had a lot of trouble with specific sections.
More than anything I’m trying to find a voice. My plot is solid. It may not be the cleverest thing ever devised, but I feel that confident that it is at least a little bit interesting on a certain core level. My characters are unique, the settings are exciting, the framework is very workable. I have everything in place…except for the actual writing.
How much dialog? How much internal monologue? How much narration? I have had a lot of trouble finding an acceptable balance.
If anything I tend towards too much dialog. I love dialog and I love writing dialog. I find conversations come to me not as individual words or pieces, but as a fluid dynamic that flows naturally. It is the easiest thing for me to write. Unfortunately, that becomes boring and leaves out too many details. Natural conversations are not going to describe every setting. They cannot completely flesh out the history and society of a universe. It is just not realistic for dialog to encompass everything.
Monologue is dangerous. Internal monologue can be so powerful, but it has to be done right and I do not trust myself to hit it squarely. Ignore internal monologue entirely and you neglect a opportunity to tap a character’s emotions. You force your reader to guess at their thoughts, which can be good, but it can also lead a lot of ambiguity in a story that will only confuse readers. Alternatively, explain everything in monologue and there’s no longer a story, just a string of events.
Narration is similar. I like using narration because it gives me an opportunity to cover things well beyond my characters and also to input a lot of humor, completely outside of the scene in question. This is the best of use narration, but I’m also telling instead of showing. You can’t engage a reader with narration, only inform them. My novel is science fiction and so I have a little leeway to explain circumstances, but I still feel like I am running close to boring the reader in minutiae.
It’s just a tough predicament. I’m hoping in editing I can tweak the balance. Right now, as I slog through the middle sections of the book, it’s hard not to second guess, but I’m committed to finishing it.
What keeps me on track is ‘the plan.’ I’ve got my outline, I’m confident in my framework, and I know that with enough editing and enough research I can patch up the holes, smooth through the worst sections. Hopefully I’ll have more information as I get closer to the end.
For those that haven’t spent some time with this field long enough – I know that the web is not the most trustworthy source for informations. but for sure I can say that the author is right, however odd it may look