Dialogue in novels: is it OK?

Tags

Audience, CampNanowrimo, character, Dialogue, Imagination, Novel, Reader, Reading

For my CampNaNoWriMo project this time, I’m going back to a previous story and set of characters that I never really finished and this time I’m determined to at least flesh them out enough to have a plot in place for November. So while I’m happy to be a little bit of a panster (writing with no clear plan) I want to try and be more of a Plotter next time around.

After day one however I am noticing that this time I seem to be writing more dialogue than I would normally use because the characters are now so familiar that I almost have a scene playing out in my head for them and I’m trying to just capture all of the things they would say and interact. Is this weird?

Perhaps it’s because I did a screenplay for a project in my previous writing course rather than novel writing and now my brain doesn’t seem to know when to stop. When I look at the amount of dialogue it doesn’t seem a lot yet when I am writing it then it feels like it might be too much, since people can’t exactly see the characters as I do. Or is this the point? Will this just encourage a reader to create their own version of the character as a visual in their head?  I guess it just depends on how you read things: I know I create a picture in my mind of characters from reading books but does everyone else?

This also means I am often upset at the choice of casting when the books reach filming status, I’m sure we have all had those times when our crush clearly doesn’t live up to expectations.

I am so crossing my fingers and holding my breath for The Witcher adaptation.

Source: Scratcherpen

So dialogue in a novel: good or bad?