Informed Conversation: Difference between revisions
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Dialogue, however, is different. When two or more characters are talking, we're expected to see exactly what they're saying. This is the literary equivalent of "showing" us the conversation. We know exactly what Alice and Bob say, and in our head, we can picture the conversation happening as clearly as if we were watching a movie or in the room with the characters.
Sometimes, however, authors decide they'd rather tell about the conversation than show the conversation directly. This is
Consider the differences between the following.
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Bob shook his head in amazement. "Wow, what a dumbass. That reminds me of when I saw some guy pull right in front of me so close I had to honk my horn, then he immediately got pulled over. Did he not notice the cop car right behind him? I didn't even know it was there myself until I saw the lights, but how'd he not look in his rear view mirror?! Some people are so dumb, like you said." }}
{{quote|When Alice got home from work, she told Bob about how she spotted a police car out in the open waiting to pull over speeders, and slowed down to avoid it, but somehow the person behind her didn't notice and actually sped up to the point where he was tailgating her. The police car had pulled over the tailgater. Bob shook his head in amazement upon hearing the story, and related a story of his own, about the time a driver who happened to have a police car right behind him stupidly decided to pull right in front of Bob and immediately got pulled over.}}
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So why skip the dialogue and just relate it? There's several reasons for it. Some writers find it useful to distill a conversation down to the elements most relevant to the story's plot, thus speeding up the story. Some conversations are redundant, and may relate to another character what the audience already knows - for example, if the story had been following Alice during the time that she's talking about, we would already know about her traffic experience, and some readers might not want to hear the story a second time (this variant is unique in that it is common outside of books as well, though typically with a fade in and out). Also, some writers may not trust in their ability to write convincing dialogue.
Sometimes it's done mid-dialogue to stop a conversation from going on forever. Real people sometimes have conversations that take well over 20 minutes! And even short conversations may also be characterized by lengthy, meandering narratives which can go in circles before coming to the point or frequent tangential switches from one topic to another, which may be difficult for an outside observer to follow. Not many want to read that, so the story may use
It can also be used to [[Narrative Profanity Filter|indicate that profanity is used without quoting it]].
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