As I’ve stated before, I’ve read and reviewed more than 200 fiction books in 8 years, mostly for new and unknown authors. Through that experience, I’ve been blessed to discover many incredible books that are now some of my favorites. Along the way, though, I’ve also noticed several not-so-great writing problems that pop up time and time again in works of fiction. Today I want to focus on one mistake in particular that I’m seeing far too often: too many conversations.
Now, there is nothing wrong with a good conversation in a story. Every fiction book has them, some more than others. They are necessary elements of a good story. Done correctly, conversations can be deeply moving and quite exciting. However, the problem I’m seeing is that some authors depend too heavily on conversations to move their story along. I’ve read many science fiction and fantasy novels that have this problem. The book sounds like an action-oriented story, at least according to the book description, but its not. Upon reading the book the reader finds it has very few true action scenes. Instead, most of the action happens off screen (so to speak) and most of what happens in the story is told to us through a conversation.
A Rule For Writers
Too many conversations is actually a sign the writer has never learned one of the biggest rules in writing; “show, don’t tell.” It’s sometimes easier to have a character describe what happened rather than actually show the reader what’s happening. Every writer, including myself, needs to keep this rule in mind as they write. There is really nothing wrong with occasionally using a conversation where one character tells another character about something that happened, as long as it doesn’t become the main storytelling device in the book. Conversations in general should be evenly distributed with action scenes. And by “action scenes” I’m not necessarily talking about high-octane scenes of fights and explosions, etc. An action scene could be something as simple as one character walking on the beach in the morning and experiencing a beautiful sunrise. The main point here is the author should show the reader what’s happening rather than telling the reader.
Examples
To illustrate my point, let me give you a few examples of books I’ve reviewed. I read one about a futuristic civil war in the United States. The book had only one or two action scenes showing fighting between the sides. The rest of the battle was described by the main characters in endless conversations. I read another about a space battle between a human spaceship and a fleet of alien fighters. Again, almost the entire war played out around a conference table in conversations between the military commanders. A third example is a spy thriller about a crack team that was supposed to bring down a mastermind. Once the team of 7 experts in their field were assembled and brought to the secret headquarters, it seemed like they never left their hideout. Sure, they went out and did various missions, but we never saw what they did. We’d only hear about the mission through their report to the others. These are the most obvious examples I can think of. I’ve read many more that weren’t quite as extreme, but it was still painfully obvious to me as I read the book that the author was way too dependent on conversations to tell his or her story.
Mix It Up
The flip side of this problem can be equally detrimental to a work of fiction; too much action. I don’t find this problem nearly as often but there are still plenty of authors who struggle with this. They need to slow down every so often and give us a good conversation between action scenes. Conversations, after all, are a great time to show us more about the characters who are talking. So, we need our conversations. But conversations are most effective in their proper place. I find a good rule as I’m writing, is to keep changing things up. I don’t want my story to stay in the same groove for too long. That applies to the whole conversation thing, and it also applies to setting, pacing, and conflict. I won’t get too much into those elements in this article other than to say, doing the same thing over and over in any story can be boring. Keep the reader engaged with a good mixture of interesting conversations AND strong action scenes.
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SCOTT CAHAN 
Conversations can be tremendously useful for authors. They convey so much character, who has power and who doesn’t, why there’s conflict. But, yes, there has to be balance between more static scenes and more active ones.