Dialogue: character’s words
Action: character’s movement
Narrative: character’s thoughts, which can include observation of setting or other characters, inner monologue, musings, etc.
Fiction is created using DAN in the right proportions. Certainly there are scenes in which only one of the elements works best, and learning which to use when comes with experience. But for this piece, I’m going to focus on how to use all three elements to create a smooth ride for your reader.
The concept of weaving these three elements should not be unfamiliar—we combine these three things in our normal life. You could be meeting a friend for lunch at a restaurant. What are you doing? You’re talking with your friend (dialogue), eating your lunch (action), thinking about what to say, the scenery, etc. (narrative). Writing a scene of fiction, then, is not much different. We want our stories to imitate life, so we need to show all of these dimensions of our characters’ lives at once. Not the boring stuff, though, but the stuff that adds to the plot and character growth.
What do you give your attention to when people around you are doing these three things? Obviously, we can’t read a person’s thoughts. Sometimes when people are doing certain things we take notice, wild gestures with their hands for example. But most likely, your attention piques when you hear someone say something interesting.
Dialogue and Action
In an action scene, people don’t stop talking. Nor do they give page-length speeches either. In a scene that’s mostly action, you want to sprinkle in bits of dialogue, even if it’s just a word or phrase. Without dialogue, the scene would feel stagnant and lifeless, even though your characters may be running away from a T-Rex (a la “Jurassic Park”). Action without dialogue often lacks substance.
Conversely, when creating a scene where dialogue is the prevalent element, make sure your characters are doing something. Even in those scenes that are nondramatic, have your characters engaged in some kind of activity while they’re talking. Dialogue can bring your characters to life, but action and dialogue combined create characters and a setting that are three-dimensional.
Dialogue Action Narrative
Simply put, narrative tells, dialog shows. While narrative can perform many important tasks in a story—reveal a character’s inner thoughts, describe setting, flash back into the past, for example—too much of it becomes boring. The best way to handle this is by weaving narrative into your dialogue in order to flesh it out. Take the following dialogue scene (excerpted from my own story, “Prey”) as an example, first using only dialogue:
***
“Harmless? A planet that would destroy itself…harmless? You are fahra-tog—barbarians. Your planet is dying. The Kashoori did you a favor. We saved you from your own foolishness.”
“You did me no favor by taking away my daughter.”
“She would not have been harmed.”
***
Though the above dialogue may be intriguing and suggest action and tension, it is lacking and makes the scene feel flat. Now let’s invite DAN:
***
“Harmless?” Her voice seethed with accusation. “A planet that would destroy itself…harmless? You are fahra-tog—barbarians. Your planet is dying.” She threw her jaw out. “The Kashoori did you a favor. We saved you from your own foolishness.”
He stared at her a long moment, eyes ablaze with hatred. Then, slowly, as though smothered by some deep pain, the fire in his eyes dimmed, and his face softened into an expression of melancholy. “You did me no favor by taking away my daughter.”
His mulik. Tarayvi felt a twitch in her gut. She hadn’t expected that. She opened her mouth to speak but found no suitable words. The Terran young were the most important treasure from Earth; their youth made it easier for them to adapt, and therefore they were easier to assimilate into Kashoori society. And their energetic adolescent immune systems held the key to the disease problem on the planet—the Terran sickness, brought by the first human slaves. What could she tell this human?
“She would not have been harmed,” was all she could think of.
***
Quite a difference. See how much more the scene is fleshed out by weaving narrative and action into the dialogue?
Pacing and Rhythm
There are times when you’ll want to focus on only one of the three elements, but generally you’ll want to create a balance between the three. How you weave them affects your story’s pacing, so weaving well helps you find your story’s rhythm. So whenever you’re crafting a scene, don’t be shy, invite DAN. He’ll prove a good friend.
