The Help Thread

[Bilbo]

This works liek the Harry Potter Trivia Thread. Answer the previous plea for help in any literary context, then ask your own.
Let's start this off:
1: Whenever I try to write a book, all the conversations take up about a page, with one character talking constantly while the others butt in after a few lines. What can I do to solve this?

[inked]

Write out the statements made by the characters. Then cut each page into equal parts as the number of characters in the conversation. Then place the pieces of conversation like a puzzle 1, 2, 3, etc, and provide linking words, phrases, thoughts, or observations. You can vary the order of course and have 3, 2, 1 or 2, 1, 3, or any combination. The tough part is the linkage of course, but substitute a narrator or observable incident description to parallel or confute the 'conversation'. Before you know it, you'll have a tolerable conversation that you can revise to perfection. ;)

[sun-star]

Also, go through every line and ask yourself why it's there. What purpose is it serving? If characters are just explaining situations to each other, telling their life history, or deciding what to have for lunch, it doesn't need to be in dialogue. You can summarise a lot more succintly through your narrator.