: Is it okay to sum up unimportant dialogue in the description? Let me explain Like many, I’m a huge fan of the HBO series True Detective. I was reading the script for the second episode

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Not all dialogues are important, so it is Ok to skip them. Usually, you can just do it and skip them, like: "How may I help you?" - said the receptionist - and the next scene is at the destination.

But sometimes you can't skip the dialogue completely. For example, your character got some inaccurate information from the receptionist, and it has some relevance later in the plot. In this case, you have to either reproduce the full dialogue, or somehow get around it. "This is not the right room," - "But the receptionist said it should be here!"

Sometimes, it gets worse, and you just can't have the full dialogue in your book, but still have to provide some kind of recap. For example, your character is having a boring hour-long meeting with a lawyer, and there is no feasible way to write up the whole dialogue. But this meeting is important, and information provided there can't be ignored. So, your characters walks into the meeting, and then, after a short timeskip, he's thinking about this meeting and what was discussed there. Or, in case of a screenplay, discussing it with someone.

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If a character speaks, you must have it as dialogue. The normal course of action in scripts is to omit "nicety" dialogue and leave that up to the director. We typically eliminate greetings and "how are yous" and any pointless politeness or greeting, unless it is specifically character building (a glad hander knowing everybody he passes in the hall) but even then responses are not included. Any actual dialogue becomes expensive, you need overhead microphones, sound editing, foleys, etc. Just skip it! The director will just make the receptionist busy. Or make your characters in mid-sentence give a familiar half wave to the receptionist she acknowledges with a glance up as they pass.

Or have a receptionist or guard there for plausibility but just ignore them and walk past; hold up a badge or ID for them to see as if you do it ten times a day. You don't have to talk to them or interrupt the flow of other dialogue.

In your example, "acknowledged by the receptionist" can be changed to "acknowledge by a glance of recognition from the receptionist."

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Yes, it's normal to leave out unimportant dialogue and descriptions.

Would the dialogue move the story forward? Does it give the reader insight into the characters? If not, it's probably best to leave it out.

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