: Re: 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

@Goswami879

Vote Up Vote Down

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.

(0)

Login to post a comment!