Do all short stories require dialogue?

[Lik3]

Do all stories require dialogue? Here is an excerpt from one of my short stories:

Ralph and David arrived from the military to attend their mother's funeral. It was a private funeral in which only the family attended. There was much sadness not only due to Mary's death, but due to what will become of the children. At this time, Carole was just 12 years old. Her brothers Ralph, David, and Michael were 20, 19, and 17 respectively. Joy was 14, and Abigail was just 10. After the funeral, the family split up. Michael will be in college within a year, yet he managed to look after Carole and Abigail. They ended up living with their maternal grandmother who unfortunately was growing very old, sick, and could not afford to take care of all of the children. Long term care were a constant drain on her resources and she often checked up with her daughter and the grandchildren and even defended her daughter against the town gossips. Taht was when she was well. Joy ended up living with Ralph, who the year before became a newlywed. While Ralph went overseas, his wife took care of their new baby, Amy, and was more of a big sister to Joy. His wife's name was Tammy, who grew up in a Christian home, yet like any army wife, she had to cope with home and hearth and the lonliness and the fear that her husband may not be home. So she wrote letters and whenver possible, sent emails detailing the events of the day. But living with a 14 year old sister-in-law who babysat Amy, reading the letters from Ralph, and her faith kept her strong and mafr her life easier.

 

[Strider1002]

To your question, I'd say no. I'm sure I've read some good stories without dialogue, I just can't remember their names or authors...

 

[AMOG]

Yes, but you have to have a good story and tell it well.

 

[Strider1002]

I have a collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling and at least a few of them don't have any dialogue. Most of them do, of course.

Writing is an art, and writing a story without dialogue would be like painting a picture in black and white: you can do it, but you should have a good reason for making it that way.

 

[mark kennedy]

It looks like a narrative, everything is going to be in the third person. Sure, you can do this without a dialog but I have always found that the best story tellers put me in the story somewhere. The story teller is kind of a guide, all else is forgivable if you tell the reader where you are taking them. Of course, it has to be somewhere the reader wants to go.

An interesting narrative but where are you taking me with it?

Grace and peace,
Mark

 

[SepiaAndDust]

You can make do without dialogue, depending on the story. If you want your characters to be memorable--dare I say loved?--then it's probably better to have them say something, now and again.

 

[Rob_Skellington]

A short story doesn't have any requirements.

A published short story almost always requires dialogue. In keeping with the concept of "show, don't tell," dialogue allows any characters in your story to come alive. It expresses the history, personality, and actions of your characters in a way that telling the reader about those concepts would never accomplish.

I recently attended the Pikes Peak Writers Conference. At the conference, editors and agents give potential authors a shot at publication. Nine times out of ten, if there's not dialogue on the first page, most editors and agents won't give a story (novel or short story) a second look.

Two cautions for you:

- Avoid starting your story with dialogue. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule (as there are to nearly every rule in writing). Unless you immediately identify who is speaking after the opening line, your reader will be forced to restart the dialogue once your character is identified. For instance:

"The door's open," he said as he stood in the hallway.

Who is standing in the hallway? That's not intrigue. That's confusion. Look at this, though:

"The door's open." Jeremy stood in the hallway, cursing the words that slipped out in a whisper under his breath.

The second opening identifies the speaker, and provides more intrigue. Who is Jeremy? Why is he noting that the door is open? Why is he cursing the words? Why is he whispering? All of those questions should be answered at an appropriate time, but at least the reader is more intrigued than confused.

- On a different note, I always caution readers about posting their material online. If you are planning to publish your work, avoid positing more than a paragraph. What you posted is a good length, but I wouldn't post more than that (at least in terms of a cohesive chunk of a single work at a single time). When it comes time to publish your work and a publisher searches for pieces of your work online (and believe me, they will), why would they bother publishing something that is largely available online?

I hope that helps. Happy writing.

 

[Tanys]

I don't think all short stories need dialogue. I can think of one example of a friend who wrote a very strong piece using no dialogue at all; it was intended to read like a myth or faerie tale, so not having dialogue helped to maintain that classical feel.

 

[DCJazz]

I've read stories done entirely in first person narration, with no dialogue. It's a bit more difficult to do I'd think, since you have only the personality and viewpoint of that one person, but it can be done.

I say, write the short story how it wants to be written. If that includes dialogue, or gets rid of it entirely, so be it.

 

[anaci]

It looks like a narrative, everything is going to be in the third person. Sure, you can do this without a dialog but I have always found that the best story tellers put me in the story somewhere. The story teller is kind of a guide, all else is forgivable if you tell the reader where you are taking them. Of course, it has to be somewhere the reader wants to go.

An interesting narrative but where are you taking me with it?

Grace and peace,
Mark

Excellent point! When people read stories, they want to be in it. Think about the reader. They picked the book or someone picked it for them because there is already a sense of connection.

 

[Solomon Kane]

One of the most influential horror writers of the early 20th century, Howard Phillip Lovecraft, wrote a number of short stories, novellas, and one novel. In the majority of these he used either minimal or no dialogue.
By his own admission dialogue was something that he felt he could never do properly.
Even so, his work is still read today and a number of modern horror writers list him as one of their reasons for going into their chosen genre.

So the use of dialogue does not promise being remembered in the future. Writing great stories and having unique concepts does.