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The participants describe everything needed for the story to continue, within the conversation. The environment, the emotions, everything. The reader gets to "see" it all through their words. Has it been done before?

EDIT: I have written 5 chapters of a dialogue-only book. It started off in the usual format, until I realized that the fact that I have not been to locations will definitely show through. Its fleshed out like conversations between people now, with references to the environment thrown in. What I was looking for were references of books done like that, so I know how to write it in a way that others would ACTUALLY read the book and ENJOY the story. Can anyone give me suggestions of books written in such away? Or can any other writer give me guidance on how to write it this way? Thank you for all that have tried.

Daydah
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    Hi Daydah! Welcome to Writing.SE! Please take a look at our [tour] and [help] pages, they're useful for seeing what questions we're best at answering. Your question, as it stands at the moment, is a tad problematic: in effect you're asking for a potentially endless list of examples. That's what's called a "list question", and we tend to frown on those. But there's a good question there: How to write a short story composed of only dialogue.You ask how, people will also provide you with examples. :) – Galastel supports GoFundMonica Jul 21 '19 at 09:50
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    (Also, if something has never been done, that doesn't mean it can't be done - that means you're going to be the first, and that's awesome. Not the case here, but in general - don't be afraid of breaking new ground.) – Galastel supports GoFundMonica Jul 21 '19 at 09:51
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    sounds like a play with no stage directions – sesquipedalias Jul 21 '19 at 10:10
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    Do you want to exclude philosophical dialogues starting with Greek philosophers all the way to E.A.Poe (see Dialogue of Monos and Una)'? – NofP Jul 21 '19 at 12:03
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    So… a radio play script? – wetcircuit Jul 21 '19 at 13:18
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    Is this truly on-topic? – Levi C. Olson Jul 21 '19 at 14:21
  • In high school we read "Romeo and Juliet", "Cyrano", "Waiting for Godot" etc. which (as plays) consist almost entirely of dialog. – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Jul 21 '19 at 17:59
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is asking for existing example of something existing. Instead asking if doing to would be a good idea or what drawbacks you might encounter doing so would be more appropriate. – linksassin Jul 22 '19 at 01:23
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    No, it's not on topic (sorry, Daydah, but I hope you stick around). It's a "make a list" question which we don't do on SE. That's why we're getting answers that are nothing but a book suggestion (with or without an explanation). These folks are answering the question as asked, but they aren't the insightful answers we look for here to complement thoughtful questions. A question about how to make an all-dialogue book work would be on topic. – Cyn Jul 22 '19 at 03:13
  • Thanks @Cyn linksassin Galastel I have tried to add more context. I want to know how to write such a book well. – Daydah Jul 22 '19 at 10:22
  • A play would need stage directions. A radio play script sounds cool @wetcircuit but won't that need additional effects written in? For example, door opens, door closes etc. – Daydah Jul 22 '19 at 10:23
  • @Daydah, just write the script. You don't need sound fx or prose if you choose to only have dialog. The point is you'll need to read scripts as this is how your story will be told. Don't worry about formatting until you have the story. Scripts are often read as Spoken Word which is the opposite of staged "melodrama" with music and soundfx. Your question is closed because there's nothing here about writing, you just want some titles to read. Your story is what will keep people ACTUALLY reading and ENJOYING, not formatting gimmicks. – wetcircuit Jul 22 '19 at 10:39

4 Answers4

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The short story Orange by Neil Gaiman, from his collection Trigger Warning takes your idea one step further: it's framed as a subject's responses to an investigator's written questionnaire. The questions aren't even there - only the answers.

It starts:

  1. Jemima Glorfindel Petula Ramsey.

  2. Seventeen on June the ninth.

  3. The last five years. Before that we lived in Glasgow (Scotland). Before that, Cardiff (Wales).

You see how you don't need to see the questions, to know what they are? Not all information needs to be put into words on the page - we are quite good at inferring.

For the "story" itself (since the first questions are more of an introduction, really), here's an example:

  1. About half a metre above the carpet. She'd sink down a bit to go through doors, so she didn't bump her head. And after the hose incident she didn't go back to her room, just stayed in the main room and floated about grumpily, the colour of a luminous carrot.

Again, it is quite easy to infer all the bits that haven't been spelled out for you.

When you're writing, you have to have a very clear idea of the things that you're not putting on the page. If what you're giving the readers is only dialogue, you need to know what's happening, the emotions, etc., and you need to make sure those events and emotions are adequately conveyed by the dialogue, that is - the reader can infer them from the dialogue.

When you want to create suspense, you can hide things by means of the format: your character might respond in surprise to something the reader cannot see. But ultimately, suspense needs to be resolved, the reader must learn what's going on.

@sesquipedalias mentions plays in a comment. That is indeed a useful reference point. In particular, older plays, like Shakespeare, have very little stage directions, except for entrances and exits. Everything that's going on, even the time of day, and most certainly emotions etc., are conveyed by the dialogue itself. There is, however, a big difference: Shakespeare is telling you who is saying what. That's one more bit of information you'll need to convey within the dialogue.

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Galastel supports GoFundMonica
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A clear-cut example is Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? by Dave Eggers. It starts like this:

—I did it. You’re really here. An astronaut. Jesus.
—Who’s that?
—You probably have a headache. From the chloroform.
—What? Where am I? Where is this place? Who the fuck are you?
—You don’t recognize me?
—What? No. What is this?
—That? It’s a chain. It’s attached to that post. Don’t pull on it.
—Holy shit. Holy shit.
—I said don’t pull on it. And I have to tell you right away how sorry I am that you’re here under these circumstances.
—Who are you?
—We know each other, Kev. From way back. And I didn’t want to bring you here like this. I mean, I’d rather just grab a beer with you sometime, but you didn’t answer any of my letters and then I saw you were coming through town so—Really, don’t yank on that. You’ll mess up your leg.
—Why the fuck am I here?
—You’re here because I brought you here.
—You did this? You have me chained to a post?
—Isn’t that thing great? I don’t know if you’d call it a post. Whatever it is, it’s incredibly strong. This place came with them. This was a military base, so there are these weird fixtures here and there. That thing you’re chained to can hold ten thousand pounds, and just about every building here has one. Stop pulling on it.
—Help!

leftaroundabout
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  • This is great! Even the lines in front of each part helps to differentiate the speakers. Thanks! @leftaroundabout – Daydah Jul 22 '19 at 10:28
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They're Made out of Meat by Terry Bisson consists only of dialogue--Specifically, between two aliens who are shocked to find fully organic life (spoiler: it's us). Here are the opening lines:

...

"They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"Meat. They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"There's no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."

"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars."

"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."

"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."

"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."

"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."

...

You can find an audio play version (and an interview with Bisson) here.

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josh
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It's been done a fair few time, I've written a short story this way myself, over two decades ago mind you. It can be done, my recollection is that it came out pretty stilted but I was only 12 so it could have been worse. The most recent example I can think of is World War Z which, as it is "An oral history of the zombie war", can be considered to be a piece of almost pure dialogue.

Ash
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