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References: <sbb1.717741603@Ra.MsState.Edu> <sbb1.717534371@Ra.MsState.Edu> <1992Sep27.013709.6409@news.yale.edu> <1992Sep28.084749.1@lure.latrobe.edu.au>


In a previous article, sbb1@Ra.MsState.Edu (Shay B. Berthelson) says:

>My problem is not dialogue.  I can write dialogue all day long.
>...
>My problem is... I can't become 
>comfortable with the actual author explanation or action in a novel format.
>I can view what I see the characters doing.  But I can't write it to sound
>like a novel.  The best I can do is write very detailed explanations of the
>surroundings and the characters.


I find dialogue easier and more fun than action, also.  Here are a couple
of suggestions that may or may not help. 

You could try starting out, or doing a draft, in first person.  Then, you
see, it's -all- dialogue.  A character in the story is telling it, in
his/her characteristic way.

I don't know much about playwrights, but novelists sneak the action in
during or between bits of dialogue.  They're talking, and they do something
else at the same time.

"But Roger, you don't understand."  She walked to the window.  "No one
understands, not really."  With a small grunt of effort, she raised the
lower sash. 

This is a real help, sometimes, with the rhythm of the sentences. 
Sometimes it's just a bloody nuisance fitting in what's going on. 

For large chunks of action with little or no dialogue (and these do come,
but not really that often), it can be a help to read it aloud.  You can
imagine that some rather formal person is telling another what happened. 
"Mother, do you know what happened next to Natalie?  The building was
burning all around her--she could feel heat through the office door--she
thought perhaps Jean was trying to reach her, and then...."

Bonita Kale