Dialogue vs Description

70% of my books/novellas rely on dialogue. This was not by accident. As a writer, there are areas that you are lousy at, areas where you cut it, barely, and areas where you excel. Writing realistic and entertaining dialogue is one of my strong suits, so I'm told. Dialogue creates interaction between characters. Different kinds of interaction. Love, hate, anger, jealousy, envy, friendship, bonding etc.

I read a very interesting article years ago which maintained that a person shouldn't waste their time trying to improve what they're lousy at, but make what they're good at (and enjoy doing) even better. I subscribe to that theory. Here is my (very basic) plan for writing a story, any story.

I'm pretty good at writing dialogue and as I've already mentioned, my books will contain about 70% of dialogue. What does that mean? It means that I've reduced the amount of the book I can screw up to 30% right off the bat. So far so good. Humor. I own a pretty sick sense of humor myself and infuse that into my writing. Humor, however, is a double edged sword. What I find funny, a particular reader might not. We don't all share the same sense of humor, therefore the onus is on my book description to let potential readers know what to expect. 40 to 60% of my dialogue will contain humor.

If I'm lousy at fight scenes or love scenes or writing description, I have a choice. I can either hint at the scene rather than write it out or I can have someone more proficient write a scene for me.

What would you rather read? Let's take (for example) a scene where a potential fight might occur. The first character has already asked the second what the hell he intends to do about the insult he threw at the second character. Which of the second character's responses would make you want to read more?

1. "I'm going to punch you right on the nose. You have no idea who you're dealing with."

Zzzzzzzzz...

2. "I'm going to remove my right shoe, insert that foot colon deep in your ass... and wiggle my toes. You may enjoy it, you may not. I don't give a shit. That will be all the foreplay you'll get. Allow me describe what will happen next...

As a reader, would you be eager to hear the second character's further description? I'm betting you would.

There is a gentleman by the name of Tom Leveen. He used to provide critique of the opening scenes of writer's books. He has great insight. I sent several 'first scenes' his way and was always impressed by his critique. Sadly, he no longer provides this service. He recognized right away that because I loved writing dialogue, I often skipped over description of setting or time frame that would allow a reader to paint a more vivid picture in their head of the scene at hand. I miss Tom's sharp eye.