Important and nonsense?

It's one of the most common questions from novice writers - but don't worry, because dialogue is one of the hardest things to do well when writing.

A key point is to realise that dialogue can't be used to pad your story. Just because you *can* make your characters talk for 10 pages, doesn't mean you ever should - in fact, you shouldn't. If your dialogue goes on for too long, people will find it boring and it will put them off the rest of your book.

You say that you don't want your story to be shortened because the characters only speak when necessary - but that's exactly when they should be speaking. If that makes your story shorter, you need to add interesting content to the story to take the place.

To balance it out, the simple answer is that you have to have enough plot - and this can be very difficult. Some authors say they can just write a novel with no plan, that the words pour onto the page somehow. A tip from me - unless this is you, and it probably isn't, you *have* to plan the story.

Write down everything you want to happen in each chapter. If, when you're finished, it doesn't look like much, you need to think of some other interesting stuff that can happen. If you want to write a book, you can't just pad it out by adding boring nothingness because that just makes it worse.

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With regards to your other questions, I think I've covered number 1. For number 2, it depends what you're doing with it. If you're going to send it off for publication or to an agent, you have to double space the lines and leave large margins. Otherwise, it doesn't matter about spacing.

For 3, most novels are between 50,000 words (which is quite short) and 80,000 words (which is quite long). I'd aim for 60,000 to start with, but it depends on the genre of your book and your target audience. Books for children will be shorter, high fantasy books set in another world for teenagers will be much longer.

Hope that helps, and good luck with the story!

3. Well..the length of the book relies entirely on what you want to accomplish. You may want to find out what is a general standard for short story, exerpt, essay, and novel, and then decide what it is you had been going for.

1. You can do that...I do around 20-30 page chapters, so its okay. I do a different format for the chapters though...that's why they are so obnoxiously long. I guess you just have to dedicate a lot of your time into describing the setting, mood, etc instead of having the entire thing just dialogue.

2. Harry Potter books, the hardback version I have, is double spaced and many other novels that I have read are the same way. Most I have read, however, the 70% of them, are just single/regular spaced. I see, usually, 10 or 12pt font.

1. dealing with that can be very difficult at times i think further into the story you get you will see that the nonsense conversation is much needed not just for the page length but for the development of the characters themselves it portrays them to be more human or real so to speak.

2 Double spaced 12 pt New courier

3. Any length is best for a book its up to you as a author to decide how long you want your book to be their is no standard to Imagination

First, any dialogue that you would normally would have with your friends, or family, cut out. Unless, it is important to the plot or to your character's personality, it shouldn't be included.

It's okay to have a long dialogue, as long as it doesn't drone on forever. Try having someone else read it (an honest friend or teacher; someone who will give you honesty) and ask their opinion.

When I first started writing, I forced myself to make my chapters a certain length, but it really doesn't work. By trying to make your chapters ten to fifteen pages, you will stretch out unimportant chapters, making them seem boring. Just stop whenever the scene is over.

I'm not sure of the spacing; I think it depends on the book.

The length of all books are different. I personally like books to be at least 200-300 pages. Just make sure your not dragging each scene out to make it longer. Its okay if you're book is short; many good books are only a hundred pages.

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thats nonsense

lol

just make it like a convo that u would have with someone