Craft Glossary · term

Dialogue — exposition & small talk

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Plain English: Using dialogue to feed the reader facts the characters already know, or filling space with hellos and weather.

Rule: Cut greetings and logistics; enter late and leave early ("get in, get out"). When characters must convey information, give them a reason to say it now and an emotion to say it through; break it across action and reaction.

Fail: "As you know, Bob" — info-dump-via-dialogue ("As you know, Captain, our ship runs on dilithium"). And static talking-heads: big undifferentiated blocks with no body, no setting, no back-and-forth.

Arjuna Badger Press · Craft Library

Glossary · Doctrine · Anti-patterns · Triptych form · LLM tells

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