Beware of Talking Heads
I love Talking Heads, at least when I'm speaking about music. If you're not sure who Talking Heads are--yeah, I'm looking at all you young ones out there--then take some time to listen to their classic song, Psycho Killer: But of course, I digress. The talking heads I don't like are not the musical group but characters in a story, engrossed in dialogue, and the only things the author has given to me are the words of the conversation. No setting. No gestures. Nothing that grounds me, as the reader, in the scene. I'd love to give you an example from one of the books I read recently, but if I did that, I'd out the writer and I don't really feel like doing that at the moment. So here's what I will do. I'll pull out a conversation from the novel closest to me right now, and take out anything from the scene except the dialogue. (Here's hoping that the book I choose is well-written, right?) Just to quench your curiosity, I'm taking a...