ABSTRACT
We discussed them and he said ‘Yes that’s good, but what are these other three characters doing while these two are talking?’ In my naive literary fashion, I ’d shoved them to the back of the room. In a novel you tend to forget the silent characters while you get on with the active ones. If no one speaks for five minutes it doesn’t matter, whereas you can’t have people fidgeting around on a stage waiting to come out with a line whenever it’s required. It was only then I appreciated that when you’re actually watching dialogue, it has to have a completely different inner dynamic, that everyone has to be engaged in some way or other even if they are passive . . .
