Have you ever read a stretch of dialogue in a novel that became confusing? Maybe you lost sense of the environment and what the characters were meant to be doing, or maybe it wasn’t even clear which character was saying which line. The dialogue is flying back and forth, but there’s nothing else happening on the page. Sound familiar? You may have encountered an example of talking heads syndrome out in the wild, where it should never be caught.
Let’s take a look at it.
What It Is
“Talking heads syndrome” is the name given to dialogue that fails to provide enough context to ground readers within the scene, resulting in a conversation between characters that feel like talking heads floating in space. Instead of being firmly grounded within the established setting and moment, the conversation unfolding feels like it could take place in any location at any time.
The key is giving dialogue context.
Everything in a novel should be deliberate. The setting of a scene and the choice to have characters hold a specific conversation there are not exceptions to that rule. The environment and characters cannot be held still or completely disappear just because a conversation is unfolding. Keeping the world moving around characters and giving them movement and action is crucial; not only does it give the scene life, it makes characters and dialogue more realistic and believable.
Neglecting to include the details that ground readers and characters within the scene will ruin otherwise good dialogue. Your characters can be having as crucial/funny/groundbreaking a conversation as possible, but it will fall flat and fail to engage readers if the characters are just talking heads. Give the readers everything they need to navigate a conversation.
How to Identify It
Real life conversations don’t rely just on the words that are spoken. Facial expressions, body language, and interactions with the world around you are crucial, revealing, and ever-present elements of conversation. Words going back and forth aren’t enough for dialogue scenes to be realistic and engaging.
It doesn’t take much to identify talking heads syndrome. The lack of action and description that makes your characters’ dialogue realistic will be obvious and will look like lines of dialogue being traded back and forth. You’ll see some dialogue tags and perhaps a rare action beat, but it will be largely devoid of any detail besides the dialogue itself. It will look something like this:
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Lilly asked.
“Yeah,” Dorian said.
“Don’t you think we should maybe think of another plan? Ask someone for help?”
“No. This will work. I trust you.”
“That was your first mistake.”
“This is no time for joking, Lilly.”
“Who said I was joking, Dorian?”
This conversation could happen anywhere, at any time. There is nothing grounding it to a specific location or situation or conveying to readers the tone of the conversation. Are these characters being lighthearted and sarcastic or is there actual tension between them? Even if readers already know where the conversation is taking place—a library, a coffeeshop, a carnival, a city street in the middle of the night—there can’t be a sudden removal of the environment once characters start speaking. The setting still needs to exist around them, with them, as they talk. The characters need to exist as real people who think and react (expressions, small movements, etc.) while holding a conversation.
There are reasons certain conversations happen at specific times in specific locations and your writing must make readers understand and feel that.
While it’s true that not every line of dialogue requires a dialogue tag or action beat if it’s clear who’s speaking (and avoiding using them when possible adds necessary variety), you don’t want an entire portion of dialogue to be written in this way. If a segment of dialogue in your novel could easily be picked up and moved to a different location without having to edit anything about it, that is a red flag for talking heads syndrome.
How to Fix it
Action beats are a fantastic way to avoid talking heads syndrome. Not only do action beats help authors avoid overusing dialogue tags (and reaching for less common tags that sound awkward and amateurish), they give life and movement and will add a sense of environment to the scene by showing characters interacting with their setting. You cannot let your characters be utterly still as they talk, just as you cannot let the world slip away so your characters float above it all during their discussion.
Action beats also show (as opposed to tell) characters’ emotional states. They can reveal emotions and motivations in big or small ways; small actions like shifting in a seat or fiddling with a ring or glancing over their shoulder can give readers valuable information and revealing details about a character. Don’t miss this opportunity to add depth to your dialogue with the unspoken.
Flesh out dialogue scenes with sensory details, characters’ inner monologues, let them notice things happening in the environment around them. Give the scene life.
Let’s look at the example given above again, this time fully fleshed out.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Lilly asked, eyeing the tattered rope coiled on the ground before them.
“Yes,” Dorian said. He reached for the rope and started looping it around his waist. It wasn’t as thick as he’d prefer for something like this, but he’d have to make do.
Lilly pressed a hand to her temple, her ponytail whipping over her shoulder as the wind picked up. “Don’t you think we should maybe think of another plan? Ask someone for help?” There was an edge of panic in her voice that didn’t exactly inspire confidence, since he was about to rappel down the side of the parapet with only her weight on the other end of the rope. She was made of muscle, but the look on her face made him doubt whether she was the right choice.
Securing the last knot of the rope around himself, Dorian said, “No. This will work. I trust you.” He sounded more confident than he felt.
Lilly took the other end of the rope and started wrapping it around her sweaty, calloused palm.“That was your first mistake.”
Dorian peered down the length of the stone facade that stretched to the ground at least three dozen feet below. The lanterns flickered dimly, but it was still too dark to make out the cobblestones that were his destination. His stomach swooped. “This is no time for joking, Lilly.”
Lilly’s face was tight. “Who said I was joking, Dorian?”
Even if readers already knew Dorian was about to rappel down the side of a building, this passage gives readers so much more to take in. It showcases the tone and emotional state the characters are in as well as their actions and thoughts. It fully fleshes out this moment for readers, giving them information they would’ve needed anyway—it was dark, the ground was three dozen feet below them, he’s rappelling down the side of a stone building, lanterns are lit, they’re both nervous and handling it differently—but works it in naturally instead saving it for one info-dump paragraph that—again—holds the story still. This becomes a full scene instead of just dialogue.
How Not to Fix It
Don’t Rely on Boring, Simple Phrases
If you’ve noticed instances of talking heads syndrome within your manuscript, don’t go about the task of fixing it by simply adding short, basic, boring action beats that add very little value to the scene and don’t actually provide the context necessary to keep dialogue engaging.
Action beats like “he frowned,” “she grinned,” “he laughed,” etc. are fine when used occasionally. Rely on them to carry the weight of a dialogue-heavy scene and you will fail to engage readers altogether. Sure, these technically give readers a bit of info about characters’ actions and emotions, but they are completely flat in terms of fleshing out a scene. Don’t rely on them. Don’t sprinkle them in and think you’re solving the talking heads problem. Focus on providing the details that will turn dialogue into a fully immersive scene.
Don’t Give Useless Information
In the process of adding context to dialogue, it’s easy to try to fix the issue by putting down anything that removes the talking heads syndrome, whether it’s relevant to the scene or not. Don’t.
Don’t include empty, useless information just for the sake of solving talking heads syndrome. You don’t need to list everything characters do or everything that happens around them. If characters are talking in a park, readers don’t need to know every time a bird lands nearby—unless it adds value to the scene, of course. Are the birds acting unusually? Is the character mentally checked out from the conversation and zoning out while paying attention to the birds? Such details can add depth and value to the scene if they have a reason to be there. If not, leave them out.
Only include details that are relevant to the scene. Use this opportunity to showcase what’s meaningful in the moment—characters’ emotional states, what they choose to focus on in a given moment, their inner monologues, anything in their environment that warrants mention. Let characters take action that not only gives depth to the scene, but moves it forward. Focus on fleshing out dialogue with meaningful context, not empty words.
In Conclusion
Talking heads syndrome boils down to dialogue isolated from the scene. It holds the story still and untethers characters from the scene. Readers expect more and will be far from immersed in your story if you fail to give it to them. Don’t let your dialogue be ruined by neglecting to provide the details that will bring your scene to life.
Working with a professional is a great way to ensure your novel is free of talking heads syndrome. Interested?
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