Description vs Action in a book

[Library Lady 📚]

I am super picky about dialogue. I don't like it as small talk, but it's endlessly irritating as info dumping, too. Or when a character's mom says stuff like, "Your brother Paul is picking you up," like she doesn't know her own brother's name.

[G.G.]

Unless she has many brothers. :P

[Mark]

True, Lena. The info dump is especially irritating. Like the villain explaining his entire plan. Cliche and basically just lazy. There are many better ways to get that info out.

[Virginia]

Mark wrote: "That's true, but, in my opinion, dialogue is one of those things that you don't get much better at with practice."

I'll agree that it's not something you can get better at by only writing it again and again, but it's still studiable and improvable. Social skills and conversations are a skill that most people have enough of to get by and thus they never really put in the thought out practice needed to improve. As someone with Aspergers I had to and I can tell you that this kind of thing can be learned intellectually and studied "in the wild".

[Yolanda]

I think its all about creating a balance. Two much description can be boring, unless you're building an imaginary world. 'Small talk' dialogue that doesn't move the story forward should be kept to a minimum, same applies to description.

[Mark]

I think writing is a unique art in the fact that even "old pros" have a hard time understanding how it works. It's hard to determine why it's good when it works and why it's bad when it falls flat.
In the Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White there is a particularly good example. consider: These are the times that try men's souls.
There is something about that sentence that stirs emotion. It has certainly stood the test of time.
Now consider: Times like these try men's souls.
It doesn't have the same force, the same ring. Grammatically it's just as correct, but the first sentence evokes emotion and the second doesn't.
Why? Who knows. It simply lacks harmony.

[Jojobean]

Some description is good but not where I feel like I wanna fall asleep. I love action!