Background
I probably am wording this badly and that's why when I searched the site I didn't get an answer. So I was wondering, because the recent totally epic chapter of my masterpiece novel involved quite a lot of talking. Almost the entire chapter was talking.
When I read I see a huge variety of description to talking ratios in books. For example, I know that in Justin Cronin's work there is a lot more description in his talky chapters than say, Stephen Donaldson. This is why I think this is a legitimate question and thing to consider:
- How do you balance the talking in a chapter?
Currently I'm writing with the philosophy that I should not have things in blocks. For example, a block of description, a block of talking, a block of description. I am trying to spread out my description throughout the talking, in smaller bits.
Question
How should you balance the talking in a chapter evenly with description and action?
Is there a certain ratio of dialogue:narrative that you should be using?