James says;
and if you take a paragraph this fact will appear more clearly,
and if you take three or four paragraphs, or a whole story,
the fusion of all three styles in the same words is clearly apparent.
It is impossible to give fixed rules for the varying proportion of
description, narration, or dialogue in any given passage. The writer
must guide himself entirely by the impression in his own mind. He sees
with his mind's eye a scene and events happening in it. As he describes
this from point to point he constantly asks himself, what method of
using words will be most effective here? He keeps the impression always
closely in mind. He does not wander from it to put in a descriptive
passage or a clever bit of dialogue or a pleasing narrative: he follows
out his description of the impression with faithful accuracy, thinking
only of being true to his own conception, and constantly ransacking his
whole knowledge of language to get the best expression, whatever it may
be. Now it may be a little descriptive touch, now a sentence or two out
of a conversation, now plain narration of events. Dialogue is the most
expansive and tiring, and should frequently be relieved by the condensed
narrative, which is simple and easy reading.
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