From: B7Morrigan@aol.com
Yes, but in B7, particularly with certain characters, their behavior is certainly more communicative than any bit of dialogue. While I agree that there should be a happy medium, I personally like fiction (fanfic or
other)
that shows the behavior and lets the reader interpret. I find dialogue
that
explains everything, particularly motivation, to be implausible and it
wrecks
the story for me.
Agreed, but with one rider. If the story says, "Character X did such-and-such, he didn't know why", then that's probably because the author hasn't a clue why X does such-and-such but needs him to do so in order to advance the plot in the right direction.
That was certainly true for me when I tried pulling that stunt. Thankfully it was only in a ghod-awful spy novel I wrote at school when I was about 14. Lots of decrepit old Nazis and KGB agents running around East Africa, with a real Marky-Sam of a birdwatching hero...
Neil