It's difficult to keep to flash fiction word lengths if you have a character or characters that just won't. shut. up. But not to worry, there are methods for dealing with the chatty types...methods beyond lots of duct tape.

I tend to waffle between episodes of dialog between my characters and info dumps of scenery and plot bits. I'm slowly becoming better at balancing the two so readers won't use my writing as kindling. (If it's a life or death situation, then by all means use my writing as kindling, but otherwise I'd prefer it to stay un-burned if possible.)

Talkative characters are actually one of the main reasons why I so rarely do flash fiction. I like for my characters to chatter, argue, debate, rant, discuss, and monologue. It helps me progress the plot and slip in bits of scenery, descriptions, and observations along the way. I just take my time doing it, so I'll end up with seven pages of dialogue before the important plot point of the moment actually happens. Whoops?

To combat this, I've tried slicing out observations made by my characters and simply stating them. It's not my ideal method, but it somewhat helps speed up the plot so that I'll better stay under word quota. Not to mention that it still leaves a lot of what I've already written still on the page. It's not an effective method of trimming word count if I've gone over, but it does help balance dialogue against non-dialogue.

If that's not cutting it, I move to more drastic steps and cut out a character's dialogue. If they don't talk, they can't use up word count. Now, I'm not telling you to turn one of your characters into a mime. That'd just be cruel and unusual punishment for everyone involved. But if I slip their ranting into shorter internal monologue one-liners, it's enough to help flesh out a character while progressing the plot and keeping the fluff out of the word count.

When your characters do talk, work towards making their dialogue either further the plot or help characters grow. Ideally, have it do both simultaneously, but that's easier said than done. It's not easy finding the right balance, but if you can pull it off, your writing will be all the stronger.

I've also heard of writers interrupting their character's dialogue with action, drama, and, if necessary, guns to character's heads. I haven't tried it, as my brain goes twitchy at cut off sentences. But for some it may be just what you need in order to keep the plot moving and your characters distracted.

Or you can bribe your characters with shiny baubles if they'll be quiet and do as their told. I know chocolate tends to be a good motivator. Money works too, unless your character is a billionaire, in which case distract them with a Scrooge McDuck style vault with all their money in it. Just warn them that diving into a pool of coins and money bags, yeah – not as fluid and easy as cartoons make it out to be.

Have you figured out good methods for dealing with chatty characters? Methods beyond duct tape or sore throats? How do you manage?