The short answer
Most commercial novels keep dialogue between 20 and 50 percent of the total characters, and the right number within that span depends on the shelf you are writing for. Thrillers usually sit highest, at 40 to 60 percent, because confrontations, interrogations, and urgent exchanges do the work that description does elsewhere. Mysteries and romances cluster around 35 to 55 percent, since interviews carry clues in one case and spoken negotiation carries feeling in the other. Fantasy tends to run 30 to 50 percent because invented places need explaining on the page. Literary fiction sits lowest, at 15 to 35 percent, because interior thought, image, and compressed summary carry more of the load.
Paste a continuous scene of 300 to 2000 characters into the tool above and choose your genre. The check counts every character inside double quotation marks, divides by the total character count, and reports the result as a single percentage. It also counts how many of your lines contain spoken text, tallies your uses of said, and tallies sixteen common action and vocal tags such as nodded, whispered, and paused. Then it places your percentage against the stated convention for your genre and tells you whether the sample sits inside the band, a little outside it, or far outside it.
A result inside the band means the balance looks ordinary for your shelf, and revision energy belongs on sentences rather than structure. A result a few points outside the band means one small adjustment, usually converting a single summarized exchange into direct speech or inserting a few grounding beats. A result far outside the band means the scene is built the wrong way for its genre: rebuild a summary as a conversation, or break a long talking stretch with action and reaction. Samples under 200 characters get no verdict at all, because fragments swing too wildly to judge.
Nothing on this page measures quality. The percentage is a deterministic counting check against openly stated craft conventions, the same kind of check you could perform with a word processor and a calculator. A scene can pass the math and still bore a reader, and a scene can miss the band and still work because the writer meant it to. Use the number as a starting flag, then read the passage aloud and trust your ear for the final call.
How the tool math works
The calculation has four parts, and each one is simple enough to repeat by hand. Total characters means every character in the pasted sample after leading and trailing blank space is removed, including letters, spaces, punctuation, and line breaks. Quoted characters means every character that sits between an opening double quotation mark and its closing partner, including the spaces and punctuation inside the spoken line. Straight quotes and curly quotes both count. Single quotation marks do not count, and dialogue written with dashes but no quotation marks does not count either.
Dialogue share equals quoted characters divided by total characters, multiplied by 100, rounded to the nearest whole number. A scene of 880 characters with 396 characters inside quotation marks scores 396 divided by 880, which is 0.45, times 100, which is 45 percent. That 45 percent would sit inside the thriller band of 40 to 60, near the middle of the mystery and romance bands of 35 to 55, inside the fantasy band of 30 to 50, and above the literary band of 15 to 35. One number therefore reads differently on five shelves, which is why the genre choice matters as much as the pasted text.
Consider a second worked case. A quiet literary passage runs 1,150 characters with 207 characters of quoted speech. Dividing 207 by 1,150 gives 0.18, and multiplying by 100 gives 18 percent. Against the literary convention of 15 to 35 percent, that sample passes near the bottom edge, suggesting a reflective passage with brief spoken interruptions. Against the thriller convention of 40 to 60 percent, the same passage fails far below the band, trailing the lower edge by 22 points. The tool reports that gap explicitly, so a thriller writer sees the distance in points rather than a vague warning.
Line counts work separately from character counts. The sample is split at each line break, empty lines are thrown away, and each remaining line is checked for speech. A line counts as a dialogue line when it contains a double quotation mark of either style or when it begins with an em dash or a hyphen, which covers dash-led speech in translation-heavy styles. Every other non-empty line counts as narration. Six dialogue lines out of eight total lines reads very differently from two dialogue lines out of fourteen, even when the character percentages match, because line balance shows how the eye meets the page.
Tag counts complete the picture. The check counts whole-word matches of said in any capitalization, and separately counts sixteen beat words: asked, replied, answered, whispered, shouted, murmured, nodded, shrugged, smiled, laughed, sighed, paused, glanced, pointed, grabbed, and pulled. Tags themselves sit outside the quotation marks, so they count toward narration rather than dialogue. A scene with ten quoted passages and nine uses of said leans on a single tag, while the same scene with four saids and six varied beats moves more. Neither count changes the verdict, but both shape the recommendations, which advise swapping repeated tags for physical action when said dominates.
The comparison table repeats your percentage against all five genre bands at once. For each genre it prints the band, then states whether your number sits inside or how many points outside it falls. Your selected genre is highlighted. A 43 percent sample, for instance, sits inside thriller, mystery, romance, and fantasy simultaneously while standing 8 points above literary.
Thresholds follow a fixed rule. Inside the band, including both edges, earns a pass. Within ten points outside either edge earns a warning. More than ten points beyond either edge earns a fail. Anything under 200 total characters earns an informational result instead of a grade, with instructions to paste a fuller passage.
What each verdict is telling you
A pass means the proportion looks conventional for the chosen genre, nothing more. Keep the balance and spend revision time on sharper lines, clearer speakers, and stronger verbs. Check the tag counts anyway, because a passing scene can still repeat said on every line.
A warning means the scene sits between one and ten points outside the band. Low warnings usually come from a summarized conversation that should have been played out loud: give that discussion three to six spoken lines. High warnings usually come from talk with no floor contact, so insert one concrete beat after every two or three speeches and recheck.
A fail means the distance exceeds ten points, and small line edits will not close it. A thriller at 18 percent needs a scene rebuilt around confrontation rather than recollection. A literary passage at 58 percent needs most of one exchange converted into compression, summary, or silence.
An informational result means the input was too short to measure. A 120-character fragment changes its percentage by eight points every time you add a sentence, so grading it would mislead you. Paste a complete beat of the scene and run the check again.
Illustrative hypothetical example one: the cafeteria confrontation
This first case is an illustrative hypothetical built to show a healthy romance number. Imagine a writer pastes a 1,020-character lunch scene in which two former partners argue about who keeps the apartment. The quoted speech totals 540 characters across eight passages, with short narration between them describing trays, glances, and a spilled cup. Dividing 540 by 1,020 gives 0.529, times 100, rounded to 53 percent. Against the romance band of 35 to 55, the scene passes near the upper edge.
The line counts support the reading: seven of nine lines contain quotation marks, so the page looks talky but not solid. Said appears three times across eight passages, while the beat count reaches six. That mix suggests varied attribution instead of one hammered tag.
Now watch how genre reframes the identical numbers. The same 53 percent passes mystery and thriller, sits one point above fantasy for a mild warning, and fails literary 18 points over the top. A writer deciding between marketing the book as romance or as literary fiction learns something concrete: the scene as built belongs on the romance shelf.
The revision lesson is proportional. Because the result passes, the writer changes nothing structural. She might still cut the weakest of the eight passages, perhaps a repeated accusation, which would drop quoted characters to around 470 out of a trimmed 950 total, or about 49 percent. Still passing, slightly tighter.
Illustrative hypothetical example two: the deposition summary
This second case is a hypothetical illustration of a low failure and its repair. Imagine a mystery writer pastes a 980-character passage in which the detective recalls questioning a witness. Only two brief quotes appear, totaling 147 characters, because the writer summarizes the rest: what was asked, what was answered, what it meant. Dividing 147 by 980 gives exactly 0.15, times 100, which is 15 percent. Against the mystery band of 35 to 55, the sample fails 20 points below the lower edge.
The line counts confirm the shape: one of six lines carries quotes, and the beat count is zero, since summary needs no attribution. The tool would advise finding the longest narration paragraph and playing its key exchange aloud. The writer follows that advice and converts the central summary into six spoken lines with brief beats, adding roughly 320 characters overall, of which about 300 sit inside quotation marks. The new totals run approximately 447 quoted characters out of 1,300 total. Dividing 447 by 1,300 gives 0.344, times 100, rounded to 34 percent.
That revised 34 percent still sits one point beneath the mystery band, earning a warning instead of a fail. One more short exchange, or trimming forty characters of surrounding summary, would carry it inside. Note that added dialogue also lengthens the total, so the percentage climbs more slowly than the new speech alone suggests. Moving from fail to warning is genuine progress: a scene at the edge reads nearly conventional while keeping its reflective tone.
Genre-specific guidance
Thriller scenes live at 40 to 60 percent because pace comes from characters pressing each other in real time. If your thriller sample reads under 30 percent, look for recalled conversations and turn the most important one into a live exchange. If it reads over 70 percent, add pursuit, injury, weather, or failing light between speeches so the talk costs something. Keep tags short in this genre, since said disappears and lets velocity survive.
Mystery scenes target 35 to 55 percent because clue delivery is social: witnesses withhold, suspects deflect, partners test theories aloud. A mystery sample under 25 percent often hides its best material inside detective summary; promote one interview to direct speech and let word choice carry the tell. A sample over 65 percent usually means theories cycling without new information; convert one theorizing volley into a search or a discovery instead.
Romance scenes aim for 35 to 55 percent because the relationship changes through negotiation that must be heard. Low romance numbers often trace to summarized feeling compressed into a sentence where three spoken lines would let the vulnerability land. High numbers usually mean a quarrel circling the same charge; cut the third restatement and replace it with a decision, a touch, or a withdrawal.
Fantasy scenes rest at 30 to 50 percent because invented worlds demand narration for geography, custom, and magic. A sample over 60 percent often means rules argued by talking heads in an empty room; ground the debate in a working, a market, or a muster so the setting earns its share. Let some exposition stay narrated, since not every rule sounds natural spoken.
Literary scenes hold 15 to 35 percent because compression, image, and consciousness do the heavy lifting. A sample over 45 percent usually signals a habit of writing every scene as pure exchange; convert the least load-bearing volley into thought or observed detail and watch the surrounding speech sharpen.
Writers between shelves should pick the primary audience scene by scene rather than averaging. A romantic thriller can run action set pieces at 50 percent and intimate aftermaths at 38 percent without contradiction. Run the check per scene, not per chapter, and let the numbers differ across the book.
Edge cases and failure modes
Short samples mislead in both directions. A single shouted line inside 90 characters of setup can score 40 percent and pass while proving nothing, and a 150-character fragment of transition can score 0 percent and fail while meaning nothing. Always recheck with the full scene before revising.
Single-paragraph pastes distort line counts. Some writers draft entire scenes as one block, so eight speeches share one line and the line balance reads meaningless. Break the paste into real paragraphs before running the check, matching how the page will actually look.
Dash-led dialogue without quotation marks defeats the character count. Styles that mark speech with em dashes and no quotes will score near zero, because the counter only sees quoted characters. When you write in that style, rely on the dialogue-line count, which recognizes dash-led lines. The same caution applies to single-quoted speech, which the counter ignores to avoid confusing apostrophes with openings.
Epistolary inserts inflate the number fast. A pasted letter or message thread inside quotation marks counts as speech, since the counter cannot distinguish a letter from a voice. Either exclude the insert from the paste or read the result knowing the inflation is present.
Monologues deserve separate judgment. A two-page speech inside one set of marks will push any scene high, yet the passage may be exactly what the book needs. Check the surrounding scenes instead: if neighbors run low, the chapter may balance.
Non-English quotation marks go uncounted. Guillemets and other continental marks are not recognized by this version of the check, so affected samples read artificially low. Pasted screenplays and stage plays break the scale the other way, scoring extremely high; this tool is built for prose fiction and should not grade scripts.
Cherry-picked excerpts flatter the writer. Gathering favorite exchanges from six chapters into one paste produces a density no actual scene sustains. Always paste one continuous passage in reading order.
Raising your share on purpose
Start with summaries that hide conversations. Search the scene for verbs of reporting: discussed, explained, argued, told, asked about, went over. Each one marks speech that happened off the page. Choose the most consequential, set it in the room, and write four to eight spoken lines with one decision embedded. A single converted summary typically lifts a scene by eight to fifteen points.
Promote interior debate into spoken conflict where the genre allows. A character rehearsing objections in thought can voice the strongest one to an ally instead, which raises dialogue while testing the objection against resistance. One voiced objection per scene is usually enough.
Split long narration around a question. A paragraph of explanation turns talky when a second character interrupts halfway with a challenge. The interruption need run only two lines; the surrounding narration stays, but the passage now counts several dialogue lines and reads faster.
Lowering your share on purpose
Insert the physical score first. After every two or three speeches, add one sentence of body, object, weather, or light that only this scene could contain. Three such sentences in a 1,000-character scene typically move the needle four to seven points while grounding the exchange.
Convert the weakest volley into summary or thought. Find the exchange that repeats known information and compress its outcome into one narrated sentence plus one line of interior response. The scene keeps the plot effect and sheds empty talk.
Give one character silence with behavior. Instead of answering, let a figure perform a small task while the other speaker waits. Silence reads as power, grief, or stubbornness depending on context, and it adds narration that means something.
Questions writers ask next
Does narration-heavy mean boring. No. Boredom comes from narration that reports what the reader already knows or delays what the reader wants. A 20 percent scene with new perception on every line holds attention better than a 55 percent scene circling one complaint.
Can dialogue carry backstory. It can, but only in small doses under pressure. Limit spoken history to two or three sentences per scene, embed each inside a want, and narrate the rest. Readers accept what characters need, not what authors wish to place.
Should every chapter match the band. Scenes should, chapters need not. A chapter that alternates a 15 percent aftermath with a 55 percent confrontation averages respectably while each part serves its purpose. Measure at scene level and let chapters vary.
Do minor characters talk less. As a rule, yes. Speech implies importance, so a talky walk-on steals focus from principals. Give small roles requests, warnings, and interruptions rather than opinions and histories.
Do readers skip long speeches. They skip speeches that change nothing. A 200-word testimony that reverses the situation holds readers better than a 40-word exchange restating the setup. Test each passage for change: who wants something different afterward.
When should the band be ignored. Ignore it for deliberate set pieces such as trials, performances, and stories told aloud, and for voice-driven openings that establish a talker before the world settles. In both cases, keep neighboring scenes conventional, so the exception reads as choice rather than habit.
Checking a whole manuscript
Check scenes during revision, never during drafting. Draft freely without counting, then sample six to ten scenes spread across the book: an opening, two middle chapters, the climax, and two quiet passages. Run each separately and list the results in order. When five of six sit near their bands, the book is balanced and remaining work belongs at sentence level. When four or more miss in the same direction, the manuscript has a habit worth addressing directly, such as summarizing confrontations or staging every event as talk. Fix the habit with a standing rule for new scenes, for example that each chapter earns one fully played exchange, then recheck the weakest samples. Scene-level readings show where the book breathes and where it hurries; a single average across uneven scenes hides exactly what you need to see.
Drafting the revised scene
When the verdict points one direction, open Co-Writer at /write and draft the revised scene there. Paste the flagged passage into a new document, apply a single change such as converting a summary into spoken lines or threading action beats through a long exchange, then bring the new version back to this page and run the check again. One measured change per pass keeps cause and effect visible, so the number teaches you something each round.
A final note on method
Every score on this page comes from counting characters, lines, and listed words in the text you paste, compared against openly printed genre bands. Those bands are editorial conventions gathered from craft teaching, not measurements of the market and not predictions of success. No prose is judged, no style is graded, and no claim is made about publishability. The tool runs its arithmetic on your sample and reports what it finds; the writing decisions stay entirely with you.