I know this is possible due to the graduation project of a certain animation school being mostly without dialogue (most animations put out use minimal dialogue compared to the run time) and most of those animations have fun/amusing/good stories and I'd like to write something along those lines. One of my 'addictions' is too much dialogue though, I don't even re-read my stuff that often and when I do I can sometimes go 'why is this conversation so long' even though it kind of isn't for what I wanted to accomplish with the scene. I want to write an idea down in novel format, but it's in the same vein as many pixar shorts. So, maybe ten/fifteen lines of dialogue in the whole thing. With most lines being very short/brief. Is writing without dialogue any different than a story with it? Surely it's not as simple as going hard with descriptions in narration. I'm also not sure how to write two events happening at (roughly) the same time from two different points of view. In the animation I'd probably have monitors set up by the 'mastermind' to show the actions of both, I don't know if it's that easy in writing though.
Not really. Dialogue is just a tool and all you're really doing is crafting a piece without using a particular tool. But you're still going to have very basic story structure and a basic narrative. It always baffles me when people ask "Would this work" instead of "Does this work?" Would this work implying that they hadn't tried it, but want reassurance before they do. Well, try it. If it doesn't work, then rewrite it. Does this work is "Hey, I've tried it... But I don't like it and I need to know if the problem is how I did it or it just doesn't work in this kind of story with this narrative." And I would rather answer "Does this work" instead of "would this work?"
Yeah, I see that thing (which is why I didn't go with a simple 'does it work') being a thing, which is why I'm asking more *how* to do it than if I should do it because I've never tried it before. I personally feel this kind of story only works well in animation, despite there being examples of it being done well in novel format. I hope to one day learn how to make animations (3D models) to tell this story too, but at the moment I want to write it so it gets out of my head. Are there things I should take more note of since I don't have a lot of dialogue to shorten descriptions?
Have you considered learning how to use Unreal Engine? Unreal Engine 4 is actually free and they only take money if you make money. A lot of games are built using the Unreal Engine and this includes the technical feats of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. But it can be used as an animation tool too.
I've considered it, I also attempted to learn Valve's animation tool. Animation in general feels like rocket science to me the times I've toyed with it. There's a lot more that goes into it than I thought. It'd take a long time for me to create all the assets though, which is partially why I'd like to write the thing so I'm not spending my time coming up with what to do next.
I'd increase the nonverbal communication--body language, thoughts, visceral reactions. Don't skimp on expression. You might want to check out The Emotion Thesaurus by Becca Puglisi. Finding some books with mute main characters to read might help too.
