Companions

I've been reading a book recently that bugs me because there is little dialogue.  Dialogue makes a story.  It gives the writer a chance to show the reader what's going on inside the character's head without endless paragraphs of explanation, which can get dull.  Another reason dialogue is so important is it creates bonds between characters, helps us see how much the character cares about someone else, which helps us care about him.  In this book I mentioned, this character cares about no one, so no one cares about him.  Therefore, I as the reader don't care about him.  I don't know what's going on inside except through paragraphs and paragraphs of explanation and narration, which gets dull.  Take for instance Star Wars: Episode 1.  A large part of the action passes without dialogue.  You set that back to back with Star Wars: Episode 4,5,6, or 7.  They all have meaningful dialogue between characters, and, therefore, a heart.  We all love Han because of his chats and heart-to-hearts with Chewie.  We love Rey, in part, because of her bond with BB-8.

So how can a reader include dialogue that means something?  Most people choose to include a companion, someone with whom the main character can converse.  Now this companion can be human, animal, or anything else.  In "Castaway," the companion was a volleyball.  Yet we truly feel the main character's heart through his dialogue with Wilson, the Volleyball.  We cry with him when Wilson is swept away because Wilson has come alive through their "conversations."  In my books, the companion is often a pet.  With an animal companion, the main character is more or less monologuing for the sake of the reader, but we can feel his heart.  We feel the love [or sometimes hate] between main character and his animal companion, which helps us care more about the character.  If you find large spans of your book dragging because of an excess of internal chatter, start asking yourself if he could use a companion.  Can you add a companion outside his head to whom he could talk about the issues important to him?  You would, thereby, show rather than tell the reader what those issues are.