To the point. After reading a few post, I wonder if my protagonist, who has said about 10 words in 20 pages, lacks development. He suffers from memory loss so most of what you learn or understand from him is from his actions. Does character development need dialogue, per say? Or how would you go about making sure a character doesn't fall short of development, whether it be say more and have exceptional action or do more and have brief well timed dialogue? Kind of stuck.
Screenwriting : Actions speak louder than dialogue. by Steven Morris
Actions speak louder than dialogue.
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Check out ROAD WARRIOR - all kinds of information through Max's actions. The key is to make sure the actions give us specific information about the character - and not just the surface of the character, but what makes them tick. I did a class at 3 Rivers Screenwritring Conference a few weeks ago where I used a multiple Oscar winner as an example of how to show deep character through actions (and situations). There are all kinds of Oscar winning films about people who can't (or don't) speak or hear, so it has nothing to do with the amount of dialogue... only the skill of the writer and the quality of their visual storytelling.
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Clint Eastwood famously removed pages of dialogue from the spaghetti western scripts because he was able to convey so much more with a simple look.
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Less is more. David, or Eastwood said it best.
Thanks for all the great advice.