What do you call the part of a novel that is not dialog?
Solution 1:
I think the most general term is narrative:
1 A spoken or written account of connected events; a story.
‘a gripping narrative’
1.1 [mass noun] The narrated part of a literary work, as distinct from dialogue.
‘the dialogue and the narrative suffer from awkward syntax’
Oxford Dictionary
Narrative includes exposition, which describes events that take place, and description, which describes people and places.