Top Tips for Editing Dialogue in Fiction

Dialogue is an area in which it is easy to make mistakes, leading to readers disengaging with your characters. Follow these tips to keep your dialogue fresh, readable, and above all, believable.

1) Dialogue Tags—Use these only when necessary (for example, to show a change in style of speech or emotion, or to identify the speaker in a group situation). At other times, let the dialogue speak for itself, or have the character commit an action either immediately before or after, rather than using a tag.

2) Real Conversations are Boring—If we wrote dialogue along the lines of real conversations, it would be exceptionally dull. Discard most of the pleasantries and hesitations, and cut to the chase. Make sure all dialogue is relevant to the unfolding story.

3) Natural Speech—Dialogue in fiction needs to sound natural even though it isn’t. One way to achieve this is to use contractions and fragments. Even the best of us don’t speak 100% correctly all of the time. We’re more likely to let grammar slide in speaking than in writing.

4) Quirks of Speech—Certain ‘catchphrases’ can work well for characters; however, don’t overdo it as it can also become repetitive or descend into caricature.

5) Accents—Caricature is also a potential risk when dealing with accents. There’s nothing wrong with showing an accent phonetically, but don’t make it so heavy the sentence becomes unintelligible, or comes across as a cultural stereotype. Choose one (two at most) aspects to show (e.g. a dropped H) and leave it at that.

Using Dialogue Tags in Fiction

Today’s editing tips topic is dialogue tags. In fiction, it is generally considered good practice to dispense with these completely if it is clear who is speaking in each line. Naturally, if there is a room full of characters and they are all involved in a conversation, you’ll need tags (or some sort of descriptive action) to differentiate between the speakers. However, in a simple back and forth between two people, it’s best to keep them to a minimum and simply show the dialogue, along with any necessary actions.

In cases where you do need to use them, try to stick to a plain verb as much as possible, rather than adding too many adverbs. Here are a couple of examples:

1) He said softly
This could be rendered as 'He murmured' or 'He whispered'.

2) He walked quickly
Here you could go for He dashed, He hurried, He hastened, He strode etc.

See how the single verbs pack more punch and add some flavour to the narration? The choice of verb is important. Think of the different sense of the scene you get by choosing 'he dashed' over 'he strode'. The first has a feeling of urgency; the second imbues him with purpose.

Three Research Tips for Historical Fiction Authors

I love historical fiction; however, I encounter the occasional work in which it’s clear the author hasn’t done sufficient research. So, today I thought I’d share my three top tips on conducting research for your historical novel.

1) Read Contemporary Literature
Assuming your work is set from the Middle Ages onward, you should have no trouble finding texts from that time. Read them to get a feel for the cadence of the language as this will help you achieve a sense of authenticity in your dialogue in particular but also in your prose.

2) Verify Your Sources
There are plenty of websites offering historical information, but are they all accurate? An Internet search can be a great way to start your research, but take care over where you place your trust. Ensure it is a reputable source. The same goes for books; although, in general, I would trust a non-fiction text by a well-known historian over a web page created by a nameless entity.

3) Watch Your Language!
One of the worst areas for slip-ups tends to be dialogue. I’ve seen works in which the author offers careful detail of period clothing and customs but then ruins all that by having characters say “okay” or “cool”. I try to keep my stories period appropriate in both dialogue and prose, but at least pay attention to the dialogue. If you are unsure about a word, plug it into the Merriam Webster website, as their dictionary definitions usually include a first usage date. If you’re still in doubt and have a reasonable alternate word, use that.

Vlog: Ask An Editor - Editing Historical Fiction

In today's Ask An Editor vlog, I discuss how to go about editing historical fiction.

Top Five Self-Editing Tips for Authors

Today I'd like to share my top five self-editing tips. Although some of these pertain more to fiction writers, several are relevant in all written works.

1) Passive Voice
This construct has its place and uses, but you should avoid employing it too often as active language will give your prose more punch.

2) Repetition
Keep watch for a lack of variety in your prose. If you use the same word on a regular basis, particularly within a single paragraph, consider changing a few out with synonyms.

3) Filler Words
You can utilise the Find function in Word to locate filler words such as really, very and just. Then remove them in every instance where the sentence makes sense without them. Often changing the proceeding word will also help. E.g. If you've written very scared, amend to terrified.

4) Dialogue Tags
Remove dialogue tags wherever they aren’t needed to know who’s speaking. This way you can avoid a string of he said, she said.

5) Consistency
Check your manuscript for consistency in spelling, grammar, formatting and descriptions (e.g. a character should not have blond hair on one page and brown on the next).