At a recent library book club engagement I chose to openly
explore the subject of writing dialogue in historical novels. As you can
imagine, this is an area of the writing process fraught with difficulties posed
by which period of history you have chosen and the availability (or lack of)
detail about language during that age. My audience found it fascinating,
evident from their own eager input during my talk, which became more of a group
discussion. (I love it when that happens, don’t you?) I decided, therefore, to
expand on it and share it here.
I have found historical dialogue to be a fine balance
between staying true to a period and not alienating readers. Whilst there are
those whose excitement mounts at every historical term used for armour,
weaponry, clothing or day-to-day utensils, not everyone is after a language lesson.
The majority of readers are in search of intriguing story and larger-than-life
characters. One of the ways in which we authors can move the story forward and
enhance the image of our characters is through the exchange of speech. We can
immediately gain a sense of character when they open their mouth.
