Almost every author struggles at writing great dialogues and if they nail it, they struggle at editing them. Writing genuine and crisp dialogues is not something that comes naturally to every author; it is one of those things that you have to practice. The more you practice, the better you will become, but nothing prepares you for the time when you will have to edit them. You want to preserve the integrity and the gist of the dialogue so that the meaning behind the conversation is not lost in the editing process.

The editing process of your dialogues should make them easy to read, easy to understand and, overall, make sure that they fit well with the character. Here are some tips that will help you with editing dialogues and help you maintain integrity.

1. Start your editing process by reading your dialogues out loud. As you are reading them out, make sure that they sound natural and appear spontaneous and not rehearsed.

2. Is it helping your reader make a picture with your words? Your audience will be looking for dialogue that is clear, concise and incredibly comprehensive so that the reader has no issue imagining your character saying it.

3. Be careful about the excessive and unnecessary naming of characters. It will create confusion or make the reader frustrated.

4. Small talk is necessary, but only in certain situations. When you are reading through your manuscript, make sure that you pay extra attention to the small talk your characters have. See if there is a purpose for the small talk.

5. Does your character have something important to say? If the character isn’t adding something new to the story with their current dialogue, it is best to not have that dialogue at all.

6. Be careful of repetition as unnecessary repetition of the same thing can become tiresome for readers.

7. More often than not, authors seem to repeat the scenes that have transpired into dialogues, which is something that you need to avoid at all costs. You can always sum it all up in a sentence, but nothing more.

8. Dialogues are like a mirror, they reflect your characters in their true essence; the state of mind of the characters, their trustworthiness and the tone of their voice show how sincere they are. When you are editing the dialogues, make sure you can find all that in the dialogues.

9. Instead of making the dialogues flat and one-dimensional, you need to make sure your dialogues have their own subtext. The dialogues should share the thoughts of the speaker, the actions and the impressions that the speaker is forming.

10. Do not fluff up your dialogues. This is one of the most important rules of writing dialogues and must never be ignored. Don’t overuse verbs, keep the use of adjectives to a minimum and, overall, make sure that you don’t overuse fancy words.

Dialogues are a useful tool to build up your characters and help with their development. It is a way great to reel your readers in, but you have to make sure you use this tool to your advantage. Give yourself enough time to polish the dialogue and make it sharper. After that, your dialogues will be ready to wow your readers.