Writing historical dialogue

This is a tricky one for me because I want the dialogue to be authentic, but not to the point where readers are struggling. I decided to go with my own personal experience and preferences for dialogue. I don’t like heavy accents, especially Scottish dialects. Trying to read this type of dialogue frustrates me and throws me out of the story. I prefer just enough of an accent to show the reader that the character is Scottish or Irish.

My stories are set in ancient and Dark Age time periods when no one was speaking English so this poses another problem for me. I try to avoid modern slang and words, opting for more archaic words to flavor dialogue with a sense of that time period. I try to avoid certain contractions like don’t. However, I find that it seems robotic in dialogue if all contractions are avoided. I’ve used the Star Trek rule of dialogue for some of my books since I have non-human characters like gods and faeries. For those unfamiliar with this rule””non-humans avoid contractions in dialogue. My non-human characters don’t have accents either because I find this too human of a characteristic.

I know that readers differ on this subject. As an author, I have to make a decision that best serves my books and what I’m comfortable writing.

Readers: What kind of dialogue do you prefer in historicals?

Authors: What kind of dialogue do you use in your historicals?

Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author

Captivating…Sensual…Otherworldly

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A Greek vampire, Celtic kings, vengeful goddesses, an ancient faery curse”¦

All three books of my Dark Goddess trilogy are available in Print and Ebook. Set in dark age Scotland, I mixed history with a Samhain/Beltaine myth that revolves around an Irish clan and the goddesses Brigit and Cailleach.

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