When an author tackles a subject of historical fiction, a number of considerations come into play. What are the living conditions the characters will experience for the given time period? What key details will make the period come alive for the reader: food, clothing, transportation, political/historical conditions, religious beliefs, medical or scientific knowledge?

Depending on the time period, most of these details are available in resources found in libraries, museums, and archives. But what does an author do about dialogue? In a novel, characters are going to speak to each other, and in some cases may even narrate the story. Making that language sound authentic is a critical element for bringing the reader into a historical novel’s timeframe.

To manage this feat, many historical novelists immerse themselves in the language of the period they are writing about. They absorb speech patterns, syntax, and any distinctive words that call to mind a particular time or place. For most of the 20^th century there are multiple dialogue examples: radio and television transcripts and recordings, movies, books (including other novels), newspapers, speeches, letters, and diaries. These sources begin to drop away as the centuries recede, so the further back in time the story is set, the greater the challenge.

And yet, authors like Ken Follett, Bernard Cornwell, and Philippa Gregory manage to write hugely successful novels set in ancient times. How do they do it?

Fortunately, the historical novelist doesn’t need—and shouldn’t try—to exactly replicate the speech of a bygone era. Anyone who has struggled to read the Middle English of Geoffrey Chaucer understands that a novel set in the 14^th century would bog down under the pretense of “authentic” dialogue. Regardless of a story’s historical setting, its characters’ dialogue must communicate with today’s readers.

Once an author becomes familiar with the language of a particular era, the task is to write dialogue that sounds authentic to the period, even though it primarily makes use of language familiar to current readers. The most obvious concern is to keep current slang or figures of speech out of the mouths of characters living decades or centuries before present day. Altering the syntax just enough to emulate the novel’s period gives it a feeling of authenticity. Likewise, having characters use a few unfamiliar words or idioms from the period can help dialogue ring true, but only if the meanings can be readily inferred by the reader.

As with any novel, the dialogue should never call attention to itself or cause the reader to step back from the narrative to wonder if a character would actually say what the author has written. The best dialogue is short and to the point. It uses common, everyday words to communicate information, ideas and emotions. To meet these guidelines and make the dialogue sound as if it is spoken by 12 century serfs or 18^th century nobility, is a remarkable feat.

So the next time you read a historical novel whose characters convey powerful ideas and emotions in a vernacular that sounds authentic to the period, you can appreciate even more the artistry that goes into the work.