Course: How to Edit Dialogue

Nail your dialogue-editing skills

This self-paced course teaches you how to edit dialogue in fiction.

You’ll learn the industry-recognized conventions that underpin professional proofreading and copyediting practice, and how to evaluate and edit dialogue stylistically.

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The learning process

Video tutorials

Watch the videos and prepare for the practice exercises.

20 practice exercises

Test what you've learned by evaluating real examples of fiction.

20 model answers

Compare your work with how I tackled the exercises.

Transcript

Download a beautifully formatted PDF transcript of the webinar.

Book

Includes my bestselling book Editing Fiction at Sentence Level.

3-book boxset

Includes the 3-book Fiction Editing Collection.

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Who is this course suitable for?

FICTION BEGINNERS

All beginner fiction line editors, copyeditors and proofreaders.

STYLISTIC IMPROVERS

Intermediate fiction copyeditors and proofreaders who want to hone stylistic skills.

SPECIALISM SWITCHERS

Experienced non-fiction editors who want to switch to fiction.

SELF-EDITING AUTHORS

Beginner and emerging authors who are self-editing a final draft.

This course covers variations in British English and American English style.

Check out the syllabus!

SECTION 1: The power of dialogue

In this section, you’ll start your dialogue-editing journey by learning about what dialogue is and the purpose it serves. By the time you’ve completed this module you’ll understand the following:

The difference between speech and narrative.
How dialogue supports a novel.

SECTION 2: The foundations of dialogue editing

In this section, you’ll learn the industry-recognized conventions that apply to dialogue – technical foundations that every fiction copyeditor and proofreader needs to know. By the time you’ve completed these modules you’ll understand the following:

Dialogue style: Identifying, recording and communicating.
How to punctuate dialogue.
Making appropriate spelling choices in dialogue.
How to format and lay out dialogue.
What dialogue tags are and how writers use them.
The purpose of action beats in relation to dialogue.
How to manage vocatives in dialogue.
How to work with dialogue snippets and nested speech.
How to display translations of non-English dialogue.
The differences between external and internal dialogue and how they’re formatted.
What free indirect speech is and why it can be an effective alternative to the spoken word.

SECTION 3: Stylistic dialogue editing

In this section, you’ll develop your line-editing skills by exploring stylistic tools and techniques that can make dialogue more engaging. By the time you’ve completed these modules you’ll understand the following:

How to evaluate the architecture of a piece of dialogue.
How to deal with numbers in dialogue without being overly prescriptive.
Techniques for managing mundane dialogue.
What implied dialogue is and how the editor can use it.
How to edit backstory-laden dialogue.
How dialogue can be used as a suspense tool.
Why dialogue is an effective viewpoint-management tool.
How to manage character voice in dialogue.
How to turn monologues back into dialogue.
How to use rhythmic tools to capture mood in dialogue.
Why there’s power in silence and how to show it in dialogue.
Conscious-editing techniques that avoid slurs and othering in dialogue.

Course access

How do I pay?

Once the course is live, use one of the green buttons to enrol via Teachable.
You can pay via PayPal or Stripe.

How do I access the course?

As soon as you've purchased the course, you'll get immediate and continuing access to the materials 24/7 via Teachable.

How long can I access the course for?

For as long as you want! All my courses come with lifetime access so you can learn when it suits you, not me.

Does the course come with CIEP membership upgrade points?

I'll be submitting the course for consideration. In the meantime, if you're ready to upgrade your CIEP membership, the following courses already count towards total training/CPD upgrade points.

Style Sheets for Fiction Editing: 3 non-core skills points
Switching to Fiction: 2 non-core skills points
How to Line Edit for Suspense: 2 non-core skills points
How to Write the Perfect Fiction Editorial Report: 2 non-core skills points
Narrative Distance: 1 non-core skills point
Branding for Business Growth: 1 non-core skills point
Blogging for Business Growth: 1 non-core skills point
Social Media for Business Growth: 1 non-core skills point

Do I have to pay tax?

Whether you're charged tax (and how much) depends on where you live. Many countries or regions legally require customers to pay some form of consumption tax (eg VAT) on digital products. Teachable remits that charge back to your jurisdiction's tax authority.