How to Write Dialogue in Fantasy
Ollie Ander
Is probably just a couple cats in a trench-coat—the hair shedding and sunlight napping are highly suspect.
Writing dialogue in Fantasy requires more awareness than most other genres. Whereas Historical Fiction can come under criticism as not being correct for the time period, that’s a fact-based contestation. When readers complain about dialogue in fantasy it has much more to do with "a feeling" than a concrete objectivity.
It may be your imaginary world, but it still needs to maintain cohesion for the sake of readers’ believability. So how do you do that? In this article I will go over which subgenres of Fantasy warrant proactive shaping of characters’ speech, and provide tips for making the dialogue in your Fantasy immersive.
Dialogue in High Fantasy
High Fantasy’s dialogue writing comes under scrutiny more than any other subgenre of Fantasy, because discontent in its execution can occur for two vastly different reasons. Either readers find the vocabulary of characters unbelievable to the environment, or the prose can be overdone to the point of isolating demographics from engaging with the story.
The Lord of the Rings Paradox
The pillar example of this tightrope situation (between immersion and accessibility) is of course, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein. As beloved as LOTR is by the masses for its ambiance and timeless sense of adventure, its longevity has become a topic of question in recent years as new readers are unwilling to suffer Tolkein’s verbose writing style. This reaction to Tolkein’s authorial voice and opposition to his means of portraying Middle Earth extends to include the dialogue writing.
Compared to modern vernacular, characters in LOTR talk to each other in poetic, indirect ways (ie. their phrasing), which is more than some readers bargain for when seeking a dollop of escapism. As much as the dialogue suits the story of LOTR, in High Fantasy’s extremes, the language used can also make it inaccessible to the average reader. This effect of isolating reading demographics also applies to modern works that use too many generation-specific dialects—which will be addressed in the next section on Urban Fantasy.
Does High Fantasy Dialogue have to be "Old?"
Dialogue in High Fantasy does not have to be Medieval, Old English, or whichever culture your world is based on, however many centuries back. Characters' speech lends to the believability of such settings, but keep in mind that any alternate Fantasy worlds you write can have their own unique linguistic developments. The key to immersive High Fantasy dialogue is consistency.
If you are unfamiliar with a type of speech and cannot accurately or consistently adhere to its standards, it is better practice to maintain a coherent rhetoric throughout your story which you are comfortable with—even if it is less "magical." If readers’ suspended disbelief never hits a blatant snag, then the fault of any dissatisfaction will lie in their expectations of what a High Fantasy "should be" and less on how well yours was delivered.
Tips on Writing High Fantasy Dialogue
The most important aspect to maintaining believability with dialogue is to make sure the language you use does not supersede the Fantasy world in which it exists.
Use Non-Specific Words: An example of this would be a Fantasy character entering an Apothecary shop and asking for "penicillin." Regardless of the character's education level, using the specific name of a modern medicine will raise more questions about your fantasy world’s development than necessary. Simplifying words to have the character only ask for "medicine" does not bring into readers’ line of awareness the scientific relevance of penicillin or the societal developments that ensued from its discovery.
Do Not Reference Historical Events/Figures: Likewise, any earth-bound events or historical figures will not translate to an entirely unique Fantasy world. You can equate events in your world to something real, so long as its existence is adapted and justified.
For example, a fantasy world wouldn’t have had an industrial revolution as on earth, but may have experienced something similar due to a breakthrough in magic. Constantly question the historical relevance of what your characters know and how so they do not transgress the line of your fantasy world with an off-comment.
Avoid Modern Slang: Anything born from internet culture will break the fourth wall of any High Fantasy. Unless that is your intent (ie. parody) you should avoid vocabulary that pre- or post-dates your Fantasy world to an era of human history. Generation-specific language creates a "time capsule" effect, which can be at best, distracting, or at worse, rule breaking.
However, in the absence of modern linguistics’ range, you can introduce your own unique Fantasy slang to supplement characters’ vocabulary. As our society evolves to create and adapt new words, so too should your Fantasy world. Not only ask whether there is a need for special names for Fantasy things that don’t translate to real life, but whether different classes/races in your world would refer to them differently when communicating with each other.
Remain Aware of Classes & Regions: Information and education in most Fantasy worlds is not as readily accessible as it is to us through the internet. If you have characters of different classes among your Fantasy structure, remain aware of the biases they would acquire from that station. A peasant and royalty would not speak in the same manner, or speak to each other as they would their peers.
Similarly, if you have various Fantasy races or characters who travel between different regions, their cultural differences should reflect in their speech patterns, dialect, vocabulary, and even the languages they use (like a character incorporating Elvish terms that don’t translate well to whatever the standard tongue is, or one’s ability to haggle in Dwarvish, etc.).
Dialogue in Urban Fantasy
Urban Fantasy character dialogue does not suffer as many restrictions when it comes to maintaining believability as High Fantasy, because it simply does not have as many logistical restraints overall. So long as you maintain awareness of the differences between your alternative universe, characters can be modern, reference anything they want, and incorporate time-specific slang or cultural developments.
However, Urban Fantasy can face the issues mentioned in writing High Fantasy dialogue, in opposite measures, like using too much slang could date the story and isolate it from future (or much older) readers. A complaint of modern stories is for characters' speech patterns to feel homogeneous, which is easier to fall into with Urban Fantasy, as it does not inherently demand as recognizable/distinct personalities as High Fantasy’s class segregation. And of course, with technology's presence alongside magical introductions, a surplus of worldly references in dialogue can make characters seem supernaturally over-aware or cause blatant plot holes—it’s hard to excuse blundering around magical dilemmas when characters could just "Google it."
As much as the dialogue of the characters in your Fantasy work should be reflective of the world itself, it is a balancing act between reader expectations for your particular subgenre and the level of immersion you have the skill to produce. Keep the tips in this article in mind as you navigate conversations, and remember that every rule has its exception. Constantly question the capacity of vocabulary any particular character is capable of, based on their experience (be that magical or mundane). Staying consistent to the vernacular you set will go a long way in making your Fantasy characters’ speech feel "real," no matter the world they’re in.
Before delving into the finicky pursuit of adjusting your characters’ dialogue to the vibe of your Fantasy world, why not freshen up on $ The Most Popular Fantasy Subgenres$ ! Rather than fit your dialogue to suit a subgenre expectation, you may just discover a niche that works for you instead!
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