dialogue-edit

name	dialogue-edit
description	Edit dialogue for character voice, intention, subtext, rhythm, redundancy, exposition, continuity, speakability, pacing, and scene function while preserving the writer's dramatic intent.

Dialogue Edit

Use when drafted dialogue needs a focused editorial pass before implementation, recording, or publication.

Procedure

1. Read the scene or conversation in context and identify each character's goal, emotional state, knowledge, relationship, and the scene's dramatic job.
2. Check every line for action: what the speaker is trying to obtain, conceal, provoke, avoid, teach, or change.
3. Remove greetings, repetition, exposition, and agreement that do not create character, information, tension, decision, or pacing value.
4. Preserve distinct character voice while reducing catchphrase dependence, unnatural jargon, and lines written for the audience rather than the other character.
5. Check subtext and whether characters state thoughts they would realistically imply, conceal, or discover instead.
6. Read aloud for breath, rhythm, interruption, contractions, emphasis, and speakability, especially for recorded performance.
7. Verify continuity, world knowledge, names, facts, branching state, and callbacks against source material.
8. Flag structural story problems to the appropriate writer rather than line-editing around a scene with no dramatic purpose.

Decision rules

• Dialogue should sound like a person pursuing something, not an encyclopedia entry.
• Shorter is not always better; rhythm and character can justify length.
• Preserve intentional awkwardness or verbosity when it belongs to the character.
• Do not solve story-structure problems solely through prettier lines.

Quality gate

The edit is complete when every retained line serves scene or character purpose, voices remain distinct, exposition and repetition are controlled, lines are speakable, continuity is intact, and structural issues are separated from line-level polish.