Just some simple dialogue/text editing tips
Since I'm relatively new and unknown in the community, probably no one will read this, but I'm going to write this anyway. Below are just a few quick tips that can help with the process of editing and proofreading your dialogue and other text in your game.
1. Type all of your dialogue in a Word or Google or Open Office (or whatever software you want to use) document. Doing this will provide several advantages.
- These programs check spelling, and also check (to a more limited degree) grammar. This alone can save you some big headaches. Add to this the fact that if all of your text is in one document, when you find a misspelled word, you can simply CTRL+H (in most programs) and replace it. This process is much more tedious in the editor. Granted, you will still have to go back and replace the text in your editor, but now you know (if you highlight it, or follow another tip below) where it was used, and can simply copy+paste the whole line or block of text. If you just have it in the editor, you better hope you remember every single event you used that word in...
- You can add comments and tags to the text so you know where (i.e. which events) it was used. Decide to change the name of a location, guess what, now you can CTRL+F or CTRL+H and if you commented or tagged the text, you’ve got a reference of exactly which events use that name, so you don’t have to go searching through the editor, and risk missing some.
- With everything in a document, you can make all of your text and dialogue available to someone, without them having to play your game. (I know, you want people to play your game, but stick with me here.) This means if they’re looking at your text to proofread it, it will take significantly less time as they don’t have to run to the next town to get the next section. Also, if there are branching options in the text, they don’t have to replay sections to see all of the options. And what if you don’t want them to know about part of your story, but really want someone to check out part of your text that is after the big surprise event? Ell with everything in a document, you simply copy the part you want to show them to a new document and send it along, no need to make edits to your game/demo. Your text gets reviewed, and your big plot twist stays secret.
2. After doing the above, put it to use! Have someone else review your text. Our brains easily correct small errors in spelling, grammar, etc. This is especially true when you’ve read something multiple times, and/or have a preconceived notion of what it should say. A fresh set of eyes can make a world of difference!
3. When looking at your text, and/or when someone else is proofreading it, don’t look just for spelling and grammar errors. You should always read through things to see how they “flow.†By this, I mean how does the line actually sound, whether aloud or in your head? Sometimes a sentence or dialogue is technically correct, but still just seems a bit off to people. This is usually an example of poor flow, and is probably most often fixed by simply reorganizing the sentence. A major point to keep in mind here, is commas. I’m a comma freak, I use them in ridiculous numbers, so you certainly don’t need to use as many as I do. However, remember that while a sentence may be grammatically correct without a comma, it might significantly change what that sentence actually means or conveys, and to a lesser degree, how well it flows.
4. I know we have a lot of members whose native language is something other than English. Of those members, many choose to make games in English, and use some sort of translator (e.g. Google Translate). Something I have found useful when using these types of tools, is to retranslate your translation, back to your native language. For example, I emailed a friend in Japan recently, and couldn’t remember how to say a few things in Japanese. Luckily, Google did know how, so over to Google Translate I went. I typed in what I wanted to say, and it gave me some Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana. Everything looked great, until I copied and pasted the Japanese text into another window and translated it to English. It turns out that the meaning I was going for wasn’t there. I reworded my original statement slightly, and repeated this process. This time, things translated back and forth perfectly. The point? Using this simple method can help you can’t some of those little errors that seem to pop up in translations. Of course, maybe you want those, I mean, who doesn’t like a “all your base are belong to us†line or two now and then.
Hopefully, if anyone besides me reads this, these simple tips help you out. Some of the above are significantly easier to implement early in development as opposed to later, but even if you’re almost done, you can use them going forward if you think they’ll make things easier.
Inevitably, as this is a post about proofreading, I have made some grammatical or other error above and am not going to follow my own advice and double-check this. Given that, I apologize for any errors that I’m simply too lazy to correct. This is just a blog post after all.
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