The Ethics of Reconstructing Dialogue
Launch library · evergreen read
Dialogue reconstructed from memory, notes or secondhand description carries real narrative power, but it also carries real risk, since readers generally assume quoted words were actually spoken exactly as written, not approximated or smoothed for readability by the writer well after the fact of the conversation.
Responsible reconstruction means staying as close as possible to what multiple sources agree was actually said, flagging genuine uncertainty rather than quietly resolving it in favour of whichever version happens to read the most cleanly and smoothly to a reader on the finished, published page.
Where dialogue is substantially reconstructed rather than directly sourced, a brief methodological note explaining that process respects the reader's right to know how confident they should actually be in what they are reading. Even a short methodological note, tucked at the end of a piece rather than woven into every sentence, does considerable work toward this honesty without disrupting the flow of the narrative itself for most readers.