Why don't authors use contractions in dialogue?!

[rikimaru4]

Just browsing and came across a story that continuously peeved me:

'I am so glad you are back home'

'You have always been so sweet'

'Please, we do not need to do this'

Why is it that writers so frequently omit using contractions that virtually EVERYONE from ANYWHERE would never not use? In basic, simple dialogue, i.e. not trying to be emphatic or speak formally, so on so forth...

It just reads so preposterously stilted and fake and I just wonder why, why WHY?!

 

[ThisNameIsntTakenYet]

Not sure, but I've heard it in reverse sometimes, with advice for new writers being "use contractions, especially in dialogue". If that's worth making actual writing advice, I guess it should be at least somewhat common.

I always use them though (when appropriate, of course). One guess as to why they wouldn't use them is that they might feel they need to write "properly". Actually this might come from high school where it is apparently sometimes taught contractions are bad, somehow. Don't ask me, that seems to be an US thing and I didn't go to school there. Anyway, my first piece of advice for anyone who wants to start writing is to pick up a book or two (at the very least) and pay attention to how they're written. If you do that, you'd notice contractions are used all over the place. It's also useful for learning how people format stuff like dialogue and such, and generally just a good practice for writers.

 

[rikimaru4]

i say forget that and just listen to how you or anyone else on the planet speaks... and write like that..!

 

[ShyChiWriter]

Contractions

I think it could be a reflection on the writer's background. I come from a playwriting background, so my style is much more conversational and I lean toward that in my prose, too.

However, I was constantly getting my hand slapped in grad school because contractions aren't allowed in APA or other styles unless in the context of a quote.

It could be that those writers who spell it out come from a more business/academic background and it just falls to them naturally.

 

[KenNicottii]

Funny you should mention this. On my most recent submission (The 8x10 of Darcy O’Dell, Ch 02), I actually changed a character’s dialog to eliminate contractions, albeit in a specific situation.

The female main character, who is Italian-American, was role playing with her husband by pretending to be an Italian native who, however, does speak good English. I had some help from a native Italian speaker who made some subtle changes to her word choices and placement in her sentences that would be the way an Italian who learned English would say things, still retaining those slight traces of Italian sentence structure and vocabulary.

I made a final pass before submitting the story and felt that her not using contractions would be more realistic, so I changed them all to the full words.

I can only speak to my own experience in learning a new language, but using contractions only comes after learning proper vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and sentence structure—which is very far along the learning curve, so the FMC not using contractions seemed more ‘authentic’ to me.

However, I agree with you that not using contractions seemed stilted in dialog under most circumstances.

 

[SimonDoom]

I haven't noticed that this is a common thing. My perception has been that most authors here, particularly the experienced ones, use plenty of contractions in dialogue. I use contractions in narrative, as well.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I notice the same thing as the OP from time to time, and it's usually combined with what I charitably call a "beginner's style". I agree that in dialogue it seems stilted and unrealistic, but there it is; just one of many things that will bump me out of a story (along with poor punctuation, bad spelling and an interminably dull plot). But I don't fret about it.

I shall endeavour, good sir, not to fall foul of the same accusation in my own scribblings, and shall pay the concern fair attention, by the will of God be it so .

 

[oggbashan]

Some writers do; some writers don't.

It's a matter of style and taste.

I tend to use fewer contractions than would appear if I attempted to replicate actual speech because reporting accurately how people actually engage in a conversation can be difficult to read.

 

[rebel_code]

That seems to be the product of style-guide prohibitions on contractions. I think it's even repeated in one of the essays in the "Writer's Resources" section here. And for non-fiction, especially formal non-fiction, it makes sense. But for fiction? People don't speak like that, except in special circumstances. For narrative, if the narrator is a detached third person, it can make sense, depending on how formal one wants the writing to be. But a first-person narrator should have the personality of that person, and be on familiar terms with the reader, unless it's desired to have it otherwise for effect.

 

[Voboy]

A ShyChiWriter’s experience points out, different things are appropriate in different styles. A writer who can’t transition between formal and less-formal writing is, in my opinion, a pretty poor writer.

You can change your style freely, in support of all sorts of objectives. Slavish adherence to rules of thumb often has a deadening effect on writers trying to find and develop their own stylistic voices.

OP, read more stories. I don’t find that lack of conversational contractions is any kind of problem here at Lit.

 

[ThisNameIsntTakenYet]

OP, read more stories. I don’t find that lack of conversational contractions is any kind of problem here at Lit.

Have to admit that I haven't actually seen it myself on this site yet. That said, I'm not a huge reader on this site so I might just have gotten lucky.

 

[Javahead]

Funny you should mention this. On my most recent submission (The 8x10 of Darcy O’Dell, Ch 02), I actually changed a character’s dialog to eliminate contractions, albeit in a specific situation.

The female main character, who is Italian-American, was role playing with her husband by pretending to be an Italian native who, however, does speak good English. I had some help from a native Italian speaker who made some subtle changes to her word choices and placement in her sentences that would be the way an Italian who learned English would say things, still retaining those slight traces of Italian sentence structure and vocabulary.

I made a final pass before submitting the story and felt that her not using contractions would be more realistic, so I changed them all to the full words.

I can only speak to my own experience in learning a new language, but using contractions only comes after learning proper vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and sentence structure—which is very far along the learning curve, so the FMC not using contractions seemed more ‘authentic’ to me.

However, I agree with you that not using contractions seemed stilted in dialog under most circumstances.

That's actually a good point - the grammar needs to suit the character. My current story has several different sorts of speaking characters:

1) Well educated non-native English speaker
2) Well educated, but casual, native English speaker (depending on context may be more or less formal)
3) Uneducated, but reasonably fluent non-native English speaker (bar girls, taxi drivers, etc)

It's a 1st person POV story - the viewpoint character/narrator is 2), the main female protagonist is 1), but is trying to blend with a group of 3)

Writing the narrator's dialog is easy, as are the other type 2) characters. Handling 1) and 3) are considerably harder to do convincingly.

 

[rikimaru4]

I think it could be a reflection on the writer's background. I come from a playwriting background, so my style is much more conversational and I lean toward that in my prose, too.

prose is one thing, dialogue quite another. If conversation doesn't sound conversational, something is wrong...

Have to admit that I haven't actually seen it myself on this site yet. That said, I'm not a huge reader on this site so I might just have gotten lucky.

I guess you all ARE lucky. To be totally candid, I rarely find a match between good writers and a story I want to read (which admittedly varies from day to day). Which isn't to say I don't read well-written stories; it's just that finding something I want to read based on the synopsis and then ALSO finding it well written can be very frustrating. Maybe my crude tastes are more aligned with crude writers

That's actually a good point - the grammar needs to suit the character. My current story has several different sorts of speaking characters:

1) Well educated non-native English speaker
2) Well educated, but casual, native English speaker (depending on context may be more or less formal)
3) Uneducated, but reasonably fluent non-native English speaker (bar girls, taxi drivers, etc)

It's a 1st person POV story - the viewpoint character/narrator is 2), the main female protagonist is 1), but is trying to blend with a group of 3)

Writing the narrator's dialog is easy, as are the other type 2) characters. Handling 1) and 3) are considerably harder to do convincingly.

Your list has omitted android incapable of contractions and shapeshifter emulating android, accidentally using a contraction and thereby exposing herself.

 

[jp55665566]

'Cause they're scared witless, and cling to convention for safety.

 

[KeithD]

Not using contractions in dialogue is a technique to present the character as a nonnative English speaker or to evoke an earlier time in history. It can quickly and effectively serve that purpose. It can quickly get irritating, though. Contractions in dialogue are otherwise quite appropriate and I doubt there are many writers here that aren't using them in dialogue--and the narrative, for that matter.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I'd use them or not depending on the dialogue and the decree to which I wanted to draw attention to it.

 

[Hypoxia]

My native Anglish speakers speak with contractions in less than formal situations. Formal Anglish speech may contain rare contractions.

Non-native speakers may avoid many contractions when emitting Anglish, but I may use contractions in my rendering of their casual native speech, even though their native languages lack contractions, same as most.

I assiduously weed-out contractions from narratives. That is all.

 

[lustatopia]

Yo, bitches. Ya'll should be makin' all da fuckin' dialog as realistic as is humanly possible.

Unless yer character is a member of the House of Lords, or some kinda of fuckin' Anglish, (rolls eyes) whatever da fuck that shit is, ya'll should be buryin' the mutherfuckers in contractions. Ya'll gotta make yer people talk in their native idiom, dig? Or you be rolln' like some kind of amateur out there. It ain't a good look.

 

[Hypoxia]

My eyes bleed.

 

[Rustyoznail]

My eyes bleed.

Read ChloeTzang's White Wedding. It'll make your head explode. Contractions, contractions everywhere!

 

[Bramblethorn]

The female main character, who is Italian-American, was role playing with her husband by pretending to be an Italian native who, however, does speak good English. I had some help from a native Italian speaker who made some subtle changes to her word choices and placement in her sentences that would be the way an Italian who learned English would say things, still retaining those slight traces of Italian sentence structure and vocabulary.

I made a final pass before submitting the story and felt that her not using contractions would be more realistic, so I changed them all to the full words.

I've done similar things with a couple of my characters. One speaks over-formal English because he's trying to distance himself from his migrant origins (but occasionally slips when he's had too much to drink). Another is autistic and has difficulty gauging when she should be using more vs. less formal registers, so again she speaks a lot more formally than most people would in casual conversations.

I don't think either of them completely avoid contractions, but they do use them less often than would be considered usual.

 

[Jada59]

I use them.

 

[MelissaBaby]

It's not my decision to use them or not. It's up to the characters.

 

[Voboy]

It's not my decision to use them or not. It's up to the characters.

Well put.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Read ChloeTzang's White Wedding. It'll make your head explode. Contractions, contractions everywhere!

I’m gonna, like, totally laugh about that dude. I was going for this sorta valley girl, like, dialect ‘n I managed to keep it up for the entire story.