Question about contractions

Well, they weren't speaking English in Ancient Sparta, so I think you can go with what works best for your readers.

I used contractions in a period they spoke English where some of the contractions were yet to be used in speech.

We've had...

this conversation several times. There's a good thread hidden away on it here. I am a technophobe so will let the techies provide a link for you.

As historical novelists we all have this problem.

It doesn't matter when you set your historical, you are writing for modern readers.

You can't possibly know, without Dr Who's Tardis, how your characters would have spoken, but you need to give a flavour of the period.

If you've really researched thoroughly you will have some idea of the mind set and patterns of thought of the time. Those of us with written material to access can make lists of words and expressions commonly used.

All you can do is write your dialogue to give a taste of the period. You do this by using a few of those words and expressions within what you think is their patterns of thought and speech. This does not mean using modern formal speech constructions.

Fashions in historical writing change, but at the moment it is not acceptable to write Gadzookery. That is scattering your dialogue with quaint expressions like Zounds! Gadsook! Prithee etc.

What readers, and more importantly, Editors and Agents seek, is good plain English, coloured with images and the occasional expression from the period. This means that you don't describe a wind like a jet plane when your novel is set in the 17thC but you might use images with religious or natural connections. In your dialogue you use contractions where your character would. So family and friends get contractions, talking to the chief priest might be more formal with few contractions.

It's a tricky thing to get right. I had the judge in one competition tell me the language was too formal and stiff in my short listed novel. In an unpublished novel competition two short listing judges praised the 'authentic sounding dialogue' in the same novel. Listen to your crit group if they are all complaining and loosen up the dialogue.

Why don't you post a bit in SYW, the historical section for us to see if we can help?

I struggled to write my last novel - published in July because I couldn't make it intimate enough - it didn't connect with the reader. One of the many problems with it was the lack of contractions. ( it was set in first century Britain) I did lots of work on it - not least changing the plot, substantially rewriting and moving from third past to first present, but including contractions was part of it. I don't yet know if it worked time will tell.
As another poster has said without them language sounds oddly stilted to a contemporary ear. It also gives you more room to manouevre -as you can more easily create a contrast between formal moments and informal ones.

Lauren W said:

I'm interested in hearing from other historical writers if this is too early for contractions?

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The Ancient Greeks loved contractions.

They had whole systems of them. Google 'synalepha' for details. From memory they liked slurring together related words - so 'sailing voyage' might become kind of the equivalent of 'sailage' and they'd have a different contraction for 'sailing for only a short time' (This is obviously contrived to give an English equivalent - there were all sorts of ways to figure out if which word gave the middle vowel sound etc )

It doesn't matter, of course, the other posts are totally correct. But contractions certainly aren't a modern invention! Definitely google for details - I've only got the vaguest memory of the details.

Mac
(Edited to add - maybe it was 'metaplasm' instead of 'synalepha' ? I dunno - It's all Greek to me. My point is that it is a common part of languages - not just modern English)