Contractions in Historical Fiction

windyrdg said:

There's also the problem that I'll sounds so-so while I will sounds like a definite commitment.

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I'm lucky to write about an era when contractions were fairly common, but in reference to the above difficulty of separating a statement of commitment from a statement of casual plans, what about falling back on the traditional solution: "shall"?

I don't think even Americans have entirely lost a sense of "I will" being more a statement of intention, and "I shall" being more a simple statement of a future action, especially when they're couched in a formal, archaic context.

We have...

a long post on this back on page 4 or 5.

Historical dialogue does not mean stiff and stilted dialogue.

Contractions are fine. Just get them into the right sounding dialogue or they will strike the reader as 'modern'.

This means worry more about your dialogue, which words to use and not use, and the flow and patterns of your speakers. Get that feeling and sounding right, and no one will notice your contractions.

windyrdg said:

In my contemporary writing, I'm quite comfortable with contractions and frequently use them both in dialog and exposition. However, in writing Biblical fiction, it just doesn't feel right.

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You're already "translating" what your characters are saying from Aramaic or Greek or Latin or Hebrew or Syriac into English, yes?

Use contractions when people would be likely to be speaking informally in whatever language they would actually be speaking; don't use contractions when people would be likely to be speaking formally in whatever language they would actually be speaking.

I encountered this situation a bit while I was writing my first historical. The main character in that one absolutely refuses to use contractions, but it sounded too formal on other characters. I know a lot of the contractions we use today weren't then, but if you work the dialogue and characterization right, it'll still sound in-character and won't jump out too much at your reader(s), unlike a complete non-use of contractions.

I did a little quick research and found two prior discussions that address dialogue in general, but not contractions specifically.

Choice of English in Ancient Historicals
Dialogue and Historicals

(pdr, did I miss the one you mentioned?)

JenNipps said:

(pdr, did I miss the one you mentioned?)

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Try this one.

windyrdg said:

In my contemporary writing, I'm quite comfortable with contractions and frequently use them both in dialog and exposition. However, in writing Biblical fiction, it just doesn't feel right.

The problem is that without contractions some sentences end up sounding a little clunky. There's also the problem that I'll sounds so-so while I will sounds like a definite commitment.

I've even considered making up a list of allowable contractions my characters can use: it's, I'm, I'll and so forth, while eliminating things like should've, would've, etc.

Is this a problem for everyone? How do you deal with it?

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I don't think I know what biblical fiction is (and I'm not all that sure I want to, ), however, it seems to me that this is a matter of style choice that's probably bigger than just the use of contractions. If you want your story to have the same style as a biblical book, then you need to follow the style choices of your chosen translation. If that's KJV, good luck with the 17th century English. If you're working from the original languages, even more luck with trying to convey the Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek in your story. Actually here I think all you need is 'standard', unobtrusive English with occasional flavourings of the original.

BUT I don't think you necessarily have to tell your story in this way. You could take any of the biblical stories and tell them in your own style. I think this is more likely to make good modern fiction. And if you do this, you choose how you want to portray each character. Some will speak formally, others more casually. Some situations will require more formal language, others not. You're in charge, you decide.


If you think it doesn't 'feel right' ask yourself why not. What do you want your story to 'feel' like? Then write it like that.

IceCreamEmpress said:

You're already "translating" what your characters are saying from Aramaic or Greek or Latin or Hebrew or Syriac into English, yes?

Use contractions when people would be likely to be speaking informally in whatever language they would actually be speaking; don't use contractions when people would be likely to be speaking formally in whatever language they would actually be speaking.

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I was going to add stuff, but that pretty much sums up what I was going to say. I use contractions this way and also I pay a mind to the flow of the sentence - sometimes it just doesn't sound right with a contraction or without one. If in doubt, try reading it aloud, or imagine it as dialogue in a film and figure how it would sound to your audience.

windyrdg said:

In my contemporary writing, I'm quite comfortable with contractions and frequently use them both in dialog and exposition. However, in writing Biblical fiction, it just doesn't feel right.

Is this a problem for everyone? How do you deal with it?

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Yes, it was a problem for me when I wrote my medieval novel. It is difficult to remove all contractions so I just made sure I didn't use them in dialogue. Sometimes that meant rearranging the sentence but it got easier with practice. I've read other historical novels without contractions and I can honestly say they'd done such a good job of removing contractions that I never noticed until it was pointed out to me.
Linnea