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Story Dialogue and Contractions
rjssim
Posts: 1,339 Member
When it comes to dialogue in story writing, is it better to use contractions or not to use contractions?
Examples:
Contractions: "You've accomplished a lot in your life," she said. "You'll do very well in the future."
No Contractions: "You have accomplished a lot in your life," she said. "You will do very well in the future."
Examples:
Contractions: "You've accomplished a lot in your life," she said. "You'll do very well in the future."
No Contractions: "You have accomplished a lot in your life," she said. "You will do very well in the future."
2
Comments
If it’s more informal, use the contractions. But also if you need to emphasize a word that makes up a contraction, I would keep it separate. For example, if someone is trying hard to get the idea across in the second statement, they might stress the “will” and therefore wouldn’t use the contraction. “You WILL do well in the future.” Is more resolute than “You’ll do well in the future.”
But again, it’s really up to character and context, but there are no hard set rules about when you have to use one or the other. Using contractions sounds more natural these days because it’s a common way to speak. But in the past, sentences were phrased differently so the present day contraction is not something you would probably hear in the past. So if your story is more modern, the contractions will feel more natural and realistic to the speaking patterns of today.
Contractions tend to flow better in dialogue, since the reader will be picturing the character saying it, and it better reflects natural speech. It definitely flows better and is easier, at least for me, to read rather than stumble over. I'd say do it almost always, until a special use case crops up!
Agree with what others have said, but wanted to add that in the examples above, the first one sounds more friendly and familiar, and the second one sounds like someone who has a very formal relationship with the person they are encouraging.
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