First a little background. I’m not a native English speaker, and I rarely if ever get to read most books in their original languages, which for the immanse majority tends to be English.
Over the years I’ve come across many examples of the literature in its native language, and I started to pick up on something. Something about certain styles stood up to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Until I found out: some books had absolutely **no** contractions in its narration, while others did. I’ve done a bit of research on this, and from what I can gather there’s no rule on that, and it’s only an stylistic choice an author could make.
My main example of an author who tends to not use them in narrative is J. R. R. Tolkien. The Silmarillion, for example, contains no contractions whatsover, neither in narration nor dialogue. LoTR has no contractions in narration, and even in the dialogue of some select characters, while others use them. The Hobbit in contrast has them in both narration and dialogue of all characters.
Now, I’m not here to make judgement on whether contractions in narration are a good or bad thing. I’m curious as to what books or authors have a tendency to not use them, apart from the example mentioned.
by thrashingkaiju
2 Comments
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong here, it’s a style choice. Using contractions makes the text less formal and more conversational. Avoiding them lends a more formal or educated tone.
Traditionally, in formal English one does not write contractions. So in a novel with a 3rd person omniscient narrator, the characters might use the contractions, but the narration would not.
If the narrator is a character, they may or may not use contractions.