A minor point of contention during the editing process of The Last Station Master was when to use contractions and when not to use them. Can one use contractions to the point of distraction? Yes, apparently.

This was an editorial comment that threw me because in every place I’ve ever lived, using contractions in speech is a normal way of speaking. Editing The Last Station Master was the first time I thought about how and when to use them.

In my experience, the only people who do not use contractions are people for whom English is a second language. I have such a character in the book and he never uses contractions. The copyeditor wanted to see the grown-ups in the book speak without contractions as well. The problem for me on this point was that I don’t know a lot of grown-ups who speak without contractions.

After much deliberation and discussion with other writers, I decided to meet the editor 10% of the way. I went through the manuscript and replaced contractions in the narrative whenever I wanted to slow down a scene or emphasize a point. I replaced a very small number of contractions in dialogue for the sake of compromise.

Was that a good call? I don’t know. It’s up to you, the reader, to decide if this was a blooper that got through, or not.