We live in an abbreviated world. The permanent wave was shortened to permanent. Because people are busy, permanent was contracted to perm. I suppose someday it will be a puh. I got a puh.
I do not use contractions. I think I use contractions and feel confident I contract when I speak. However, looking at my writing, I do not use contractions.
I have excellent critique partners. Harlow, Abby, and Donna have repeatedly mentioned that my dialog would sound more realistic if my characters used contractions. I agreed and searched for “I will,” “will not,” “did not,” etc., creating realistic contracting dialog.
Enter José. To help you understand José, I offer this quote from The Ship from Wolfskill:
José thought for himself. When Mr. Johnson (the new teacher) came to the school, he was curious as to why José never used contractions.
With his usual calm, José said, “When I started school, my father told me I should learn English well, and there were no shortcuts.”
There had been a pause as Mr. Johnson waited.
“Contractions are shortcuts,” José stated simply. “I do not take shortcuts.”
Alert readers will have anticipated the problem. In my effort to reform my defective contractafication skills, I unwittingly used contractions in José’s dialog. Harlow, Abby, and Donna were pleased to point out my lapses in contractafication concentration. In an effort to be kind, Harlow tried to give me a pass on one occasion when José was pretending to be drunk. Honesty prohibited me from taking credit for having thought out the contractafication of the scene.
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