Am I the only one bothered by Brandon's use of contractions ending in 'd?

[Paul H]

I read the Gathering Storm about a year ago, and just today I began reading the prologue of Towers of Midnight. In both books, I have noticed something that annoys me and pulls me out of the story, namely the frequent use of contractions ending in apostrophe-"d". Some examples would be "he'd" (he had or he would), "she'd" (she had or she would), and "they'd" (they had or they would).

 

Please don't misunderstand; I have no problem with prose that uses contractions. Many contractions, such as "can't," "don't," "didn't," and "it's," are widely used in both fiction and non-fiction, and in my opinion they do not make the text sound overly informal.

 

However, I cannot recall ever reading a novel (other than TGS and ToM) which uses "he'd," "she'd," or "they'd" in non-dialogue text. Sure, these contractions might be used in dialogue, in order to realistically reflect the way that people speak, but not in the main narrative prose. So when I read these contractions in the main narrative prose in TGS and ToM, they make the text sound (to me) very informal, and really almost bordering on unprofessional.

 

(But maybe this usage is more of a recent trend? I admit that I have read few if any non-WoT novels that were published in the last ten years.)

 

I'm sure that many people reading this thread are thinking that I'm making a big deal out of something completely irrelevant. However, I found these contractions to be a real stumbling block for me in reading TGS -- they pulled me out of the story every time I encountered one. And as I began reading the ToM prologue today, I had the same problem. I've never seen anyone else mention this issue here (though I have seen some comments about Brandon's writing style being less formal in general). So I just wanted to vent a bit of my frustration, and also to see if anyone else is bothered by this, or if it is just me.

 

Having said all that, I will also say that I regularly read Brandon's blog, and he seems like a terrific guy who is going above and beyond the call of duty to finish the Wheel of Time the right way. I am IMMENSELY grateful to him for putting in the huge effort to write these final three books. Really, when Robert Jordan died, I expected that the series would never be finished. The fact that I get to read the end of this series at all, even if in a slightly different writing style than Jordan would have used, is amazingly awesome.

 

And overall I really did like TGS, and I eagerly look forward to reading ToM. But if Tor should decide to offer a "he'd"/"she'd"-free version of ToM, I'd pay extra for it. Ummm... I mean I would pay extra for it.

[username13]

OK I selected slight annoyed.

 

***

 

While it wasn't end of the world kinda stuff, or something that took me out of te story as much as the timeline shifts in this book, it still caught my attention. It's not a bad thing, just less of a WoT thing imo. I share your opinion of contractions being a more casual form of language, and I don't think it suits the majrity of fantasy era novels. However there are some characters I don't mind seeing it on, such as Mat, but I guess I don't like seeing it in the viewpoints of most other characters.

 

That said there are lots of things that I see people saying negatively about tGS and TofM that I flat out disagree with, it's just a matter of opinion, so I'm guessing you'll get that a bit here too

[Anajon]

it saves words in the word count :-)

[Paul H]

I'm sorry to take so long to come back here. Thanks for the replies and for the poll votes, and for giving me the opportunity to vent.

 

Based on the poll results, it looks like no one was as annoyed as I was. Though I guess it makes me feel better to know that I'm not completely alone, since a few people were slightly annoyed. And to the two people who voted "I didn't notice them before, but now...," I sincerely apologize for bringing up this issue at all.

 

I hope to be back here after I finish reading Towers of Midnight, though I haven't decided if I'm going to read it right away (so far I've only read chapters 1 & 8 and part of the prologue), or finish my re-read of the series first (I'm on TSR). When or if I do come back here, I'll try to have some more positive things to say. (And it probably won't be hard to do that; I expect ToM to be a great read overall.)