Contractions: Short or Long?

During the course of this edit, I have been faced with an interesting question: does everything have to be in contraction form to feel correct in dialogue?  

As someone who has studied grammar, I know that there is formal and informal ways of writing things and speaking, and I don't just mean not swearing.    I am confident this also applies in how you say things with contractions as well.

My editor did many corrections to put things in contraction form.  I decided I had to go over every word, in every dialogue and decide which seemed to fit better.  In many cases, since my editor was so good, she did leave some contractions unedited in.  I did however, decide to make my own decisions on the matter especially since my protagonist (and is in first person) is a Nova Scotian.

I have travelled around the world enough, and in Canada, to know that from province to province certain words are favoured.  For instance, Nova Scotians have a tendency to favour certain words such as "some".  The old joke was the expression "that was right some good eh?".

Of course, don't get me started on the stereotype of using "eh" thanks that that sit-com "The Great White North"! I think, "eh" has been done to death to typify Canadians, and not to mention make everyone in Canada look like beer drinking idiots!  

There are other subtle words which are also typical.  And in my protagonist's case Martha, some contractions she just doesn't use.  She is an older woman in her fifties and was raised by her elders.  The use of contractions existed of course, but some words would simply not sound right contracted even in her dialogue.  I won't say which and spoil the surprise, however it will be sprinkled throughout the writing in the book.
   
I also had to think about, in one sentence, that perhaps one word would be contracted but another might not be as used or as popular as well.  The whole process was fascinating even though it was time consuming. It meant reading out loud each sentence with, or without a contraction or contractions.  

In the end I feel, every writer has to make their own choice.  Like in my blog on me having an attitude, I always try my best to make my own decisions on things and I don't necessarily do something because it is the norm in editing now.  There is so much more to think about once the storyline is in place.  The details can be fun but also a little never wrecking.  Writing something so it SEEMS smooth and correct can take as much time as writing the whole book.  I am just glad I had a plot line to follow so that I didn't have to edit sections for content as well as grammar.

I wonder if styles of editing come and go but the writing principles stay the same so that a hundred years from now someone studying writing won't pick up my book and say, "oh look, this writer didn't follow the norm on editing".

​Who knows, perhaps so.