Actually, I do have a subject.

I've wanted to make Led to the Slaughter more period feeling.  So I thought I'd try the True Grit trick of not using contractions.

But it doesn't work.  Mostly because I don't think you can retroactively change it out.  Because if you're writing without contractions you would probably use different wording in the first place.

The same problem comes up when you try to switch from first person to third person or back again.  It isn't a simple matter of changing from "I" to "he."  Because you would have said it differently in the first place if you'd used the other method.

Same thing with tenses -- going from past tense to present tense isn't a simply of matter of changing 'was' to 'is.' 

Because you would have used different words to say the same thing.  So it creates an awkwardness, and artificiality.

I've done quite a bit of this kind of thing with Faerylander -- mostly because I was struggling so much with the book that I thought changing tense or who was talking would give me a fresh look.  And it did.

But it also created a bit of mess that I've had to work at fixing.