Top Tips for Writers
I’ve always loved Elmore Leonard. He writes clean and tight page-turners. This is an excerpt from the article he published in the New York Times in July, 2001, titled: WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle.
Elmore Leonard’s top tips for writers:
1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said.”
5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
Have you seen any of these rules broken lately? I have. In my own writing, no less. See?
Prologue:
It was a bright, sunny day.
Ten Minute Later:
“Oh, my!” she hissed loudly. Was that thunder? Suddenly all hell was breaking loose! She flung her reddish blonde strawberry flaxen hair over her delicate pale shoulder that was slightly visible through her sheer blouse. “Like, I can’t believe some skanky whore stole my bumbershoot! I’m going to need it like for sure today!” she said naughtily and spicily.
Suddenly the shiny, slick, shiny, wet, smoth, slippery cement under the vulcanized rubber of her sports mobile was getting slippery. Life was a bitch when your red Ferrari with the creamy, smooth, leather seats was a convertible and you lived in the wet, humid, soggy city of a northwestern town on a really high mountain submerged in constant precipitation.
At least I admit it. What about you?
(Click here for the rest of the New York Times article.)
September 27th, 2007 at 12:24 am
“Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.”
Ha. This makes me think of the “Men Made in America” series. Has anyone seen these at their local used bookstore? There’s a book for each state, and the tagline for the series is “White-hot, red-blooded, and true blue for you.” They were published in 1989.
Fabulous. We gave them as gag gifts in college. Lots of puff-sleeved, spiral-permed heroines.
And that, my friends, is why you shouldn’t describe a character too closely.
September 27th, 2007 at 12:58 am
Oh my lanta my head is spinning just reading that. And Feisty, that excerpt is pure Hemingway.
I’ve never used the word suddenly. Ever. It sucks. That word. Suddenly. I pity the fool who uses the word suddenly in their book, because it’ll never sell.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:24 am
I used to use suddenly all the time! Like, all the time. Then I had to suddenly say to myself,
September 27th, 2007 at 11:08 am
I love suddenly. And I love these!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL. As my daddy always said, rules were made to be broken . . .
Hope it’s not the; you break, you pay scenario though. ROFL!
September 27th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Suddenly, I am feeling the urge to go back over my ms.
September 27th, 2007 at 11:21 am
I use suddenly, I’m bad with adverbs in general, I always have to keep a tight leash on myself with those and still I get nabbed in editing over them. lol
September 27th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
That excerpt was just hilarious, Feisty!!!! Suddenly I’m not so sure about my own manuscript. I should absolutely go look for all my verbs after “said”.
September 27th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Wait … I KNOW he’s not dissin’ my Snoopy dog, right?
“It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a shot rang out …”
September 27th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
If you read the article, he gives examples of when rule-breaking works. So, when I become Steinbeck, I can start using adverbs.
September 27th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Loved the excerpt Feist.
And hey I used to use suddenly! Got busted for it on one manuscript during edits. Can’t remember which one. Now I watch out for it like crazy.
Waaaay back in the day I used to always do this:
She said angrily-nervously-hopefully-curiously-sweetly, etc. I was TERRIBLE.
I just read a great novella. I loved it. But the author used too many !!!! I have a hard time with too many !!!!! They’re just so….!!!!!!!!!
September 27th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
I used a ton of them in the piece i just subbed to EC. But the heroine is a total spaz! She loves them!
September 28th, 2007 at 12:32 am
Does everyone realize, besides Karen, that I was totally kidding up above in my ’suddenly’ being the suck factor word? I have 10 in my document. You can totally get published with the word suddenly in your book.
September 28th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Oh God Suddenly is so tempting. I think it’s what you use when you think of something and don’t want to worry about the transition.
Gack I’m going to search out all my suddenlys now I guess.
And I have a prologue.
But I don’t think there is anything wrong with having a strong prologue.
September 28th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Umm….I’ve done everything he says not to do. And I have said suddenly. Often.
And one of my favorite books from childhood starts with “It was a dark and stormy night.” Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.
I hate rules. But luckily, they are made to be broken.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Lillian, I just put you down in my quote book: “when I become Steinbeck, I can use adverbs.”
Delicious.