I was always a fan of Elmore Leonard's style. His prose was direct and to the point. How many of his 10 Rules of Writing do you break? More importantly, which ones do you never break?
- Never open a book with weather.
- Avoid prologues.
- Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
- Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said” … he admonished gravely.
- Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
- Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
- Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
- Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
- Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
- Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
I always try to follow number eight. I want my readers to build an idea of my characters in their heads, thereby building a much deeper connection with the character.
What are your thoughts?
#Elmore #writing #novel #rules
Basically, what are 10 pieces of good advice have been turned into 10 lousy rules. There are situations where breaking any one of these is perfectly acceptable, so I doubt the list is meant to be taken literally.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, it is all still very good advice. 3 and 4 concern the areas where most writers mess up (although "asked" and "replied" are just as acceptable as "said") it is embarrassing to read dialogue where the writer is trying so hard to use anything but "said" and then has a detailed description of body language to go with every line of dialogue.
Ignoring 8,9,10 is probably the difference between literary and popular fiction. I read a book by a Booker prize winner and he went off on a 3 page tangent describing the view form a bedroom and 100 year history of the area in the view, when simply stating that the room "had a window overlooking the bed" would have sufficed.
I definitely agree with your point about readers building their own picture of the characters. Once a reader picks up a book, the story belongs to them and not the author. That is why words are so much more powerful than video.