Food For Thought

                                        

 

I came across a fun somewhat whimsical little book called Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing. It’s full of fun drawings and some good advice.

To recap, here are the rules:

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 dialogue, 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.

He has one last important rule that sums up the others:

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

 

These rules have served best selling author Elmore Leonard well.

Food for thought.