Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard
Elmore John Leonard, Jr.was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth11 October 1925
CityNew Orleans, LA
CountryUnited States of America
book ice weather
Never open a book with weather. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.
writing narrative jazz
I'm very much aware in the writing of dialogue, or even in the narrative too, of a rhythm. There has to be a rhythm with it … Interviewers have said, you like jazz, don’t you? Because we can hear it in your writing. And I thought that was a compliment.
writing bucks posterity
I'm not going to write for posterity. I'm going to write to make a buck.
writing important sound
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
writing exclamation-points two
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
rich good-things ifs
If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
boring skip
Skip the boring parts.
details stories want
Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.
writing trying reader
I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
writing thinking years
After 58 years you'd think writing would get easier. It doesn't. If you're lucky, you become harder to please. That's all right, it's still a pleasure.
fun struggle writing
I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.
writing sound
Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
annoying prologue introduction
Avoid Prologues. They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword.
writing use way
Never use an adverb to modify the verb 'said' . . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange.