{"id":46,"date":"2002-01-27T10:28:04","date_gmt":"2002-01-27T15:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/wordpress\/leonards_rules_for_writing"},"modified":"2002-01-27T10:28:04","modified_gmt":"2002-01-27T15:28:04","slug":"leonards_rules_for_writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/2002\/01\/leonards_rules_for_writing.html","title":{"rendered":"Leonard’s Rules for Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nElmore
\nLeonard’s rules for writing<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    \nNever open a book with weather.<\/B>\n<\/p>\n

    \nSure. Nobody wants to be Edward Bulwer-Lytton<\/a>, after all.\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    \nAvoid prologues.<\/B>\n<\/p>\n

    \nThis is a pet peeve of mine, particularly when I read thick
    \n fantasy novels. If there’s a prologue, it’s almost always
    \nabout Gods and Goddesses and Heros and Monsters and there’s
    \na blizzard of names and places to wade through.
    \nAnd then<\/em> the story starts. Bleahh.\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    \nNever use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.<\/B>\n<\/p>\n

    \nThis goes a bit too far. Better to say, “don’t
    \nbe afraid<\/em> to use ‘said’ to carry dialogue”.\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    \nNever use an adverb to modify the verb “said”.<\/B>\n<\/p>\n

    \nWell, avoid using adverbs, period.\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    \nKeep your exclamation points under control.<\/B>\n<\/p>\n

    \nMy high school English teacher told us that we could only use two
    \nexclamation points per year. She was kind of a dotty lady… but she was
    \nright about this one.\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  6. \n

    \nNever use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose”.<\/B>\n<\/p>\n

    \nAnd whatever you do, don’t combine these words with a description of the
    \nweather: “Suddenly, on a dark and stormy night, all hell broke loose.”
    \nThat’s like the Triple Crown of bad prose.\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  7. \n

    \nUse regional dialect, patois, sparingly.<\/B>\n<\/p>\n

    \nIn the article, Leonard
    \ncites Annie Proulx, but I’m not sure if he’s complimenting her
    \nor criticizing her. (Unlike B. R. Myers, who is
    \n    absolutely
    \nclear; he hates Proulx<\/a>.)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  8. \n

    \nAvoid detailed descriptions of characters.<\/B>\n<\/p>\n

    \nOr, “Show, don’t tell”. But you knew that. I knew that.
    \nWe all<\/em> knew that. A round of applause for us!
    \nMoving on…\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  9. \n

    \nDon’t go into great detail describing places and things.<\/B>\n<\/p>\n

    \nSee Rule #8.\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  10. \n

    \nTry to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.<\/B>\n<\/p>\n

    \nAs Sam<\/a> might put it: Fuckin’ A.\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \nWinelog:<\/B>\n<\/p>\n

    \nI think I’ve found a wine rating site that
    \n    shares my philosophy<\/a>.
    \nI do have to deduct a few points, though — these folks do have
    \nenough vocabulary to say why<\/em> they liked or disliked a
    \nparticular bottle. No, no, no. I’m looking for just the visceral reaction:
    \nYes! No! Maybe! That’s it. Anyway…\n<\/p>\n

    \nFetzer, California, 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon: Not bad.

    \nSonoma Creek, Sonoma, 1999 Merlot: Not bad.

    \nBlack Mountain, California, 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon (FatCat): Yum
    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “Suddenly, on a dark and stormy night, all hell broke loose.” That’s like the Triple Crown of bad prose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}