(This is a nice article about him from the Guardian)
Elmore Leonard was elderly and passed away and I know nothing about him other than that he wrote "Fire in the Hole" which I've never read but was turned into the first season of the television show "Justified" which I liked a whole lot. After that show came out I noticed his name quite a bit but I still hadn't read anything that he'd written.
Until I read this.
Having partaken in a fair amount of writing advice over the years I will say that his 10 rules for writing (and summation of the 10 rules in the rule "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.") is short, to the point, and spot on. It's concise and even laconic.
As far as I'm concerned writing fiction shouldn't be about the author, it should be about the story. Part of what I don't trust about "literature" is (other than the mistrust born of science fictional tribalism) that I expect the story to be about the author being clever. And then, afterward, all the critics exclaim about how clever the author was. Why should anyone at all care about how clever the author was?
Some of his 10 rules I've heard a million times. Some of them were surprising. Such as: 1. Never open a book with weather. Dark, stormy nights are right out, but I'd never heard anyone say not to do it at all. I found this rule bemusing: 5. Keep your exclamation points under control. I imagine a novel full up !!!eleventy!! and wonder... someone does that? But perhaps they do. I think that my taste likely favors more description than he prefers but most of what I read and write tends toward either Romance (so you have to "see" how sexy the hero is) or science fiction where the world that exists around the character is often a character in its own right, and he wrote crime fiction, mostly, I think.
From the Guardian:
For most of his career, Leonard was undervalued by critics, both because of his consistently high sales and his facility with dialogue: some critics distrust speech-led novels as shooting scripts for future movies.Yes, but of course.
19 comments:
Two days ago seems like ancient history... The Anchoress was the first to comment on the rules.
Synova, you did not share what prompted you to post this!
Exclamation point? D'oh!
I think it is hilarious that people who have never read an Elmore Leonard novel post thread after thread about him.
It must be a really slow news week or something.
(I am specifically not speaking about you Synova because you were up front about it)
#3 Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue," he intoned.
What? I demanded incredulously as Mother whispered commandingly directly into my ear, "Control yourself." Dad insisted, "Sit down you punk I'm tired of you causing trouble I've got to clean up." While James blurted, "Go, you stud!" And Molly encouraged, "Stand your ground, don't let them embarrass you."
Well, when I heard that he died I didn't say, "Who?", I said, "Oh!" I was vaguely aware that he'd written a novel based on the Raylan Givens character. (I *still* haven't watched season two... even though I accidentally bought the DVD twice.)
His actual article on his rules is pretty good, though. Much better than just the list of ten rules. It's witty and he explains what he means and says things like... unless you're so-and-so in which case write all the description you want.
Proscribing "suddenly" and "all hell broke loose" and exclamation points is so blatant, but his tear down of prologues is subtle and sharp. I'm a "just say no to prologues" sort, so I of course considered his opinion uncommonly insightful.
And if you're a great writer, you can break all those rules. I agree about genre writers being treated with no respect.
Give me a good Micky Spillane over Saul Bellow any day of the week.
It was a dark and stormy night, suddenly, all hell broke lose!!
Shut up, he explained.
Hemingway was his hero. With English being taught by almost all women now, Hemingway is lost to students. A travesty and educational malpractice.
John Cheever's "The Enormous Radio" reads like an episode from The Twilight Zone so I just wanted everyone here to know that I'm clever enough to have spotted that so there.
Hemingway was his hero. With English being taught by almost all women now, Hemingway is lost to students. A travesty and educational malpractice.
Yep. Not that long ago while I was pursuing one of the various degrees I paid for myself...I had a similar discussion with a crowd of very earnest young feminists. Fortunately the professor, despite being a hard core feminist (and Freudian) herself appreciated--much like Paglia--strong males. The poor little girlies found their faces falling when their hero sided with me RE the value of all those eeeeeevil dead white males.
Speaking of books written with movies in mind, that's what I thought of when I listened, on CD, to the Silver Linings Playbook.
Speaking of using only 'said,' both my parents have listened to a lot of
Dana Stabenow CDs. 'Said' is used so many times that it become noticeable and grating.
Stabenow writes books about Kate Shugak a half-eskimo private-eye in Alaska.
Those are great rules for writing.
I believe that The Princess Bride by Goldman, which is about a fictional, flowery overly written book of the same name by a fictional Morgenstern, is based on those rules. Basically, Goldman is doing a break down of a fictional badly written book.
If you loved the movie, you will like the book too! (oops!!!!!)
I prefer James Ellroy.
Leonard is the only living novelist I read these days. That is to say was the only living novelist...
I enjoy "Justified" too but it was a while before I noticed Leonard's name in the credits, and when I did I thought, "Perfect."
He's got a ton of books out and you can find 'em cheap in the used mystery section. Great beach reading or anywhere reading. Summer's not over...
If you enjoy Elmore Leonard you should give Loren Estleman who covers a lot of the same ground as Leonard. He writes about Detroit and is also a great Western Writer. I would pass on his Amos Walker series but read his stand alone novels and the Peter Macklin series which is very good.
King of the Corner about an ex-pitcher for the Tigers, Motown and Whiskey River are particularly good.
"Speaking of using only 'said,' both my parents have listened to a lot of
Dana Stabenow CDs. 'Said' is used so many times that it become noticeable and grating."
Usually while reading the "said" becomes invisible. I can see how hearing it over and over would be different.
The thing is that "said" isn't necessary all the time either. If it's clear who is speaking a dialog tag can be left off altogether.
Another trick is to leave off the dialog tag but include named action.
"I reckon we'll be there 'afore noon." Ted threw his saddle over the horse before turning to Sally. "Unless'n you fall off more'en once."
The current "rule" is to have a new paragraph for each new speaker. So if two people are talking and their dialog goes back and forth the spoken lines don't need "said." Though it's confusing while reading aloud because you can't indicate paragraphs. Come to think of it, I just had this problem the other day when I read a passage that I thought was funny to my husband. I had to keep saying "...that was Ukiah again..." I wonder if audio books *add* said tags?
If you want to read the master of dialogue read the works of George V Higgens.
"The Friends of Eddie Coyle" leaps to mind.
He writes dialogue the way it should be written.
@Synova, I agree a lot of good dialogue flows without any 'saids.'
As far as audio books, narrators are masters at changing their voice for each character.
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