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Elmore Leonard 1925 - 2013
- Thread starter CupofJoe
- Start date
Myth Weaver
Thanks for sharing that.
Elmore Leonard was a fantastic writer. He's actually one of my favorite non-fantasy authors of all time. His book Pagan Babies is the fastest I've ever read a book in my life. And I'm a slow reader. I think I read it in like three days. It's so bizarre as well, because I don't own any of his books anymore except his first one, a Western called The Bounty Hunters and I've been reading it recently, even this morning before I heard about his passing. He's someone I'll definitely be reading more of over the years. Most may know him for Get Shorty, Be Cool and Out of Sight and Rum Punch (adapted into Jackie Brown )which were made into movies and the FX show Justified which ironically is about a bounty hunter. His Westerns are actually quite good as well.
I actually took a class where my professor showed us one of his Western movies Hombre for an example of how to tell a coherent story. I learned a lot from that. I'd love to read the book or watch the movie again.
He was a master of using economy with language. He even published a controversial writing book that was pretty bare-bones about explaining how he thought writing should be done. He's one of my biggest inspirations for my writing style, which tends to focus more on sparse descriptions (at times) and dialogue. If you're ever having a problem creating convincing dialogue, study Elmore Leonard.
He will definitely be missed. RIP.
Elmore Leonard was a fantastic writer. He's actually one of my favorite non-fantasy authors of all time. His book Pagan Babies is the fastest I've ever read a book in my life. And I'm a slow reader. I think I read it in like three days. It's so bizarre as well, because I don't own any of his books anymore except his first one, a Western called The Bounty Hunters and I've been reading it recently, even this morning before I heard about his passing. He's someone I'll definitely be reading more of over the years. Most may know him for Get Shorty, Be Cool and Out of Sight and Rum Punch (adapted into Jackie Brown )which were made into movies and the FX show Justified which ironically is about a bounty hunter. His Westerns are actually quite good as well.
I actually took a class where my professor showed us one of his Western movies Hombre for an example of how to tell a coherent story. I learned a lot from that. I'd love to read the book or watch the movie again.
He was a master of using economy with language. He even published a controversial writing book that was pretty bare-bones about explaining how he thought writing should be done. He's one of my biggest inspirations for my writing style, which tends to focus more on sparse descriptions (at times) and dialogue. If you're ever having a problem creating convincing dialogue, study Elmore Leonard.
He will definitely be missed. RIP.
Yes, a very effective writer. His "rules" of writing have been shared before, but I'll post them again in this thread:
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 dialect, 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.
Pretty good guidelines, by and large, though I wouldn't take any of them to be absolutes. Leonard was being somewhat flippant when he gave them, but as pointed out in the article linked above, he later came to take them seriously.
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 dialect, 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.
Pretty good guidelines, by and large, though I wouldn't take any of them to be absolutes. Leonard was being somewhat flippant when he gave them, but as pointed out in the article linked above, he later came to take them seriously.
I personally dig his rules, but I could see how that would be difficult to utilize all of those in fantasy.
1. Never open a book with weather.
I agree with that to a certain extent. I personally love books that open with something happening or a bit of dialogue. I don't usually find any interest in a history lesson or a weather report unless it's done really well.
2. Avoid prologues.
This is one of those that seems almost impossible for fantasy writers. I've been tempted to add a prologue to my most recent novel, but I'm resisting the urge. I've never completely understood what a prologue really is other than a way to introduce something that probably won't matter until much later in the story. It's sometimes a good way to hook readers (A Game of Thrones for instance) but I don't think they're necessary in every fantasy book.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
I rarely do this anyway. I either use said or I use some form of action. For example:
"I'm going to twist your head off," Lucy said. OR "I'm going to twist your head off." Lucy's eyes bulged like a rabid toad's.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said."
I personally don't like using adverbs to modify "said" so I agree with this one. But if a writer has an engaging story, I don't much mind this.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
I use exclamation points now and again, but yes, I try to keep them "under control."
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
I don't.
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
I've done this before to ill-effect. So I don't do it anymore.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
A mention of clothing, hair color, and such I think is fine. Anything beyond that may jerk me out of the story. There is a certain way readers may picture a character, so it's always good to be a little obscure. Describe the things that really matter.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
A difficult one for fantasy writers. Part of our job is to show a new world, so it's difficult to write fantasy fiction without some kind of description. But the part about "great detail" is most important. Long passages of description are akin to a director showing a sunset for five minutes. It may be beautiful for a short time, but any longer than five seconds is superfluous. If a writer does description incredibly well though, I can dig it. If it's not done well, it may cause me to quit reading.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
This can be open to interpretation. Some readers don't like long passages of dialogue. I do. Some readers don't like long inner monologues. I can give or take them sometimes. The parts that readers tend to skip are probably anything that doesn't advance the story in some way or provide characterization. Usually if a scene doesn't advance my story, I cut it if possible.
Overall, good points, although it may be hard to apply some of these for fantasy writers. I hope to apply some of these rules to my own writing simply because I admire Leonard a lot for his style. He'll be sorely missed.
1. Never open a book with weather.
I agree with that to a certain extent. I personally love books that open with something happening or a bit of dialogue. I don't usually find any interest in a history lesson or a weather report unless it's done really well.
2. Avoid prologues.
This is one of those that seems almost impossible for fantasy writers. I've been tempted to add a prologue to my most recent novel, but I'm resisting the urge. I've never completely understood what a prologue really is other than a way to introduce something that probably won't matter until much later in the story. It's sometimes a good way to hook readers (A Game of Thrones for instance) but I don't think they're necessary in every fantasy book.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
I rarely do this anyway. I either use said or I use some form of action. For example:
"I'm going to twist your head off," Lucy said. OR "I'm going to twist your head off." Lucy's eyes bulged like a rabid toad's.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said."
I personally don't like using adverbs to modify "said" so I agree with this one. But if a writer has an engaging story, I don't much mind this.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
I use exclamation points now and again, but yes, I try to keep them "under control."
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
I don't.
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
I've done this before to ill-effect. So I don't do it anymore.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
A mention of clothing, hair color, and such I think is fine. Anything beyond that may jerk me out of the story. There is a certain way readers may picture a character, so it's always good to be a little obscure. Describe the things that really matter.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
A difficult one for fantasy writers. Part of our job is to show a new world, so it's difficult to write fantasy fiction without some kind of description. But the part about "great detail" is most important. Long passages of description are akin to a director showing a sunset for five minutes. It may be beautiful for a short time, but any longer than five seconds is superfluous. If a writer does description incredibly well though, I can dig it. If it's not done well, it may cause me to quit reading.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
This can be open to interpretation. Some readers don't like long passages of dialogue. I do. Some readers don't like long inner monologues. I can give or take them sometimes. The parts that readers tend to skip are probably anything that doesn't advance the story in some way or provide characterization. Usually if a scene doesn't advance my story, I cut it if possible.
Overall, good points, although it may be hard to apply some of these for fantasy writers. I hope to apply some of these rules to my own writing simply because I admire Leonard a lot for his style. He'll be sorely missed.
I agree with all of these in general principle, with the exception of #9 in the case of Fantasy, for the reasons you stated. I do think prologues should be avoided, even in fantasy, and don't think they're ever necessary, though there are some cases where it may be a good idea to have one (a limited number of cases, in my view). 
SeverinR
Vala
I agree with all of these in general principle, with the exception of #9 in the case of Fantasy, for the reasons you stated. I do think prologues should be avoided, even in fantasy, and don't think they're ever necessary, though there are some cases where it may be a good idea to have one (a limited number of cases, in my view).
I have skipped most prologues and never felt like I missed anything in the story.
I think #8 and #9 rules aren't as strong in fantasy, because describing the clothes and setting is more then "A typical midsized downtown city"
"all hell broke loose" is a telling cliche. Don't tell it, show how hell broke loose. Used as one line in dialog it might pass, since people do use cliche's when talking.
Have to consider "suddenly".
Just yesterday I put a book back on the shelf and bought something else, because while the first book looked interesting I opened it and saw a prologue. I read the first couple of paragraphs of the prologue and thought "ugh" and put it back. Another author got my money instead. Maybe I should have skipped ahead and read part of chapter 1, where to story presumably begins even though the author saw fit to bore me with extraneous material before getting to the story.