Like many authors, Elmore Leonard has his set of writing rules he follows (more or less consciously?) for his own writing. He sets down in cement many rules that I would draw in mud (to be reshaped as needed). But I found them interesting rules, in part because many of them are extreme takes on rules that I use. For example, in his third rule he says "Never use a verb other than 'said' to carry dialogue," but I would say "nine times out of ten, 'said' is the best tag." The trick is knowing when it's appropriate to use a different verb, and to be ruthless about what qualifies as that exception to the rule. As for his eight rule of "Avoid detailed descriptions of characters" — this is definitely a case of personal preference. I'm very fond of Connie Willis's scanty character descriptions (I wish I could carry that off!), but I know her lack of detail drives other people crazy.
Leonard mentions a number of authors and published works that illustrate his rules, and now I'm curious to read them to find out how I react to the rules as applied in prose.
Check out his rules and tell us what you think!
What about verbs like "asked" or "told?" I can't really remember ever writing a dialogue tag with a verb other than said, asked, or told. But I'm not sure if the latter two are allowed by Elmore's rules. If so, then I agree completely. I find it convenient for characters to "ask" on occasion. Sounds more natural sometimes. I never adverb. I mostly agree with his rules. I don't like reading long descriptions and I don't like writing them, either. I think Connie Willis is probably the writer most similar to my own style, so it's comforting to know that she doesn't describe her characters in detail. In reading her books, I never noticed a lack of description, and thus didn't miss it.
Posted by: Catherine | February 25, 2004 at 10:47 AM
"Any rule with 'never' in it is begging to be broken," Steven muttered darkly.
The non-never rules I mostly agree with, though. It's a bad, bad idea to open with the weather. Who cares? Open with =people=.
I would say, though, that in SF and fantasy, you have more liberty to go into detail describing people and places, since you may be describing some really weird stuff . . .
--Steven
Posted by: Steven Harper Piziks | February 26, 2004 at 08:19 PM
A blog is when a writer shraes his or her life on the web with other people to get to know him or her . For example Justin Bieber shraes everything he does on twitter that's a blog .Also people follow to know lots of things about him . To add they put pictures , their opinions and other personal things . A blog is different from other websites because you cant write everything you want and write a paragraph on Facebook , but on blogs like tumblr you could write about your day and personal stuff so other people would get to know you . Ariely ♥
Posted by: Alfiya | May 18, 2012 at 09:59 PM
I think there are good and bad books in both camps. Trust me, I've read some awful YA, and plenty of fboluaus adult-oriented fiction. I think every good book has a really strong conflict, whether that is centered around growing up, or just growing.Goog sez:I likes what I'm talking about.Haha! I likes it, too!
Posted by: Kenny | May 20, 2012 at 12:05 AM