Quote

If you take a few days to write an outline, you're just making up scenes that you think will work, that you think will be interesting. But as you write it, other ideas occur - better ideas that have to do with what you're writing.

Elmore Leonard

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Elmore Leonard
Age: 87 †
Born: 1925
Born: October 11
Died: 2013
Died: August 20
Author
Film Producer
Novelist
Prosaist
Screenwriter
Writer
New Orleans
Louisiana
Dutch Leonard
Elmore John Leonard Jr.
Take
Scenes
Writing
Scene
Work
Days
Think
Interesting
Thinking
Making
Write
Outline
Ideas
Outlines
Better
Occur

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I don't believe in writer's block. I don't know what that is. There are just certain little areas that I know I'm going to get through. It's just a matter of finding a way.
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I want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
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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.
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I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
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I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
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Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
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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.
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I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.
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Skip the boring parts.
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A man can be in two different places and he will be two different men. Maybe if you think of more places he will be more men, but two is enough for now.
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I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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I focus on characters as individuals with attitudes and write each scene from a particular character's point of view. That way, even narrative passages take on the character's sound. I don't want the reader to be aware of me, writing.
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To me, a book is a book, an electronic device is not, and love of books was the reason I started writing.
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If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.
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I do have fun writing, and a long time ago, I told myself, 'You got to have fun at this, or it'll drive you nuts.'
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My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
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I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.
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These are rules I've picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I'm writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what's taking place in the story.
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