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.
Ideas
Outlines
Better
Occur
Take
Scenes
Writing
Scene
Work
Days
Think
Interesting
Thinking
Making
Write
Outline

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I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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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 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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At the time I begin writing a novel, the last thing I want to do is follow a plot outline. To know too much at the start takes the pleasure out of discovering what the book is about.
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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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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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I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
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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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Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
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I don't judge in my books. I don't have to have the antagonist get shot or the protagonist win. It's just how it comes out. I'm just telling a story.
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I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
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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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My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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Not dreams but night changes, not destiny but path changes, always keep your hopes alive, luck may or may not change, but time definitely chages.
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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.
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I think any writer is a fool if he doesn't do it for money. There needs to be some kind of incentive in addition to the project. It all goes together. It's fun to sit there and think of characters and get them into action, then be paid for it. I can't believe it when writers tell me 'I don't want to show my work to anybody'.
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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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