Quote

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.

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.
May
Narrative
Writing
Rhythm
Way
Sounds
Like
English
Disrupt
Allow
Rewrite
Gets
Usage
Learned
Composition
Sound
Proper

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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 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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Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
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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.
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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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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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My purpose is to entertain and please myself. I feel that if I am entertained, then there will be enough other readers who will be entertained, too.
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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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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're ­Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.
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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
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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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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 won't read a book that starts with a description of the weather. I don't read books over 300 pages, though I'll make an exception for Don Delillo.
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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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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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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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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