Quote

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.

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.
Helping
Remain
Tell
Rules
Shows
Along
Place
Taking
Stories
Story
Book
Help
Writing
Rather
Picked
Way
Show
Invisible

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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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I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
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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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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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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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Skip the boring parts.
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If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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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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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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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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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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'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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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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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 have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.
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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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What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.
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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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