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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.

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

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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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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I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
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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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I never see my bad guys as simply bad. They want pretty much the same thing that you and I want: they want to be happy.
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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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I want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
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There are cities that get by on their good looks, offer climate and scenery, views of mountains or oceans, rockbound or with palm trees. And there are cities like Detroit that have to work for a living.
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Skip the boring parts.
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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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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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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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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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Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
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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 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 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'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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