I love love love Elmore Leonard. When I lived outside of Detroit it actually gave me a little sense of pride to know that I was living near him. (Now I get that same giddiness when I see Jon Krakauer. Yes, I’m a goof.)
If you’re not familiar with Elmore Leonard he wrote the books that Get Shorty, Out of Sight and so many other great movies and TV shows were based on.
He started his career writing pulp fiction westerns, he saw a market and jumped in with both feet. His books are dialogue rich and truly entertaining. If you want to study how to write better dialogue, read Elmore Leonard.
I came across a book titled “Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing.”
It’s heavily formatted and illustrated – one of those little books with five words on a page. However, it does hold a several tidbits of writing wisdom.
My Favorite….
Never Use An Adverb to Modify the Verb “said.”
as in, “she said quietly.”
he said earnestly.
he yelled loudly.
I’d go on to say that you should try to skip adverbs all togehter. When you do use them, make sure they are 100% necessary – she stated emphatically!
It’s a good book for beginners and advanced writer’s alike. It’s entertaining and you can use it to keep you on track or to fine tune your editing process.
You can grab the book at Amazon. (This isn’t an affiliate link. Just a nice link so you can buy the book if you’d like:-D).
Happy Writing!