Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing


Elmore Leonard -- the guy behind "Get Shorty," "Out of Sight," "Rum Punch," "Bandits," "The Hot Kid...." this could end up being a very long list.  The man's prolific.  Sometimes better than others -- but for the most part, always very enjoyable.  
He has 10 rules for writing that can be listened to in any medium.  
Enjoy!!!
1. Never open a book with weather. Not directly translatable to sportswriting, but it’s a cousin to the idea of getting right to the point quickly in your lead.
2. Avoid prologues. Advice I give a lot to B/R writers is to lead with what your story is about, not context or background, or what Leonard, referring to fiction, calls “backstory.”
3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” … he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.” This one and the next three are a lot more relevant to fiction writers than anyone else, but it’s worth noting the underlying ethic.
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. This gets quoted a lot, and it’s the kind of glib line that ends up in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. But you should take it seriously. What are your readers likely to skip?

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

What I'm reading... "VENOM"

So, I remember standing in line at a Save-On when we were visiting my grandparents in Chicago, looking at the first appearance of Venom.  I didn't buy it.  I think I opted for a Spider-Man reprint that involved the Death of Captain Stacy at the hands of Doc Ock.

But Venom has always been kind of cool.  Well, let me correct that.  He was cool - and Marvel just sort of saturated the entire universe with venom himself, along with venom spawn, Carnage, all kinds of wanna be look alikes -- and it got old.

But, lately -- and I know this isn't brand new so I'm a little behind.  But there is a new Venom.

Flash Thompson.

Remember Flash Thompson, the guy that used to beat up Peter Parker in High School?  Well, he became friends with Peter Parker later - and he eventually joined Special Forces -- saw some combat - and lost his legs.

He drinks.  He's down.  He's a loser.  Right?

Wrong. The military has the Venom Spawn and they're trying to control it.  Trying to get it to be some kind of weapon -- and so they enlist our boy -- Flash.

And it is freaking cool.

They've taken Flash Thompson as addict, and translated that into him trying to keep the Symbiote (venom thing) under control.  It's pretty cool -- I recommend it.

The writer on the series for a while is this guy Rick Remender - and I came across him with the Uncanny X-Force.  I'll talk about that next time.

I'm still way behind on Invincible, Chew.  Saga is great if you haven't checked that out.  But, I'll keep you posted on things.


Sunday, November 25, 2012

Do the easy ones first


Anyone remember the SAT's?  I don't remember doing terribly well -- but I remember one bit of advice: "do the easy ones first."  The idea being, if you can't start getting easy question after easy question under your belt -- before you know it -- you'll be a quarter done with the test.  I'm doing this more and more with writing.  I don't know how the whole thing is going to work out, but I do know there's going to be this once scene where _______.  Write it real quick.  I don't know what comes after it, but I do know there's going to be a scene where they ______.  

Just jot it down real quick -- and then you'll have something.