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?

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.

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. 

The Scriptment

Don't feel like writing a full on script -- but you're not an outline guy?  Try a Scriptment.  James Cameron is a big fan of these things as you can see here: http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/s/spider-man-scriptment.html.  It's a great tool because you can start on writing the script without feeling like you need every single last details in there.

I'm doing that now on the script I'm working on.  It's like drawing a person -- you start of with broad strokes and then slowly bring in the detail.  Some people can write an outline out and get it ready with lots of detail.... but that doesn't come natural to me.  Of course, the people who can write a detailed outline are probably make a lot more money at screenwriting than I am.

My favorite sites for scripts is: www.simplyscripts.com

Desperately Seeking... a Nemesis!?

I remember this story from a while back (http://www.nerdist.com/2008/07/sf-man-looking-for-nemesis/). 

Chris Hardwick wrote about a guy who posted an ad on Craigslist asking for a Nemesis.  The post was funny, and a little silly.  But recently I've been missing the competitive nature of a big sales office.  We're a small firm, so you don't have that same spirit of competition with different teams or departments.  So... I have recently picked a Nemesis.  I'm not looking to completely destroy this person... but I definitely want to "beat" him/her.  Why not?  Everybody needs a reason to wake up in the morning :)

What about you?  Do you have a nemesis creatively?  Personally?  Professionally?

What I'm Reading - Savages

Don Winslow -- I'm curious to read his other stuff now.  He has a bit of a Chuck Palahniuk flair to him -- but it's not as substantial -- well, correction -- not as substantial as some of his work.  But Don's voice is fun.  It carries you along.  I bought it two days ago and I'm already half way through the thing.

The novel chronicles the story of two small time Marijuana Producers/Dealers.  They're white boys gone bad.  One's got the Ivy League Education -- the other one has the SEALs training -- and they're sharing a girl.

The Cartel down south gets wind of how successful these Gringos are with their product, and decides to offer them a deal.  They say, "no."  But, the Cartel doesn't like the word "no."  And the cartel gets this bright idea that they can "inspire" the boys to work for them.

It's a fun novel that straddles the line between silly and cool.  But, I'm into it.  I'm also down to read his other works.  I like to read the book and then see the movie -- just to reverse engineer how they adapted the piece.

So far, lots of fun.

Staying Motivated... put your money where your mouth is

I have a problem writing.  I have a problem doing anything that is good for me, really.  It is honestly so much easier to stay home, watch some Mad Men or maybe play Call of Duty and think about all the great things I'm going to do one day.  But...

You are what you do. 

I read a quote once that said, "he who limps is still walking."  I thought about it for a while, and it makes sense.  Some progress, it's better than no progress. 

I have an "arrangement" of sorts with a colleague of mine.  We each put in ten dollars at the beginning of the week into a pot.  Both of us have to do MINIMALLY one POMODORO (or one 25 minute block) of writing each day -- or we forfeit the pot.  Now, it's not a lot of money at ten dollars... but it builds up.  So, each week we hit our goals, and each week we keep putting in ten dollars.  All of the sudden, you REALLY start to second guess yourself when you try and say, "I don't have time to write" when it means you're going to forfeit a hundred dollar pot.