RIP Elmore Leonard
Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 7:19 pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23765850
EDIT - I've moved this to Production as honestly, along with Paul Heyman and Roger Corman, Leonard is one of the big three influences on my style of production from outside of the world of music entirely. Minimal, stripped back approach...nothing more than needs to be there.
A true legend, massive influence on me during college in my writing styleUS crime writer Elmore Leonard, author of such books as Get Shorty, Maximum Bob and Out of Sight, has died at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke.
A statement on his official website said he had died on Tuesday morning "surrounded by his loving family".
The author of 45 novels, Leonard had been in the process of writing his 46th.
Author Patricia Cornwall paid tribute, saying he was "one of the true icons of crime literature and entertainment".
Elmore Leonard started out writing westerns, then turned his talents to crime fiction. One of the most popular and prolific writers of our time, he’s written about two dozen novels, most of them bestsellers, such as Glitz, Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, and Rum Punch. Unlike most genre writers, however, Leonard is taken seriously by the literary crowd.
What’s Leonard’s secret to being both popular and respectable? Perhaps you’ll find some clues in his 10 tricks for good writing: *
- Never open a book with weather.
- Avoid prologues.
- Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
- Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
- Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
- Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
- Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
- Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
- Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
- Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
EDIT - I've moved this to Production as honestly, along with Paul Heyman and Roger Corman, Leonard is one of the big three influences on my style of production from outside of the world of music entirely. Minimal, stripped back approach...nothing more than needs to be there.
