Elmore Leonard’s Rules for Writing
- Don’t write what the reader will skip over anyhow.
- Never open your book with weather.
- Never begin with a prologue
- Never describe the physical look of a character in such great detail it takes away from the reader’s imagination.
- Use exclamation points sparingly.
- Never use another verb in place of said.
- Never let your writing sound like writing.
- Never use an adverb to modify said.
- Never us a colon or semi colon in dialogue. The same is true of ellipsis, dash and italics.
- Tell your editor to tell the copy editor not to mess with your punctuation.
- Don’t show your manuscript to anyone outside the business until you are satisfied with it.
Making your writing last and last and last