The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: miles on August 21, 2013, 01:37:48 pm
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Really too bummed to say much else. Not just because he is a literary hero to me, but also because he was still writing worthwhile stuff.
Here is something interesting he wrote though:
Elmore Leonard's ten rules of writing: http://www.freep.com/article/20101106/FEATURES05/130820014/Elmore-Leonard-s-ten-rules-of-writing
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I hate to speak ill of the dead but seriously.
Writers of genius offer rules so silly they must surely be joking ("Never open a book with weather", "Never use a verb other than 'said' to carry dialogue" – Elmore Leonard).
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/30/this-column-change-your-life-rules
@jamiesont
My best writing tip is stop reading writing tips and finish the bloody thing you're writing.
Another good writing tip is not to spend time posting to messageboards about how you've got a bee in your bonnet about "writing tips" instead of writing, but it's the end of August and business is slow.
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Elmore Leonard's work has been adapted into a lot of pretty decent movies, but I found his writing to be simplistic, dull, and predictable.
Elmore Leonard's ten rules of writing: http://www.freep.com/article/20101106/FEATURES05/130820014/Elmore-Leonard-s-ten-rules-of-writing
Man, that was almost like a primer on how to be a simplistic, dull and predictable writer.
There's obviously something about his writing that a lot of people found appealing and when translated to motion picture could be highly entertaining.
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I hate to speak ill of the dead but seriously.
It's probably pretty useless as a writing guide and should have been titled something like "ten things writers do that really irritate Elmore Leonard". And I find it kind of amusing read as that. Also, it's funny that pretty much every tip is "don't do this" followed by "unless you are a really good writer and know how to do this artfully."
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Top of the list "ten things writers do that really irritate wombat" is "write lists of writing tips." In case that wasn't obvious.
I think number two is that thing in a mystery where the reader is told that the character finds out something crucial but the reader is not told what it is. That's much worse than any of the things he complains about on that list.
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You know what's the dumbest rule on that list? "Leave out the part that readers tend to skip." Because different readers skip different things. For instance, I skip fight scenes and chase scenes and all violence and most sex. As I vaguely recall his writing, he didn't leave out the things this reader skips.
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That is a different issue though. Like, does art have a target market? As an "artist" I'd like to say no, but I am also pragmatic enough to know that if anyone at all likes what I do it is going to be people in one of a few groups. I would imagine this dude was aware of what his market was and left out the things they would be most likely to skip. People following writing tips probably have a market in mind? In other words, they aren't doing what they have to do, they are doing something just to get it published or whatever?
I kinda lost the plot there for a bit, but I guess I am putting down authors who follow any writing tips?
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I skip all the fun parts.
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I skip the same parts as wombat I think.
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The only thing I skip is bad writing and by skip I mean put the book down and not pick it up again. I guess that's not entirely true. I made it through the first Game of Thrones book. I haven't felt compelled to read the second one however.
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I think I skipped anything in italics in Lord of the Rings.
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I think I skipped anything in italics in Lord of the Rings.
I know I did.
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before diving in to LotR i picked up the Hobbit, and skipped everything in italics or otherwise verse-formatted. i still haven't bothered with the trilogy because i read the dang Hobbit and enjoyed it so very little.
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Apparently Tolkien could have used some of those tips.
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Miles gets a can.
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You know what else is worse than any of those things? Writers who write books where the main character is a writer. If you don't know enough about anything else to have your main character have another job than that, go out and get a fuck*ng life and write a book once you actually have something to write about.
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You know what else is worse than any of those things? Writers who write books where the main character is a writer. If you don't know enough about anything else to have your main character have another job than that, go out and get a fuck*ng life and write a book once you actually have something to write about.
Surely by now someone's written a story about a writer in an MFA program who can't find success because they only write stories about writers in MFA programs?
EDIT: Hell, I'd do it myself, but I'm not in an MFA program.
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Vonnegut tho
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I blame Hunter S. Thompson. He ruined a whole generation of writers.
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Surely by now someone's written a story about a writer in an MFA program who can't find success because they only write stories about writers in MFA programs?
EDIT: Hell, I'd do it myself, but I'm not in an MFA program.
This reminds me of the idea I had the other day to give up trying to get a book contract for a year in order to get a contract to write a book about giving up trying to get a book contract for a year. It's the logical extention of that trend in nonfiction and someone's got to do it to put an end to the thing.
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I don't actually know who this guy is, but this tweet belongs here.
Eric Nelson @literaryeric
I'm working on a dystopian YA novel where everyone in the world is working on dystopian YA novels.
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When I took a fiction writing class everyone hated my story about being in a band on the road and told me to "write what I know." So I wrote a story about a man-child who obsesses about his ex girlfriend and drinks too much and builds a nest-maze in his apartment. They liked that one.
It was frustrating because all of their critiques of the Band story were about not understanding how bands or touring work, and I was not allowed to respond to their critiques, so they just talked for a fuck*ng hour about their stupid ideas about how bands work. Not at all about the story itself, which was bad and pointless.
Writing MFA programs should basically just be abolished. They are a weird trap for wannabe-writers, and by being that they became necessary to get your work taken seriously, and now everyone writes in the MFA Style. Fuck that noise.
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I was inspired by that post to start typing a rant about how many jobs there are where you didn't used to get a degree, you started at the bottom and learned by actually doing and worked your way up and how now the education-industrial complex has gotten their claws into everything, but I got depressed and decided nobody needs to hear that.
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OK but also this: the main point of writing classes is to give writers another way to make money by teaching writing classes.
I have a couple of times tried to get a gig teaching writing, but so far have failed, and am always relieved.
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Back on topic: this totally belongs here:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/elmore-leonard-modern-prose-master-noted-for-his-t,33559/ (http://www.theonion.com/articles/elmore-leonard-modern-prose-master-noted-for-his-t,33559/)
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Back on topic: this totally belongs here:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/elmore-leonard-modern-prose-master-noted-for-his-t,33559/ (http://www.theonion.com/articles/elmore-leonard-modern-prose-master-noted-for-his-t,33559/)
That's amazing. Thank god for the Onion.