SHOW NOTES:

Somerset Maugham: There are three rules for novel writing. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. 

Terry Brooks Rules

Read, Read, Read 

Outline, Outline, Outline 

Write, Write, Write 

Repeat 

Dave Barry: Don’t Be Boring

Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing

1-Never open a book with weather 

2-Avoid prologues 

3-Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue 

4-Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” 

5-Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose 

6-Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose 

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 

LINKS:

Elmore Leonard: “What a Guy,” says Jackie Collins 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/21/elmore-leonard-what-a-guy-jackie-collins 

Writers On Writing: Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points, and Especially Hooptedoodle by Elmore Leonard 

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/16/arts/writers-writing-easy-adverbs-exclamation-points-especially-hooptedoodle.html 

Jack Kerouac’s 30 Tips: 

http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/kerouac-technique.html 

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