Read: Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Good Writing
Leave out adverbs, skip description, and keep the writer out of sight.
By Elizabeth A. Brown
When my teenage son picked up Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Good Writing, it fell open to Rule 3: “Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue.”“I wish my teachers could read this,” my son said. “They tell us not to use ‘said.’ They think other words make us sound better, like we have a bigger vocabulary.”
Which is precisely Elmore Leonard’s point: Good writing is not about the writer (and the way he sounds or the size of her vocabulary), but about the story.
The writer must remain invisible.
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Comments
This is something that I think too. It is not so much about how he/she sounds or the size of his/her vocabulary, but about the story. :)
Posted by: Becky | January 23, 2008 8:10 PM
It's me again! Guess what, my friend -- I gave you a writing award! Come see, come see. :)
And big hugs to you! :)
Posted by: Thomma Lyn | January 21, 2008 3:42 PM
Good advice about "said!" When I was a newbie fiction writer, I thought I was sooooo cool because I used (in my trunk novel) "expostulated" as a dialogue tag. :-D
The horror, the horror...
(LOL!)
Posted by: Thomma Lyn | January 18, 2008 10:00 PM