MarkFord
How to Write a Best-Selling Novel
As someone who’s made a fair part of my living writing, I gobble up advice from successful writers whenever I can find them.
I consume advice about writing fiction and nonfiction, poetry and drama, essays, and news. I’ve read all the best-known books and dozens of essays. But because of their brevity, I’m especially fond of checklists.
Judith, my editor, just sent me this list from Elmore Leonard, a very successful novelist that wrote, among other things, Hombre, the book I’m reviewing below.
- 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.But Leonard’s most important rule is one that he says sums up all 10: “If it sounds like writing, rewrite it.”
