How to Write a Novel: Five Rules of Writing

09/07/2009 by FeedCrazy.

I’m closing in on the end of my new fiction book and as always during this stage, I’ve begun to think about the editing process in earnest. When I first started I will revise the work of each, I went along. This is a time-consuming and frustrating. My creativity is to promote the advance of editing, at the same time I would like to repair before each paragraph, just right. Occurred when, my Muse go to bed, I believe I have never entered the next stage. And trust me that she has always been a bitch to wake up again.

Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing

1. Never open a book with weather. I have not done so, which means that this is by far the better.

2. Avoid prologues. Okay, so I know that I am not on the success rate of. I just didn’t think I’d get voted off the island this quickly. My fiction novel download opens with a prologue. Leonard went on to say that “They can be annoying.” I can certainly understand where he is coming from and almost took out the prologue in HERETIC just for that reason. In the end, I decided to leave it as I wanted to include some background information into the storyline before the reader meets the main characters. I did manage to resist the temptation while writing the sequel, A SCREAM OF ANGELS.

3. Do not use the verb is not “that” engage in a dialogue. I fully agree with this statement, and do my best to avoid temptation, or else. I think this is one of the most common mistakes new writers fall into and it can certainly pull the reader right out of the text. Recently, I spent the whole coaching group meetings, client writers to deal with this problem just now. I still occasionally a victim of its own, but it will be a serious mistake which I will be scouring the work currently under way, once I enter the editing phase.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” . . . Frankly, I suck at this. I’m getting better, but this one has plagued me for years and it is something I have to keep reminding myself about on a regular basis.

5. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.” I think I’m guilty of both, especially the first one. I’ve been more cognizant of “suddenly” in my more recent work, but I know my top thriller novels was plagued with it. “Everything has become a mess” too platitudinous anyone can use, the type of terror, even if we.

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