Erica Vetsch here with you today. (No, I'm not the LEGEND mentioned in the title of this blog.)
It's Writing Contest Season, and I am a Writing Contest Judge. Every year, I judge in several writing contests, specializing in the area of pre-published/unpublished fiction. I enjoy this work, helping newer authors strengthen their writing, pointing them to great resources for learning, encouraging them in their journey to publication.
But I do find myself making the same comments on many entries. Pointing out the same writing weaknesses that need some attention.
An entry without these common mistakes stands out, shines, and is rewarded with HIGH MARKS!
If you would like your entry to be among these rare few, I encourage you to consider Ten Writing Rules of that literary TITAN, Elmore Leonard.
“Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing” With Erica Vetsch’s comments in red.
1. Never open a book with weather. (Just don’t. It’s the epitome of cliché)
2. Avoid prologues. (Most of the time, using a prologue means you’re starting the story in the wrong place, you fear your opening isn’t compelling enough to stand alone, or you’re trying to dump information on the reader that you think they should know, but you aren’t certain how to trickle in later.)
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. (It’s too distracting to have people cackling, chortling, growling, squeaking, etc.)
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely. (Let the dialogue and the mood you’ve created indicate the tone and tenor of the words being said. Use visceral and visual reactions rather than adverbs to show rather than tell the reader what’s going on.)
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. ( SO. MANY. EXCLAMATION. POINTS!!!!! I would venture to say that 95% of the contest entries I judge have a scattering of random exclamation points used with even the mildest dialogue. Fictional dialogue isn’t written like your text messages! Stop! Shouting! At! The! Reader! Because that’s what an exclamation point means in fiction. Someone actually screaming.)
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose." (Lazy, clichéd writing. If the reader can finish a sentence with a familiar phrase…dead as a __________ or quiet as a ____________ your writing is cliché. Freshen it up with a twist, or take that cliché up a notch. An illustration from author James Scott Bell: Instead of writing “She looked like a million bucks.” Write “She looked like a million bucks, tax-free.”)
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. (Dialects are exhausting to read. Sprinkle in enough for the reader to catch the flavor, but don’t belabor the point by dropping every g in -ing words or dropping all the ‘haitches’ in a British accent.)
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters. (Allow the reader to fill in some of the details. It invests the reader in the character as they imagine them. A few key descriptors will do. Don’t make a catalog list of features, mannerisms, dress, etc.)
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things. (The days of the ten-page description of a sunset died with Nathaniel Hawthorne. Today’s readers won’t sit still for lengthy descriptions like this. Instead, have your character interact with the setting with a few tiny hints. If you say your heroine walked to the window and pulled aside the calico curtain, the reader will fill in the surroundings of what they think a room with calico curtains looks like. Likewise, you could have your heroine walk to the window and pull aside the velvet drape, and an entirely different image of a room appears. Either way, you've allowed the reader to invest in the scene, creating the setting from a few choice words.)
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. (If you’re bored, so will the reader be. Make sure every sentence, every paragraph, every scene is advancing the story and ratcheting up the tension/conflict. Keep the reader turning pages.)
Leonard’s most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
"If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” (Enough said.)
― Elmore Leonard
Are you entering any writing contests this year? Have you been given a pithy piece of advice that has made your writing better? I’d love to hear it!
“Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing” With Erica Vetsch’s comments in red.
1. Never open a book with weather. (Just don’t. It’s the epitome of cliché)
2. Avoid prologues. (Most of the time, using a prologue means you’re starting the story in the wrong place, you fear your opening isn’t compelling enough to stand alone, or you’re trying to dump information on the reader that you think they should know, but you aren’t certain how to trickle in later.)
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. (It’s too distracting to have people cackling, chortling, growling, squeaking, etc.)
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely. (Let the dialogue and the mood you’ve created indicate the tone and tenor of the words being said. Use visceral and visual reactions rather than adverbs to show rather than tell the reader what’s going on.)
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. ( SO. MANY. EXCLAMATION. POINTS!!!!! I would venture to say that 95% of the contest entries I judge have a scattering of random exclamation points used with even the mildest dialogue. Fictional dialogue isn’t written like your text messages! Stop! Shouting! At! The! Reader! Because that’s what an exclamation point means in fiction. Someone actually screaming.)
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose." (Lazy, clichéd writing. If the reader can finish a sentence with a familiar phrase…dead as a __________ or quiet as a ____________ your writing is cliché. Freshen it up with a twist, or take that cliché up a notch. An illustration from author James Scott Bell: Instead of writing “She looked like a million bucks.” Write “She looked like a million bucks, tax-free.”)
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. (Dialects are exhausting to read. Sprinkle in enough for the reader to catch the flavor, but don’t belabor the point by dropping every g in -ing words or dropping all the ‘haitches’ in a British accent.)
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters. (Allow the reader to fill in some of the details. It invests the reader in the character as they imagine them. A few key descriptors will do. Don’t make a catalog list of features, mannerisms, dress, etc.)
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things. (The days of the ten-page description of a sunset died with Nathaniel Hawthorne. Today’s readers won’t sit still for lengthy descriptions like this. Instead, have your character interact with the setting with a few tiny hints. If you say your heroine walked to the window and pulled aside the calico curtain, the reader will fill in the surroundings of what they think a room with calico curtains looks like. Likewise, you could have your heroine walk to the window and pull aside the velvet drape, and an entirely different image of a room appears. Either way, you've allowed the reader to invest in the scene, creating the setting from a few choice words.)
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. (If you’re bored, so will the reader be. Make sure every sentence, every paragraph, every scene is advancing the story and ratcheting up the tension/conflict. Keep the reader turning pages.)
Leonard’s most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
"If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” (Enough said.)
― Elmore Leonard
Are you entering any writing contests this year? Have you been given a pithy piece of advice that has made your writing better? I’d love to hear it!
Newly returned from finishing school, Lady Juliette Thorndike is ready to debut in London society. Due to her years away, she hasn't spent much time with her parents, and sees them only as the flighty, dilettante couple the other nobles love. But when they disappear, she discovers she never really knew them at all. They've been living double lives as government spies--and they're only the latest in a long history of espionage that is the family's legacy.
Now Lady Juliette is determined to continue their work. Mentored by her uncle, she plunges into the dangerous world of spy craft. From the glittering ballrooms of London to the fox hunts, regattas, and soirees of country high society, she must chase down hidden clues, solve the mysterious code her parents left behind, and stay out of danger. All the while, she has to keep her endeavors a secret from her best friend and her suitors--not to mention nosy, irritatingly handsome Bow Street runner Daniel Swann, who suspects her of a daring theft.
Can Lady Juliette outwit her enemies and complete her parents' last mission? Or will it lead her to a terrible end?
The Debutante's Code is now out in the world! You can get your copy HERE: https://amzn.to/3GQnoZt Or wherever you buy your fiction!
Best-selling, award-winning author Erica Vetsch loves Jesus, history, romance, and sports. She’s a transplanted Kansan now living in Minnesota, and she is married to her total opposite and soul mate! When she’s not writing fiction, she’s planning her next trip to a history museum and cheering on her Kansas Jayhawks and New Zealand All Blacks. You can connect with her at her website, www.ericavetsch.com where you can read about her books and sign up for her newsletter, and you can find her online at https://www.facebook.com/EricaVetschAuthor/ where she spends way too much time!
Thank you, Erica, for such great advice! I'm saving it and making it into a revision checklist. I love checklists!
ReplyDeleteI'm entering the Love Inspired Author Search. Again. When I entered a couple of years ago, the feedback that I got was that they liked my voice and story concept, but thought the plot was episodic and weren't going to pursue publication.
I took that feedback to heart and have spent the last couple of years learning about plot, story structure, and how to write a good synopsis, with the synopsis part being the most difficult of the three. I synthesized what I learned into a causality worksheet (did I mention that I loved checklists?) to make sure that my plotlines were lined up like dominoes and ready to fall continuously from beginning to end in my story.
One of the hard things about this writing adventure is that you don't know what you don't know until someone points out that you don't know it. It often feels like banging my head against a brick wall until the wall moves. Lol! I just hope publication comes before brain damage!
Terri, I know exactly what you mean. Been there, done that. I kept wishing someone would just give me a checklist of all the things I needed to know/learn. The truth is, though, that we never stop learning. We just have to keep putting our work out there and remain teachable. Wishing you the best.
DeleteThank you so much, Mindy! It's stuff like that that keeps me coming back to Seekerville - the kindness, the encouragement. Lol! The reassurance that I might actually be a writer engaged in a legitimate endeavor, not some loon living in my basement, playing with my imaginary friends all day.
DeleteCongratulations on not quitting! I hope this list proves helpful, and that your manuscript finds favor with the editors at LI.
DeleteWhat Mindy said. It's always a learning curve!
DeleteSo much of this makes sense. And yes, it's the common stuff you find in writing contests and in some indie books that kind of shouts "new at this craft, don't hate me forever" in big, broad terms.
ReplyDeleteI use exclamation points in children's speech and old ladies talking because it absolutely works in those cases. The littles around me may be skeptics of some things but when they're excited they talk! like! this! And it's absolutely amusing.... but that's the only exception I make to the exclamation point rule.
The dialogue tag thing was a discussion last night when I mentioned that no one giggles in my books. Or chuckles. Or groans...
Now they might groan out a reply from the mortal wound they've just suffered, but they don't "I can't do this," she groaned.
I just cringe at the thought.
But she might be a groaner/whiner/complainer so I would do this instead.
Cass wasn't just a whiner.
She was an A-1, first-class, certified to be one-of-a-kind complainer, and having listened to her moans and groans for the first forty years of our lives, I'd learned to block it out. It's a skillset I value.
I like creative ways of setting personality, and working in that mix of lyrical and conversational English works for me. I think I probably talk the same way, so it's like a Ruthy lecture that PEOPLE PAY TO READ!!!!
#BONUS!!!!
Well said, Ruthy. And you do write totally in your own voice. When I read your stories, I can totally hear you saying these things!
DeleteI'm hoping that's a good thing.... Or simply lack of talent???? (LAUGHING!!!!) :)
DeleteThis list is perfect! All these things tend to just pour out for me when I'm doing my first draft (cliches, and descriptions, and all that), like I am right now, but if I can shore up some of these things now, the editing process should be a lot less painful, right? Here's to hoping that's true.
ReplyDeleteThank you! (And I promise those are the last exclamation points I will write today. LOL)
I love exclamation points in emails, texts, blog comments! !!!!! :)
DeleteI think it's okay to just spill out a first draft onto the page with whatever slapdash method works for you, as long as you're prepared for the edits that will really polish it up. However, if you can also be cognizant of things you know you will have to edit later, you can often take care of the problem as you write instead.
Either way, you've fixed it before submitting it, so whatever works for you...works! :)
This a fabulous list, Erica! Even if I found myself thinking, "Hmm... Do I do that?" on a couple of them. Now I have to go back and check. But this is a perfect checklist for those entering contests. Perhaps for all writers no matter where they are in their writing journey. Well done, my friend.
ReplyDeleteI did the same, Mindy! Esp. checking for the 'leave out the bits readers tend to skip' part. :)
DeleteThis is a great post, Erica. I am going to print it out and save it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi, Sandy! I'm glad you found the list helpful. I love finding gems like this that say far better than I could what I am trying to teach. :)
DeleteHi Erica, I'm going to print this and use it to revise my stories and to enter contests. Hope your latest book does well. As I typed this, I kept putting exclamation points and remembering what the lists says taking them out! I never knew that rule of using them.
ReplyDeleteI scatter them like confetti in my emails and texts and blog comments, but in a manuscript...nope! Reserve those for very special occasions, or they lose their punch.
DeleteErica, you and Elmore are a great team. Such an excellent post. And, yikes, I do start books with the weather! Shame on me.
ReplyDeleteLOL, it's a quick way to ease into a story, but maybe not the best way to get that reader turning pages.
DeleteI haven't read Elmore in a few years. Perhaps I should pick up one of his stories.
DeletePS: I relooked some of my openings. I don't intro with weather, but weather plays into those first few pages...a storm, high winds, dark skies...they set the tone. WHEW! Maybe Elmore won't slap my hand. :)
Thank you Erica for this post. I'm printing it out to go in an editing file. I've only recently started working on my WIP again after many years of not writing. I'm considering entering the Love Inspired Author Search as well but not sure I'm far enough along in my studies of the craft to do so. I guess there's only one way to find out ha. I have a small wholesale goat milk soap business and also keep my grandbabies lots as well so I'm trying to decide whether or not I'll have time to finish a manuscript by August for the contest before entering. I'm super excited to be working on this again.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, picking up the threads of your story again! And you're right, you won't know until you try!
DeleteI'm not a writer, but I'm keeping this post! It is excellent advice, and who knows, I just may need it sometime. I also value your thoughts, and I'm a huge fan! Blessings!!
ReplyDeleteWell, to me you are, of course a legend. But I was a little surprised to see you saying so right there in print!!!
ReplyDeleteIt got my attention though.
My favorite piece of pithy writing advice. The Best Writing is Re-writing.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Mary!
Delete