Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules For Novel Writing

[Paul Pless]

Read it.

speaking of. . .
i bet there's a subreddit on this topic

[HRDavies]

Word repetition is an edit that is rarely mentioned.

That's a sentencce that does not make sense (repetition cannot be an edit, they are two different things) but for the moment, same rule applies to you, mine hair. Toss up your two paragraphs.

Chipskiff set up a fair challenge, meet it or keep silence ....

[HRDavies]

Repeated words are found, and the passage is then edited to remove the repetition. Re-read my post.

If you can't expfress yourself clearly the first time, it's not my problem that your intent is lost.

Cutting gears pays your rent, and copy editing mine.

Ah, so that explains the lamentable state of so much dreck that gets published ! Congratulations !

[Paul Pless]

^and he's not quite hip

[HRDavies]

HRD, you are trying too hard.

Still waiting for your contribution, monsewer.

[WI-Tom]

^and he's not quite hip

I'd say that's about right.

[Landrith]

I utilize the philosophy behind the O.E.D. Since I could not access the full version online, I would put a spelling or application of part of a sentence and search it on Google to see how reputable other publications were that used the spelling or sentence structure the same way as I was planning to.

I use MS Word often and my specialized or trade writing often conflicts with the built in Microsoft dictionary. Of course, for my beloved Bilge shippies, its always my best late night thumb typing on a cell phone where I can't see the screen clearly...

[Dan McCosh]

Never edited a novel, but did spend about 40 years editing newspaper columns, stories, and magazine articles. Usually, they ended up about 50% shorter within a few minutes. The original script for the Blues Brothers was about 400 pages long, and was cut to about 18 pages before shooting began. Leonard didn't actually do much analyzing. He once did say something like "There is only one plot--the good guy meets the bad guy on main street." Another one: "You leave out the dull parts." Worked for 45 novels.

[Chip-skiff]

Never edited creative stuff: poets and fiction writers are too argumentative. But I did have a side gig for years, rewriting and editing scientific reports and policy papers. Learned a lot about all sorts of things: ecology, wildlife biology, geology, hydrology, civil engineering, landscape architecture and planning, traffic management, legislative affairs, et many ceterae. The highest-paid job was an annotated bibliography on trout passage under roadways, for a consulting firm hired by a state highway department.

The biggest challenge was not so much usage as management. On work with several authors, I'd be getting changes around the clock. So I'd have to set an early deadline and stick to it.

Most of my clients were grateful to have their technical jargon rendered as good, solid English. A final test to was to read parts aloud. If you've ever sat at a conference and listened to presenters struggle through their own work, you'll get the importance of that. It also correlates with memory. Tortured prose tends not to stick.

[Jim Mahan]

The more I post here, the more I see opportunities for my own humility.