How to Write a Novel – Ten Rules of Writing

I’m closing in on the end of my latest novel and as always during this stage, I’ve begun to think about the editing process in earnest. When I first started out I would edit each piece of work as I went along. This was both time consuming and frustrating. My creative side was pushing to move ahead while the editor in me wanted to fix every single paragraph until it was just right. By the time that happened, my muse had gone to sleep, convinced that I’ve never get to the next paragraph. And trust me, waking her up again was always a bitch.

After finishing my second novel, I learned to ignore that need to make everything perfect and learned to simply drive forward with the storyline. Getting the main story out of my head and onto paper (or in my case, onto the computer screen) was of primary importance – I knew I could always go back and fix things later. This helped me generate a more exciting work (as my own excitement was high while writing it) and kept the creative spirit going strong. It also cut my first draft time in half. I can’t imagine going back and doing it the other way now.

But once that first draft is done, it is time to examine it with a critical eye and clean up the mess. I’ve made a number of notes to myself over the years that cover this stage, reminders to watch for this or that, so that each manuscript is as good as I can get it to be. Some of these suggestions come from writers with far more experience than I – suggestions culled from great books like LESSONS LEARNED FROM A LIFETIME OF WRITING by David Morrel and ON WRITING by Stephen King. Earlier this week I was reading over one such piece, Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing, and thought I would share his suggestions, along with my own success or failure in these areas, with you as this month’s essay.

Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing

1. Never open a book with weather. I’ve never done this, which means it’s so far so good.

2. Avoid prologues. Okay, so I knew my success rate couldn’t last. I just didn’t think I’d get voted off the island this quickly. My novel HERETIC opens with a prologue. Leonard goes 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. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. I agree wholeheartedly with this statement and do my best to avoid the temptation to do otherwise. 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. I recently spent an entire coaching session with a writer client dealing with just this issue. I still fall victim to it myself occasionally, but it will be one of the major mistakes I’ll be scouring the current work in progress for once I get into the editing stage.

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. Keep your exclamation points under control. While I often use them in email (no, I don’t have a clue why!) I don’t struggle with this one too much in my fiction.

6. 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 debut novel was plagued with it. “All hell broke loose” is far too cliché for anyone to be using, even us horror types.

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. I don’t have an ear for languages, so I don’t fall victim to this temptation. If you are going to use dialect, it has always been my belief that it should be used for the first line or two of dialogue to establish the fact that there is a difference in speech patterns, but after that the dialogue should be writing plainly so the reader doesn’t struggle trying to figure out just what is being said.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters. Again, I agree with this rule wholeheartedly. The problem, I think, is in defining just what “detailed” means. How much is too much? I’m not sure I have a written answer for that. I know when I become uncomfortable with description, but I’m not certain I could explain just where that cliff edge actually is.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things. The reader’s imagination can fill in so many more details than the writer needs to and it behooves all of us to remember this. Of course, see #8 above for the particular issues this raises.

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. The first time I read this I laughed aloud. It is such a true statement. I know I do it – skim through certain sections when the writer has lost me (usually in the midst of an overdose of details) – but identifying just when and where sections should be cut is difficult. This is just one of the reasons I appreciate my editor so much.

So there you have it. Ten Rules of Writing that all of us can benefit from reviewing on a regular basis.