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[BlueasJim]

http://www.kabedford.com/archives/000013.html

I found this interesting, and I have always enojoyed Leonard's dialogue.

[Kody Boye]

Avoiding prologue is rather pointless, because a prologue can open a book if done well.

Not using something other than said for dialogue gets redundant once in a while.

Using a verb to modify said is something I do a lot.

A lot of the stuff he has there I disagree with. I don't describe my characters a whole bunch, but there has to be some bit of description for them. I also use different things than just 'said' for dialogue. I can understand why he would have it confused, but that's just not me.

[Leah]

A lot of the stuff he mentions I've heard elsewhere. I remember Stephen King mentioning his hatred of adverbs in On Writing in particular, but all ten points sound familiar, and I do try to adhere to these (and other) rules when I'm writing.

[Matthew]

Twain didn't care much for adverbs either:

I am dead to adverbs; they cannot excite me. To misplace an adverb is a thing which I am able to do with frozen indifference; it can never give me a pang. ... There are subtleties which I cannot master at all,--the confuse me, they mean absolutely nothing to me,--and this adverb plague is one of them. ... Yes, there are things which we cannot learn, and there is no use in fretting about it. I cannot learn adverbs; and what is more I won't.

[Lord Anubis]

First writing conference I ever went to an editor told me the same thing about "said".  Said is invisible.  If you use said, readers will just move on to what your characters are saying without a second thought.

I got to hear Paul La Brutto speak a few months back (well, almost a year now), and one of his great rules-of-thumb was one adverb per page, four adjectives per page.

[Thom Brannan]

Robert B. Parker rarely varies from 'said,' but when he does, it's usually entertaining.

"Shut up," I explained.

i don't follow a lot of Elmore Leonard's rules because i don't want to write like Elmore Leonard. don't get me wrong, he's got tons of fans and a bunch of his stuff has been made into movies, but his prose just doesn't do it for me. i'd rather read Mickey Spillane or Joe R. Lansdale any day.