Sunday, March 02, 2014

The Writing Life: Elmore Leonard

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6 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

In listening to such commentary it often strikes me how weird I am and maybe just not suited to be a writer. For example, he says that readers will skip through pieces of a book but won't skip dialogue. Dialogue is the stuff I'm most likely to skip and I often skip quite a bit of it. It generally bores me. I used to simply put down any book immediately that I picked up that started with dialogue,although I've relaxed that restriction now because I want to know what it is about dialogue that attracts 'most' readers.

I also found his mom's aversion to obscenities interesting. My mom had the same aversion but she never got over it. I suspect this is one of the reasons she wouldn't display my books on her bookshelves.

11:29 AM
RJR said...

I NEVER skip dialogue. Maybe it's because I use so much of it in my own work.

RJR

5:09 PM
pattinase (abbott) said...

Since I always assume that dialogue is there to advance the story, I never skip it either.

My Mom also hated obscenities so maybe it's a generational thing.

5:13 PM
David Cranmer said...

I always learn something from EL.

4:03 AM
David Cranmer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
4:03 AM
Anonymous said...

Patti - I always like listening to what the great authors have had to say. And Leonard had a lot of wisdom to share.

9:18 AM

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