Strunk & White on exclamation points, from dim memory:

“Beware exclamation points. They grow cold.”

Concise, precise, and vivid. S&W rule.

[…] Great article by Elmore Leonard. (Via 43Folders.) […]

Elmore Leonard. Not Elmore James. Unless you’re being clever, and my coffee hasn’t kicked in enough for me to catch it. In which case, I take back this comment.

Oh my God! Best early morning typo ever!

Ha ha ha! Yeah, Elmore LEONARD.

I particularly like the one about the exclamation marks. It’s my second-favorite punctuation mark, but please, people, restrain yourselves! (Oops! I mean… Oops.)

Hasn’t Neal Stephenson broken all 10 rules over and over with the Baroque Trilogy? Although I love Elmore Leonard’s spare and economic prose, wading through the minutia of a Stephenson epic is kind of like gorging oneself at 5 star resort buffet - unnecessary but quite tasty, even if it takes a while for it all to digest.

I don’t know Neal Stephenson, but I do think any accomplished prose writer can and should do what he or she likes, of course, but that’s not who I get this being directed at.

I’d say most of the smart “rule-breakers” are entirely aware of “the rules” and know exactly why they’re “breaking” them.

Makes me think of the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine marked every sentence with an exclamation point.

And simple words.

[…] If you’re a devotee of 43 Folders or Lifehacker then Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing is old news. If you’re not a devotee then I suggest you give them a once over. Leonard is a world class writer. If he speaks and you care about the written word then you should listen. Two of my favorites are: […]

Piers Anthony is an example of an individual who doesn’t think he is “breaking the rules”, because he has an entirely different set of rules. In his case, as he has described in one or more author’s notes, his using the word “said” more than once in a book is treated with the same level of scrutiny that Elmore Leonard throws out on exlamation points in his top 10 rules.

Whether you like Anthony’s novels or not, I think you’d be hard pressed to say that he seems “visible” in the stories because he’s avoiding using the word “said”. Yes, he avoids words like asseverated, but if you are keeping in synch with the character’s actions, you can get away with yelps or cries or other descriptive dialog words that don’t leave the reader wondering if the author used “said” so many times because they wrote their story on the bus and didn’t have access to their thesaurus at the time….

There is one problem with lists like these:

Hypochondria.

Reading this list will point out all sorts of things you shouldn’t do, putting them into your frame of reference for when you are writing, causing you to deploy them because you’re more likely to remember that you saw something than that you saw something you aren’t supposed to do.

I sat down and read a very long list of cliches to avoid in Sci-fi writing. Or science fiction, if you think sci-fi is derogatory. I then sat down to write a story, which encompassed quite a few of those cliches…. :)

I have a list of rules on how to generate creativity in writing at my blog Cosmos Blogmos.

I will now share a few here:

(1) start your story off with an implausible line, then end that first paragraph a million miles from where it began: “When they amputated my head, I thought I’d have trouble meeting women, but, boy, was I wrong!”

(2) use exclamation point (just one) whenever it seems natural to be excited about a statement, but don’t use them ever in sales writing, it will seem like hyperbole.

(3) never use the same word (aside from “the”, “a”, etc.) twice in an essay or story: eat, devour, consume, chow down, sink my teeth into, etc.

(4) keep a dictionary handy and deliberately use strange words no one understands, but use indirect definition, use the context to clarify beyond a shadow of a doubt what that word means.

I have many more guidelines that are very uncommon, but my geek neck is killing me, so go I must.

ta ta dee ay

it’s a it dat

1. Don’t use “text-align:center;”

Even if you’re Elmore Leonard.

[…] Elmore Leonard’s rules of writing. (Sadly not included: Don’t center your copy, since it makes it fucking hard to read.) Category | Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle (via 43 Folders)Winner, best business writing, February 2006: Annalee Newitz: “investors have turned their burning, collective gaze from the wastes of Mordor to the human world of Silicon Valley again” AlterNet: Son of Dot-ComMaybe all these folks are leaving technorati because the site sucks, and they couldn’t fix it. Valleywag: Jason DeFillippo walks out Technorati’s door with Niall Kennedy To the moon, Alice! India, China, Japan, EU all racing to return to the Moon: Shooting for the Moon, Once Again - Los Angeles Times Recycling … and screaming bikini girls. Girls Crushing Cars (via Grist) […]

[…] Here Elmore Leonard presents his “Ten Rules of Writing”. I note that both he and Stephen King are opposed to the use of adverbs. They also both, if my memory serves me correctly, warn writers to “Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue.” It is hard to argue with Leonard and King, but I’d like to propose one exception — “shouted.” (Via 43 folders.) Cat:  […]