"Don't use an adverb to modify 'said.' 'He said dismissively.'... That's the author talking."
- Elmore Leonard
This is a quote from American author Elmore Leonard, who wrote such novels as Get Shorty and Mr. Majestyk, and the short story 3:10 to Yuma, to name a few. All of these have been adapted into big screen Hollywood films.
I was watching a video of him talking about writing and this particular quote really stood out to me. How many times do I write my story rather than let my characters tell it? I hope not very often, but I fear I do this a lot more than I care to realize.
What about you? Guilty as charged?
I wonder if instead you should say something descriptive like "he said, rolling his eyes and snorting."
ReplyDeleteBTW...thanks for clearing things up regarding Corn on Skip Beat. I've actually read up through Volume 24 now so I'm ahead of my reviewing schedule. So I understand the significance, but it sure took a long time to be clear. I do love how she mixed up Kuon with Corn
@Alison: Yeah, Ren's real name is Kuon and Kyoko was thinking he said "Corn," which is hilarious! She is such a silly girl, lol.
DeleteThis is the one lesson that I've actually take on board! But to be honest when I'm reading, I don't find anything wrong with it. In fact I quite like it if it's not used too often. But then again I'm a pretty lazy reader so I tend to like authors to tell me how to think!
ReplyDelete@Lan: It's just some advice from a guy who takes his writing pretty seriously. It's still a good rule of thumb to use more often than not, I think.
DeleteYep, that's me!! It's the sort of thing that I have to edit out of my writing, because I usually don't know I'm doing it when I actually write. :) I do use adverbs though. I try to limit the number, and my editor is good at flagging them, but sometimes you just need one!
ReplyDelete@Camille: I never notice it, either and I like to use adverbs, but only very carefully. If they're not used in lazy way, then I think they're good to use.
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