At the time I begin writing a novel, the last thing I want to do is follow a plot outline. To know too much at the start takes the pleasure out of discovering what the book is about.
Elmore LeonardRead
I think the best advice I give is to try not to write. Try not to overwrite, try not to make it sound too good. Just use your own voice. Use your own style of putting it down.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of authenticity in writing rather than striving for perfection.
Elmore Leonard advises writers to focus on their unique voice and style rather than overthinking their writing or trying to conform to overly polished standards. This approach encourages genuine expression and creativity, suggesting that the best writing comes from being true to oneself.
Themes
WritingAuthenticityVoiceStyleCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a writing workshop to encourage budding authors.
More from Elmore Leonard
All quotes →If you take a few days to write an outline, you're just making up scenes that you think will work, that you think will be interesting. But as you write it, other ideas occur - better ideas that have to do with what you're writing.
Elmore LeonardRead
A friend of mine who is in the publishing business knew I was writing a book, and he said, 'Have you said anything yet about the good guy? Because I know you spend so much time with the bad guys.' Because they're fun. So then you have to make the good guy fun, in order to compete. That's the challenge.
Elmore LeonardRead
Really, when I write a book I'm the only one I have to please. That's the beauty of writing a book instead of a screenplay.
Elmore LeonardRead
Sometimes female characters start out as the wife or girlfriend, but then I realize, 'No, she's the book,' and she becomes a main character. I surrender the book to her.
Elmore LeonardRead
I really - I don't take my work that seriously, and I think that's what keeps me loose. If I try to write, if I catch myself trying to write, I'll fall right on my face. I'll see it. If I see in the prose that I'm - 'Boy, look at me writing,' I rewrite it. I rewrite it because I don't, because I think it's distracting.
Elmore LeonardRead
Similar quotes
When the artist finds himself he is lost. The fact that he has succeeded in never finding himself is regarded by Max Ernst as his only lasting achievement.
Max ErnstRead
In my brain were stored a thousand pictures.
Hermann HesseRead
Au revoir, jewelled alligators and white hotels, hallucinatory forests, farewell.
J. G. BallardRead
Nobody sang better than my mom. That's why I've never even thought of singing for singing sake. I've always thought of a song as an acting piece, as a way to say something.
Liza MinnelliRead
Talking about dreams is like talking about movies, since the cinema uses the language of dreams; years can pass in a second, and you can hop from one place to another. It's a language made of image. And in the real cinema, every object and every light means something, as in a dream.
Federico FelliniRead
All art is contemporary, if it's alive, and if it's not alive, what's the point of it?
David HockneyRead