Visit the Writer in Residence blog for details.
There's nothing quite as valuable as consultation with a Writer in Residence, and this Fall the Calgary Public Library is thrilled to host Gail Bowen.
Writers Retreat will retreat for the time being. Check back in the new year when we'll pick up where we left off. Until then, don't pass up an opportunity to work with one of Canada's premier crime novelists, and get familiar with Gail Bowen's books (linked to the catalogue below...):
The Nesting Dolls (2010)
Love You To Death (2010)
The Brutal Heart (2008)
The Endless Knot (2006)
The Further Investigations of Joanne Kilbourn (2006, Omnibus)
The Early Investigations of Joanne Kilbourn (2004, Omnibus)
The Last Good Day (2004)
The Glass Coffin (2002)
Dancing In Poppies (2002)
Burying Ariel (2000)
Verdict In Blood (1998)
A Killing Spring (1996)
The Wandering Soul Murders (1992)
Murder at the Mendel (1991)
Deadly Appearances (1990)
Conference and Founding Convention
Oct. 07-11, 2010
The University of Calgary / The Banff Centre for the Literary Arts
Teaching the subject of Creative Writing has become a vibrant industry on campuses and in communities all across Canada, and the challenges of this discipline go far beyond the familiar question: “Can writing be taught?” The proliferation of this activity means that more and more teachers of Creative Writing (be they full-time or part-time, in a “for-credit” or “non-credit” program) are now facing the challenge of such pedagogy without the benefit of representation by a professional organization that can offer them support. The unique issues of education in Canada, along with the historic struggle for national cultural identity, pose uniquely Canadian challenges and call for a Canadian organization.
Toward this end, a committee of instructors affiliated with Creative Writing at the Banff Centre, the University of Calgary, and York University have sought to redress the need for such representation by organizing a four-day conference, to be jointly hosted in Banff and Calgary — a conference at which attendees will address the challenges of both the practice and the pedagogy of Creative Writing in Canada. The conference will provide specialists in Creative Writing with an opportunity to confer so that they might, by the end of these proceedings, inaugurate the establishment of a professional association for Canadian Creative Writers and Writing Programs (CCWWP) — an association that might represent the concerns of this cultural group. The conference will provide an unprecedented opportunity for both academic communities and artistic communities to cooperate in the timely creation of a mutually beneficial coalition that will advance the field of Creative Writing itself.
The rapid and wide-ranging positive response by Creative Writing professionals (be they writers, critics, teachers, or students) to the organizing committee’s call has demonstrated the urgent need for such an organization. The conference will open on October 7, 2010 at the University of Calgary, and then transfer to the Banff Centre from October 9 to 11. The conference will feature keynote presentations by Greg Hollingshead, Aritha van Herk, and Rosemary Sullivan.
Sincerely,
The CCWWP organizing committee
For more information on the conference, please visit: http://english.ucalgary.ca/CCWWP
You can register for the conference at: www.regonline.ca/CCWWP2010
I love to people watch. At the grocery store, library or park, I am fascinated by what other people wear or say or do. I am always on the hunt for those small details to knit into a character. How they carry themselves can speak volumes about how their day is going. If you choose to listen, their choice of purse, shoes or glasses are whispering clues about their attitudes to money, age and fashion.
Exercise: Spend an hour in a public place – mall, park, library, anywhere folks pass through. Take a notebook and collect all the significant details you can find. The Betty Boop key chain clutched at the checkout, the way she flips though a magazine and rarely stops to read or the slow rolling gait of the 300lb man – all of this can be grist for your mill.
Create an image bank on your computer where you store your gems and refer back to it regularly so your work has the specification to make it ring true.
Aritha van Herk
Saturday, August 28, 2010
3pm
Rose Room, Main Level of the Alexandra Centre Society
922, 9th Ave SE, Calgary
Writing: The Dubious Occupation
Writing. It’s a dubious occupation, mostly one word after another, bum in the chair, keep up the keyboard dance until your fingers go numb. But it is also a leap toward the unknown; it is a journey to a distant destination; and it is a recognition of the value of this small but particular corner of the world.
We write despite the roadblocks that get in the way of writing. We write despite writing’s masquerade as a quotidian act. Because language is a human tool, everyone thinks writing is easy, but very few can write well. We write because this is more than a profession or an occupation. This dubious occupation is how we meet the challenge of bringing language and life together.
AWCS Members: Free
Non-Members: $5
(Please RSVP by email to awcs@telusplanet.net)
Aritha van Herk is the author of five novels: Judith, The Tent Peg, No Fixed
Address (nominated for the Governor General’s Award for fiction), Places Far
From Ellesmere (a geografictione) and Restlessness. Her wide-ranging critical
work is collected in A Frozen Tongue and In Visible Ink. Her irreverent but relevant
history of Alberta, Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta, won the
Grant MacEwan Author’s Award for Alberta Writing. That book frames the
Glenbow Museum’s permanent exhibition on Alberta history; her latest book,
Audacious and Adamant: the Story of Maverick Alberta, accompanies the
exhibit. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and she is active in
local, national, and international literary and cultural life. She is University
Professor and Professor of English at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, CANADA.
Alexandra Writers Centre Society
922, 9th Ave SE, Calgary, AB T2G 0S4
403.264.4730
awcs@telusplanet.net
www.alexandrawriters.org
Richard Ford is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel The Sportswriter and its sequels, Independence Day and The Lay of the Land, and the short story collection Rock Springs, which contains several widely anthologized stories.
Ford received a B.A. from Michigan State University. Having enrolled to study hotel management, he switched to English. After graduating he taught junior high school in Flint, Michigan, and enlisted in the US Marines but was discharged after contracting hepatitis. At university he met Kristina Hensley, his future wife; the two married in 1968.
Despite mild dyslexia, Ford developed a serious interest in literature. He has stated in interviews that his dyslexia may, in fact, have helped him as a reader, as it forced him to approach books at a slow and thoughtful level.
Ford briefly attended law school but dropped out and entered the creative writing program at the University of California, Irvine, to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree, which he received in 1970. Ford chose this course simply because, he confesses, “they admitted me. I remember getting the application for Iowa, and thinking they’d never have let me in. I’m sure I was right about that, too. But, typical of me, I didn’t know who was teaching at Irvine. I didn’t know it was important to know such things. I wasn’t the most curious of young men, even though I give myself credit for not letting that deter me.” As it turned out, Oakley Hall and E. L. Doctorow were teaching there, and Ford has been explicit about his debt to them.
Ford lived for many years on lower Bourbon Street in the French Quarter and then in the Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana, where his wife Kristina was the executive director of the city planning commission. He now lives in East Boothbay, Maine. Since 2008 Ford has been Adjunct Professor at the Oscar Wilde Centre with the School of English at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, and teaches on the Masters programme in creative writing.
But you don't have to go to Dublin to learn his 10 Rules for Writing Fiction because he gave them to The Guardian this March.
1 Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer's a good idea.
2 Don't have children.
3 Don't read your reviews.
4 Don't write reviews. (Your judgment's always tainted.)
5 Don't have arguments with your wife in the morning, or late at night.
6 Don't drink and write at the same time.
7 Don't write letters to the editor. (No one cares.)
8 Don't wish ill on your colleagues.
9 Try to think of others' good luck as encouragement to yourself.
10 Don't take any *** if you can possibly help it.
The Library has a full selection of Richard Ford's work in a variety of formats (book, book CD, e-audiobook and talking book for the special needs community) Here is a small sample of what we offer -
The Lay of the Land [electronic resource] by Ford, Richard, 1944-
A Multitude of Sins : Stories by Ford, Richard, 1944-
Women with Men: [jealous] [sound recording] by Ford, Richard, 1944-
Independence Day [sound recording] by Ford, Richard, 1944-
With Calgary’s short summer, none of us really want to start thinking about Labour Day weekend plans. Making plans for September can wait until September. In July and August, we tend to focus on soaking up as much sun as we can. Therefore, why not keep the first weekend in September open, wide open, to write a novel?
Arsenal Pulp Press’ annual 3-Day Novel contest, conceptualized in 1977, is running as strong as ever. The idea, which attracts writers from all over the world, is fairly self-explanatory – write a novel in 3 days, the best one gets published. For full details, including a survival guide and registration, it’s best that you visit the 3-Day Novel website.
The challenge to produce a novel in 72 hours doesn’t appeal to everyone. I personally prefer the slow, calculated approach to writing, whereby spending an entire night on one paragraph is a worthy and necessary use of time. That said, I still try to participate in this event every year. I don’t actually expect to create a masterpiece in three days. I often don’t even bother to send in the unfinished mess. But when I wake from the zombie-like haze of my writing marathon after labour day weekend, I have a fresh stack of ideas to work on. Even though my 3-Day Novel was a failure, I have to be grateful to the folks at Arsenal Pulp for putting me up to the challenge, taking me out of my comfort zone, and leaving me with a clump of clay to widdle down at my own pace.
For a sample of what this contest produces, the library has copies of past 3-Day Novel winners.
Click on the covers to find them in our catalogue.
These will make great summer reads in preparation for your own 3-Day Novel. For more summer reading ideas, check out Calgary Public Library's Adult Summer Reading Adventure... BOOKED ALL SUMMER.
If you’re always on the lookout for writing contests and calls for submission to send your work to, then you probably already know about [placesforwriters]. It’s a wonderful resource of postings for writers of any and all genres with a valuable Canadian slant. I’m not sure how long ‘places’ has had its Facebook page going, but it’s new to me and it offers a great way to access its information.
Whether you love (and/) or hate Facebook, it does connect people to information that may otherwise go unnoticed. And writers seeking publication shouldn’t let any opportunity go to waste. Every time I check up on [places for writers] I wonder what postings I’ve missed. Now I can quickly check on it whenever I log in to Facebook. This variant form also gives it a more personal feel with interesting discussions and helpful advice. So go to http://www.placesforwriters.com/ and click the Facebook link to make double sure you aren’t missing great opportunities to submit your work.
'WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A NOVEL?'
'HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PLOT BEFORE YOU BEGIN?'
'HOW MUCH DO YOU DRAW FROM YOUR OWN LIFE WHEN CONSTRUCTING A CHARACTER?'
'WHEN/HOW DO YOU SHOW A DRAFT TO YOUR TRUSTED READERS?'
The questions Daniel Alarcon presents to 54 of the world's best novelists are questions any writer has encountered. Because there are no right answers, this book is definitely not a How-To manual. Alarcon subtitled the project "a novelist's handbook". The 'round-table' interview style of discussion was inspired by a process at 826 Valencia in San Franciso, headquarters of Mcsweeney's Quarterly Concern.
The list of contributing novelists is mouth-watering. To have the curtain pulled back (even a little) on the processes of these authors is not an opportunity to pass up...
MICHAEL CHABON, SUSAN MINOT, HARUKI MURAKAMI, MARIO VARGAS LLOSA, JENNIFER EGAN, AMY TAN, COLM TOIBIN, RICK MOODY, JONATHAN LETHEM, CLAIRE MESSUD, ALEKSANDER HEMON, STEPHEN KING... just to name a few.
The man who put this book together is worth checking out, as well. Daniel Alarcon is a Peruvian-American writer who has been named one of the best American novelists under 35 (GRANTA), and one of 39 best Latin American novelists under 39.
This poor character was written by someone who didn't invest any time in researching his name. For shame...
...A name lands in my lap, pre-packaged perfectly, representing a character so well that I have to laugh out loud at my own genius. This happened once... (maybe). In most cases, especially with peripheral persons in a novel or short story, nothing fits. Hours disappear filing through the alphabet, mouthing out syllables, waiting for lightning to strike. I don’t want the name to be utterly generic and forgettable, but I'm careful not to use a name that’s distracting, artificial, or downright stupid. And just because I like a name doesn't mean it's right for the story.
The problem is that dissatisfaction with a character’s name leads to a weak character, and that probably means I don’t know the character, or the story, well enough. Instead of going any further highlighting or bracketing the name, which is lazy and unfair to the trajectory of my narrative, it's time to figure out who this character really is.
A good place to start is with the library's collection of BABY NAME books. If you can't get past the idea of referring to a book intended for parenting (scary stuff!), there are some "name books" that don't talk about popularity, cuteness, or tease-potential. Click on these covers to find your copy:
Looking for region-specific naming resources? Consider checking out our Genealogy collection on the 4th Floor of Central library. These books are full of unusual names with historic significance. For example, I recently found a book titled Spanish Surnames in the Southwestern United States: a dictionary - it doesn't get more specific than that. The process of the search may not only lead to a perfect name, it may uncover narrative potential hiding deep in the story's conscious.
Putting in the work to get a character's name right is an important and rewarding research project. We have to live with our choice to the end. Just imagine literature without some of its great names. What if Doyle decided on, say, 'Sherman Hollister' instead of Sherlock Holmes? Would anyone have read Fight Club if Tyler Durden was named Tyler Donald?
Anne Enright was born in Dublin in 1962, studied English and Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, and went on to study for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. In 2007 she won the Man Booker Prize for The Gathering. But I like her best of because of the 10 rules for writing she gave to the Guardian newspaper.
1 The first 12 years are the worst.
2 The way to write a book is to actually write a book. A pen is useful, typing is also good. Keep putting words on the page.
3 Only bad writers think that their work is really good.
4 Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand.
5 Write whatever way you like. Fiction is made of words on a page; reality is made of something else. It doesn't matter how "real" your story is, or how "made up": what matters is its necessity.
6 Try to be accurate about stuff.
7 Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.
8 You can also do all that with whiskey.
9 Have fun.
10 Remember, if you sit at your desk for 15 or 20 years, every day, not counting weekends, it changes you. It just does. It may not improve your temper, but it fixes something else. It makes you more free.
Yesterday's weather by Enright, Anne, 1962-
The gathering by Enright, Anne, 1962-
The wig my father wore by Enright, Anne, 1962-
i-ROBOT Theatre
an original play inspired by i-ROBOT Poetry by Jason Christie...
"One of the risks of working in unusual spaces is that unforeseen circumstances will arise. i-ROBOT Theatre will happen, whether it's in the Seafood Market or elsewhere, and we appreciate all the work that the [Calgary Municipal Land Corporation] has done to get us this far."
- Mark Hopkins, Co-Artistic Director of Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre
_________________________________________
The important thing to take from this statement is that i-Robot Theatre “will happen”. For many Calgarians this is very exciting, and while the postponement is unfortunate, we continue to salivate for a chance to see Jason Christie’s poetry brought to life by the reliable people at Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre. Consistent with the line from i-Robot poetry: "It is a poor robot that blames its programming”, the collaborative team of local theatre artists isn’t whining or blame-gaming. The focus is on finding a home for a world of robots inspired by the former-Calgarian’s hilarious book of poetry. This is a world where “every machine has a personality and the streets swarm with androids, cyborgs, A.I.s and robots!... Your toaster is lovesick, your iPod refuses to play Nickelback and your garage door is secretly plotting against you.”
Until i-ROBOT Theatre finds space to live before its inevitable takeover of the city, keep checking www.swallowabicycle.com for updates, visit the i-ROBOT Blog, and pick up a copy of I-robot poetry from your local library. We only have 4 copies, so place your hold today. 
(More great work by Jason Christie, Canada Post, available at the library)
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian.
So it is no wonder when the Guardian newspaper asked significant writers to give their 10 rules of writing she was included. The following is her list -
1 Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can't sharpen it on the plane, because you can't take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils.
2 If both pencils break, you can do a rough sharpening job with a nail file of the metal or glass type.
3 Take something to write on. Paper is good. In a pinch, pieces of wood or your arm will do.
4 If you're using a computer, always safeguard new text with a memory stick.
5 Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.
6 Hold the reader's attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.) But you don't know who the reader is, so it's like shooting fish with a slingshot in the dark. What fascinates A will bore the pants off B.
7 You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: there's no free lunch. Writing is work. It's also gambling. You don't get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but essentially you're on your own. Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don't whine.
8 You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You've been backstage. You've seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.
9 Don't sit down in the middle of the woods. If you're lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.
10 Prayer might work. Or reading something else. Or a constant visualisation of the holy grail that is the finished, published version of your resplendent book.
The Calgary Public Library has Margaret Atwood's novels, short stories, poems, essays and children's books in its collection in several different formats (books, book CDs, electronic books) Below is a small selection. You can click on the links below to place a hold on the item or search under her name in the catalogue.
The year of the flood : a novel by Atwood, Margaret, 1939-
Payback [sound recording] : debt and the shadow side of wealth by Atwood, Margaret, 1939-
The Penelopiad : [the play] by Atwood, Margaret, 1939-
The door : poems by Atwood, Margaret, 1939-
Turns out that last blog was false – there is such a thing as “Writer’s Block” after all… It’s a radio show that airs every Tuesday evening on CJSW 90.9. 
If you want to connect with Calgary's literary scene, mark Tuesday nights, 8pm, for an enthusiastic insider look into the best of local (and far beyond) writerly news.
To let the ‘Block speak for itself…
"CJSW's weekly foray into literature just got a lot more local! New co-host Paul Kennett joins regular host Stephanie Weidmann to create a revamped literary program, focused on local events, writers, poets, publishers, while keeping an eye on the bigger literary picture across the country and around the world! Be sure to tune in to Writer's Block, 8-9pm Tuesday evenings, you won't be disappointed!"
Follow this link for more, including archived broadcasts.
For books from the show's recent guests, connect to the library catalogue:
Hiromi Goto Christian Bok
Clem Martini
(ghetto image courtesy of Google)
The next time you’re tempted to blame an inability to proceed with writing on an external theoretical condition, commonly known as a ‘Block’, it may be time to ask yourself how well you know your subject.
Anytime a writer whines about being ‘blocked’, they should really be thinking:
‘Research’
Don’t your characters and settings deserve more?
It just so happens that the library is the ultimate spot for doing research on any subject our world has to offer. If you haven’t taken a look at the resources on our E-Library (which all have incredibly friendly search functions and are FREE with your library card)... you really must.
Here's a few highlights:
Newspaper Direct Press Display
Nothing inspires like random news reports. Here are over 230 newspapers from around the world presented as soon as the edition is available. Includes all articles, pictures, advertisements, classifieds, and notices.
Consumer Health Complete
Is there a doctor in your story? Pull off a genuine diagnosis.
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
Understand your characters' mind using 550 peer-reviewed journals.
Masterfile Premier
Features thousands of full text book reviews, biographies and primary source documents as well as hundreds of reference and travel books. Offers PDF backfiles as far back as 1975.
Academic Search Elite
Scholarly collection provides full text journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study - including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts, literature, medical sciences and ethnic studies.
World Folklore Today
Festivals, holidays, traditional celebrations, rituals, beliefs, religions, myths, urban legends, foods, music, dance, fairy and folk tales, proverbs, and folk remedies that define cultures and societies.
If this world of information doesn't cure a writer's block, it may just be exhaustion. Take a nap?
(image courtesy of Google)
I subscribe to a weekly podcast called The Slate Cultural Gabfest. Each week writers Stephen Metcalf, Jody Rosen, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner discuss books, magazines, television, films, music and cultural phenomenons. I love this discussion and I am always learning about new writers or music. I love listening to podcasts because I am able to put them while I wash dishes or drive. If you’ve never tried listening to a podcast it’s easy and most are free. For instruction on how to listen to the Slate Cultural Gabfest go to this address: http://www.slate.com/id/2246617/
The reason I bring up the podcast is because last episode they discussed an article in the Guardian newspaper where they asked a variety of authors for their 10 rules of writing. What follows is a collection of entertaining, enlightening and sometime contradictory advice. The 2 part article can be viewed here http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one
Today I wanted to focus on Elmore Leonard’s 10 because the whole idea was inspired by his book The Ten Rules of Writing. So here from the Guardian article are Elmore Leonard’s 10.
Using adverbs is a mortal sin
1 Never open a book with weather. If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a character's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his book Arctic Dreams, you can do all the weather reporting you want.
2 Avoid prologues: they can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in non-fiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want. There is a prologue in John Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday, but it's OK because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: "I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks."
3 Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But "said" is far less intrusive than "grumbled", "gasped", "cautioned", "lied". I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.
4 Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said" . . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances "full of rape and adverbs".
5 Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.
6 Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose". This rule doesn't require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use "suddenly" tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.
7 Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won't be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavour of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories Close Range.
8 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants", what do the "American and the girl with him" look like? "She had taken off her hat and put it on the table." That's the only reference to a physical description in the story.
9 Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you’re Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.
10 Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
The following books are available in the Calgary Public Library collection. Click on the link to access them in our catalogue:
Elmore Leonard's 10 rules of writing by Leonard, Elmore, 1925-
Road dogs : [a novel] by Leonard, Elmore, 1925-
Arctic dreams : imagination and desire in a northern landscape by Lopez, Barry Holstun, 1945-
Sweet Thursday. -- by Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968
A bolt from the blue and other essays by McCarthy, Mary, 1912-1989.
I am Charlotte Simmons (mp3) by Wolfe, Tom
Close range : Wyoming stories by Proulx, Annie.
The year of the flood : a novel by Atwood, Margaret, 1939-
The short stories, volume II [sound recording] by Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961.
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