Subtitle: With Quite A Bit of Help From Elmore Leonard (1925 – 2013.) 😀

A Well-Known Elmore Leonard tale

Those of you who know (which I imagine is quite a few), will know that the title quote, “If it sounds like writing”, is half of a very famous observation by Mr Leonard, to the effect that:

“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

The trick, of course, is working out when it sounds like writing, because sometimes we need distance to do that. One way to gain that distance is by laying the manuscript aside for a time, whether hours, days, or even months (or years — like Tolkien leaving The Lord of the Rings at Balin’s Tomb until after World War 2 ended), before revisiting it.

A ca. 5-year hiatus

In my experience, though, the most surefire way to detect whether my writing is on point, is to read the material aloud. Reading aloud quickly highlights any infelicities around narrative flow, unrealistic dialogue, and unnecessary exposition. So if in any doubt at all, I always read any tricky passages aloud. And if time and the fates allow, will try and read the entire book through to get the final draft.

Reading aloud *was* part of that worldbuilding …

Yep, that’s from go-to-whoa, which was not so daunting a feat with Thornspell, but an altogether different proposition for Daughter of Blood. #JustSaying 😉

…and played a big part in Daughter, too.

And of course, something always gets missed—but having done my best, angsting about that would make me a perfectionist, or even a control freak, and I wouldn’t want to go there.

Speaking of perfection, if you haven’t read The Idea of Perfection by Kate Greville, do consider checking it out. It’s contemporary realism set in small-town Australia. I loved it.