Elmore Leonard's Rules For Writing: Rules #2-4

2. Avoid prologues.

Prologues have generally gone out of fashion. They're still here and there in Fantasy and Science Fiction as a means of giving a quick insight into the past, but otherwise they can slow you down.

3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.

This is probably one of the worst things I've ever seen concerning writing. If you want to write a screenplay, write one. But his rules are based on trying to remove the author from the writing as much as possible. That's not why people read novels. When you write a screenplay, you want to give the actors and director as much latitude as possible. When you write a novel, you're the actor, director, editor, etc. all rolled into one.
Not only that, but honestly most books don't read like that. My advice is to look at your genre. Whatever it is you, write, pay attention to the general tone of successful books. Don't copy the style, per se, but pay attention. My novel would be very strange for my genre if I wrote dialogue like this.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”

See #3's commentary.
Topics: Writing , Author , Novel , Self-Editing , Elmore Leonard