Read an interview with Elmore Leonard

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And was surprised to find out he never outlines. Plus, he gets most of his ideas from news stories and just lets her rip. He does research - mostly by talking with court people and law enforcement, but he says his idea for Out of Sight - and Karen Sisco - came from hearing a news story about six guys who broke out of a prison (tunneled). I dunno the story, but it was in the interview, so it must be true. Plus he actually has a friend named Chili Palmer (Get Shorty).
I'm so envious. Anybody out there find that Not Outlining works for you?
PS - I don't have a link, I read it in an actual magazine.

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[nq:1]And was surprised to find out he never outlines. Plus, he gets most of his ideas from news stories and ... that Not Outlining works for you? PS - I don't have a link, I read it in an actual magazine.[/nq]
Elmore Leonard is a real presence in the northern Detroit suburbs where I still have relatives, so everyone I know reads his books even if they don't like the genre, if only out of home-town loyalty.
I happen to love his stuff. He's got such a great voice not as campy as Carl Hiassen, but with an obvious affection for the strivers, tough guys and criminal idiots he writes about.
Anyway, I don't know if he still works this way, but he used to have this guy who was his research assistant. The guy liked to go to Florida, so that's why Leonard always has plots that involve Florida locations. Lots of the places he writes about he only knows from his writing-assistant's phone calls and photos.
I don't know about his outlining habits, but I believe it. Personally, I find that outlines help me a lot with screenwriting but get in the way with anything else. I had been using an old sci-fi screenplay as an outline for a novel, and realized after about 20 pages that it just doesn't work. I already had the basic story laid out in my head, and the existing screenplay just got in the way of writing it well in a different format.

What I do find useful is jotting down bits of dialogue that I think up but am not ready to use yet. So I end up with 3x5 cards full of dialog that serve as sort of character notes and signposts about where I'm going.

Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
A rose by any
other name would
smell as sweet.
Except maybe
"plastic rose".
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[nq:1]What I do find useful is jotting down bits of dialogue that I think up but am not ready to use yet. So I end up with 3x5 cards full of dialog that serve as sort of character notes and signposts about where I'm going.[/nq]
I do the same thing. Oh, and Elmore Leonard - who I agree is a very fun and entertaining writer - writes his tales on unlined yellow paper, longhand, and then types them up on his Selectric typewriter. No computer, at least not for writing.

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EL's world is a different one than from where we inhabit. As an established novelist, he makes his own rules for telling his story. He is not constrained to 120 pages, and every word that he writes will be read, whereas our words are transferred into images.

He can run long, he can ruminate, and every other indulgence that our blueprints can't afford. If you like some insight into his language, check out the PBS series, The Writing Code.

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[nq:1]I'm so envious. Anybody out there find that Not Outlining works for you?[/nq]
Yes.

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