Them's Some Bad-Ass Banditos

Westerns really aren't my thing. I don't read them much, but I do enjoy a good one when I watch one. "3:10 to Yuma" was the last one I really liked and I do want to see the remake of  "True Grit".

I just read an excellent 600 word Western themed story by Court Merrigan over at Thrillers, Killers n Chillers. It's titled " Thirty Miles North of Cheyenne". It's more of a scene, but from the get-go, this one had my undivided attention, for the quality writing, suspense, and the imagery. I give the author mucho credit for taking a typical Western scenario that has been done a million times and would have most rolling their eyeballs, and pulling it off so well, especially in only 600 words.

Check out "Thirty Miles North of Cheyenne"  HERE

Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules to Writing

Elmore Leonard is one of my favorite writers. I favor his crime novels more than his Western themed ones, but that is just me and no matter what the genre, his stuff is top notch. It is hard to find an author who writes dialogue better than him. Listed below are 10 rules he came up with. These are just the title of each rule, and he drills dowm on each one HERE

Keep in mind this is just suggested advice on my part that I found very helpful, and they are subjective. I'm thinking Stephenie Meyer might disagree, but...

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than ''said'' to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb ''said'' . . .
5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
6. Never use the words ''suddenly'' or ''all hell broke loose.''
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.