The Official
Elmore Leonard Website

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

I think of a person who I presume will be the main character, in whatever kind of situation or job he’s in, whether he’s a high diver, a federal marshal, a guy who gets the stigmata, a hard sentencing judge who is a womanizer or the girl who wants to do stand up comedy. 

I fill in other characters that relate to what this main character is doing, what motivates them, what they like and what they don’t like, the kind of people they are, good or bad. I mix them up and see what happens.

I keep a notebook about my characters’ backgrounds and personalities, and sometimes write a few practice scenes from their past. 
I always write in scenes and develop the plot as I go along, I don’t outline. If I were to plot thirty chapters of scenes and narratives, it would be a waste of time because I know that when I get into the writing itself, I’m going to have better ideas.

I think of the book in three acts, each about 100 pages.  By the end of the first act, I know who all the characters are and their intentions.  Act two then takes some plotting to keep the action going.  By the time I’m 300 pages into the manuscript, I’m looking at the way the book could end.

I have to be satisfied with the ending even though my editor might say, “This book ends awfully abruptly.” And then I say, “But it’s over.”

I write to please myself.  I don’t worry about who’s going to read me.  I figure that there should be a few million people out there worldwide who think the way I do and if there are, and they get their hands on my book, they’ll read it and like it.