Blog Tour - Do No Harm by L V Hay

Today I am pleased to be a stop on Orenda Book's  Blog Tour for L V Hay's new release ' Do No Harm'.

                                                                   

After leaving her marriage to jealous, possessive oncologist Maxwell, Lily and her six-year-old son have a second chance at happiness with headteacher Sebastian. Kind but vulnerable, Sebastian is the polar opposite of Maxwell, and the perfect match for Lily. After a whirlwind romance, they marry, and that’s when things start to go wrong…
Maxwell returns to the scene, determined to win back his family, and events soon spiral out of control. Lily and Sebastian find themselves not only fighting for their relationship, but also their lives…

Chilling, dark and terrifying, Do No Harm is a taut psychological thriller and a study of obsession, from one of the most exciting new voices in crime fiction.

Do No Harm is a great psychological thriller which kept me on the edge of my seat to the very end. It is a very well constructed novel which includes everything needed to make it a bestseller. This all begins with the fantastic cover design.

Lucy very cleverly entwines a couple of story lines which she brings together brilliantly which leads to an unpredictable and exciting story which comes to a satisfying ending which has left me eager to read more of Lucy's books. I really enjoyed the three voices within the narrative, all adding their own twists and turns throughout.

I am really pleased that Orenda Books arranged for me to host a guest post from Lucy V Hay to celebrate the publication and she tells my readers about her rules for writers in the style of Elmore Leonard :


Elmore Leonard’s Rules For Writers: The LV Hay version By @LucyVHayAuthor

In addition to my job as an author of novels like Do No Harm, I’m also a script reader. This means I read LOADS of screenplays - and now novels, too - for other writers every year, plus I also train other script readers.

This means I spend a lot of time looking at so-called ‘writing rules’ (I prefer to call them ‘best practices’), in order to help advise other writers solve their writing problems. One of the most useful – and short! – lists I’ve found is Elmore Leonard’s Top 10.

You will have likely come across it too, because it’s very popular online. This is because it’s short and to the point list, which any writer, new to pro, can follow. Anyway, here are Elmore Leonard’s rules, with my thoughts attached. Unless I say otherwise, my thoughts apply to both novels AND scripts. Enjoy!

1. Never open a book (or script!) with weather

Gotta agree with Elmore here. We might be British (and everyone knows we LOVE to go on and on and on about the weather!), but starting off with it is DULL. Starting with stuff like ‘It was a dark and stormy night’ is also a massive cliché, so avoid like the plague (haha!). VERDICT: Agree.

2. Avoid prologues

There was a while when prologues seemed fairly popular in both novels AND movies, but these days readers and audiences want to dive straight into the nitty-gritty. That said, if you have written a prologue, don’t panic – as long as it’s good, you can always re-label it ‘chapter one’! VERDICT: Agree, but you can cheat.

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

Obviously, you never ever use ‘said’ in a screenplay (though you would be surprised by how many screenwriters try!). But as far as novels go, this is an interesting one, because I started off thinking Elmore was wrong on this one: is ‘said’ REALLY far less ‘intrusive’ than ‘grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied’ (or similar)? Then I started actively looking for words that weren’t said and discovered, actually, they DO stick out far more. In fact, ‘said’ sticks out too – and very often, you don’t need it, either. Readers CAN follow dialogue without speech tags, so I would venture it’s a good idea to use ALL of them sparingly! This way you can use other words in speech tags for impact when you need to, without any problems. VERDICT: Yes AND No - down on ‘said’ as much as possible, too, then you can use whatever you want.

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

Ugh, I’m with Elmore Leonard – and Stephen King – all the way on the dreaded ‘ly’ words in ALL mediums. Hunt them down and KILL THEM! VERDICT: Yes to the max.

5. Keep your exclamation points under control

VERDICT: Again, yup. LISTEN!!!!!!!!!

6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose”

Points 1 and 5 on the list means this advice is self-explanatory. If we’re avoiding ‘ly’ words and cliches, you should never need to use them (unless there’s a specific point for them! Ooops!!! Overkill on the exclamation marks again). VERDICT: Yes. Again.

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly

Well, someone ought to tell Irvine Welsh and Roddy Doyle. Innit. But to be fair to Elmore Leonard he was well-old and probz didn’t have the skillz to write in such a way AND engage readers. Maybe you don’t either, in which case do as Elmore says. VERDICT: Nopesville.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters In the screenwriting world, screenwriters are advised against ‘laundry list’ character descriptions – that is, concentrate on personality, worldview, flaws, etc instead of what they’re wearing. This might seem odd considering it’s a visual medium, but it’s the ONLY way to write a great character. Lots of novelists could learn from this advice, too. VERDICT: Yup! Elmore nails it.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things:

Same on the above for this, too. You don’t want to concentrate too much on the little things, as this will bring the flow of your chapters or scenes to a standstill. I call it ‘overwriting’. Literally every writer does this in early drafts though, so don’t panic – just watch out for it in the edit. VERDICT: Yes.

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

Elmore Leonard said, ‘If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.’ This is a GREAT rule for every type of writer to take on board. We want great writing that FEELS authentic and real, not like writers indulging themselves.

So, what are you waiting for? GET GOING! Good luck!!!!!!!!!!! (Couldn’t resist!).

BIO: Lucy V. Hay is a novelist, script editor and blogger who helps writers via her Bang2write consultancy. DO NO HARM is out now and her crime debut for Orenda Books THE OTHER TWIN, has been featured in The Sun and Sunday Express Newspapers, plus Heatworld and Closer Magazine. Check out all her books, HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books, Anne Cater of Random Things Tours and L V Hay for inviting me to be a part of the blog tour in return for an honest review.