Popular stylist ...

... Damon Runyon’s guys and dolls. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)

It was only slowly, and over time, that he insinuated himself into the night world that he made his own best subject. His method was a simple form of Broadway Zen: he went to Lindy’s, then an all-night Jewish deli on Broadway, and sat. “I am the sedentary champion of the city,” he explained. “In order to learn anything of importance, I must remain seated. Why I am the best is that I can last an entire day without causing a chair to squeak.” It seems to have been true ... Basically, Runyon spent the twenties absorbing the material he would use in the thirties.

Writers today should get out more and try that.