Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing
I couldn’t resist this book. I’m looking to simplify my life and tighten my writing style, and I admire Leonard’s lean, eloquent, often unexpectedly moving prose. So I thought maybe I’d share his admonitions. Rule 1: Never open a book with weather. I guess . . . unless you’re Jack London describing snow or Zane Grey describing the purple sage and the sky. Rule 2: Avoid prologues. “A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want. There is a prologue in John Steinbeck’s Sweet Thursday , but it’s okay because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. [One character] says: ‘I like a lot of talk in a book and I don’t like to have nobody tell me what the guy that’s talking looks like.” “ Sweet Thursday came out in 1954, when I was just beginning to be published and I’ve never forgotten that prologue.” Rule 3: Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. “Said” is far less intrusive than ‘grumbled, gas...