Tribute: Elmore Leonard’s Rules of Writing

It’s a tough day for fiction. Elmore Leonard, master of the crime thriller, passed away this morning at the age of 87. True to his own sparse style, his website broke the sad news in one quick burst:

Elmore passed away this morning at 7:15 AM at home surrounded by his loving family.  More to follow.

Whatever follows won’t be as impressive as what preceded — namely, a writing career that spanned nearly sixty years and produced over 45 novels, many of them best-sellers. Notable works includ “Get Shorty,” “Rum Punch” (which Quintin Tarantino later turned into Jackie Brown) and “Pronto,” which FX later adapted into the hit show Justified.  Elmore Leonard might have looked like your grandfather, but he wrote like a hit-man, crafting gritty tales in a style so sparse that grammar often took a backseat to speed.

Maybe one of Elmore Leonard’s most enduring legacies will be the advice he gave to aspiring writers back in 2001, which was originally published in The New York Times, and where he offered his now famous 10 Rules of Writing.  In honor of his passing, UTF wanted to share these rules one last time:

Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing: by Elmore Leonard.

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”…he admonished gravely.

5) Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

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.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10. If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

(These rules originated in the New York Times article, “Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle.”)