Elmore Leonard is one of the most popular writers of crime fiction working today. If you love vernacular dialogue, delight in unique characters and aren’t squeamish about rough language, you need to read Leonard.
Some of his better known books are Freaky Deaky, Get Shorty, Out of Sight and Gold Coast. If you think these sound like movie titles as well as book titles, you would be right. Hollywood turned many of his books into films.
His advice to writers shows up in one of the world’s shortest books: Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing.
1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a word other than “said” to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the word “said” . . .
5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
7. Use regional dialect, patios, 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.
There it is, simple as can be.
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