Hailed as “the Dickens of Detroit”, Elmore Leonard’s name has become a byword for sharp dialogue and no-frills storytelling, whether in the westerns that first made his name or in the crime novels which brought him a second wave of success. Stephen King once called Leonard “the great American writer”; Martin Amis said he was “a literary genius,” and “the nearest America has to a national writer.”
Leonard died in 2013, aged 87, after a career that spanned 60 years and nearly 50 full-length novels, together with several screenplays and short stories. His work continues to live on, and not just in his obvious influence on the likes of Quentin Tarantino, whose Jackie Brown (1997), an adaptation of Leonard’s 1992 novel Rum Punch, is arguably the director’s finest, and certainly his most mature work. Ten years after the author’s death and 13 after the original hit series, Timothy Olyphant returned as deputy US marshal Raylan Givens in the FX series Justified: City Primeval, to wide acclaim.
Beyond his captivating novels and gleefully amoral characters, Leonard left behind a legacy of wisdom encapsulated in his 10 Rules for Writing, originally compiled by the author for the New York Times in 2001 and expanded into a book towards the end of his life. These rules, a beacon for both aspiring and seasoned writers, offer valuable insights into crafting prose that resonates with readers and stands the test of time.
Leonard’s list is remarkable – all the more so as his 10 rules are really 11. “My most important rule is one that sums up the 10,” he wrote. “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It’s my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing.”
Here are the rest of Leonard’s rules, which he said “help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story.”
1. “Never Open a Book with Weather”
Leonard added: “If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people.”
2. “Avoid Prologues”
According to Leonard, “They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.
3. “Never Use a Verb Other Than ‘Said’ to Carry Dialogue”
Leonard wrote: “Said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with ”she asseverated,” and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.”
4. “Never Use an Adverb to Modify the Verb ‘Said'”
According to Leonard:” To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange.”
5. “Keep Your Exclamation Points Under Control”
They’re not completely banned though: “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'”
He added: “I have noticed that writers who use ‘suddenly’ tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.”
7. “Use Regional Dialect, Patios, Slang Sparingly”
“Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won’t be able to stop,” he wrote.
8. “Avoid Detailed Descriptions of Characters”
Leonard wrote: “In Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, what do the ”American and the girl with him” look like? ”She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” That’s the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.”
9. “Don’t Go into Great Detail Describing Places and Things”
According to Leonard: “Even if you’re good at it, you don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.”
10. “Try to Leave Out the Part That Readers Tend to Skip”
Leonard added: “Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them… I’ll bet you don’t skip dialogue.”
Elmore Leonard’s rules serve as both a guide for others and evidence of his commitment to the craft. By embracing Leonard’s principles, we can stumble our way towards some of his mastery, where every word, sentence and page contributes to an unforgettable experience that feels real.