Jul 24, 2014 / Inspiration

Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing

10 Rules of Writing, courtesy of novelist extraordinaire Elmore Leonard.

Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/king-edward/2147059397">Edward Simpson</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(CC BY-SA 2.0)</a>

“I always refer to style as sound,” says Leonard. “The sound of the writing.” Some of Leonard’s suggestions appeared in a 2001 New York Times article that became the basis of his 2007 book, Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing. Here are those rules in outline form:

  1. Never open a book with the 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.”
  5. Keep your exclamation points under control!
  6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
  7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
  8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
  9. Same for places and things.
  10. Leave out the parts readers tend to skip.

These are Leonard’s rules in point form. For context on each rule, check out this piece in the Detroit Free Press.

Source: Open Culture

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  2. Rules are guidelines for me. I love reading lists of rules for this and that, but I rely more on how my writing sounds.

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  3. Firstly, this theme is terrible on a tablet (iPad in my case). Can’t read comments and text at the same time.

    OK on with the response. I learned the ‘said’ rules in my first few days as a cub reporter. However journalism isn’t novel writing and crime isn’t the same as other genres. So, I think there is a case for deviating from said. Sometimes. Just not too many growled, snarled, shrieked, murmured, snapped, snarled, please authors. Same for the adverbs.

    I’m no fan of prologues. They need to be relevant and good. Otherwise better concentrating on a good opening chapter. They seem to be fashionable right now. All the more reason to avoid them.

    The ! point is valid. Reads like an excitable teenager.

    But from an editing perspective, unless an author specifically requests rigid adherence to a style guide eg Hart’s – English, or Chicago – American, I’m happy to go with an author’s individual style.

    I think it’s important for a writer to work instinctively and develop their own style. At least half the rules are contentious, specific to certain genres, and people would be better off learning to write than following rules. However, accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation are advisable. Although even there, we can all argue about certain aspects. Especially transatlantically…

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  4. Nice. Precise. Concise. This is what I wish I had read when I realized my skill at writing. Would have saved a lot of scrapped stories.

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  8. Some of these I don’t really see the point of. Especially the ‘said’ thing. What’s with that? And exclamation points are pretty good…if you’re Oscar Wilde that is.

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    1. The said thing is very much about writing clear concise text. So, it suits Leonard’s style of novel. By writing said, you put the emphasis on what was said not how it was said. Using other words for said needs to be cleverly done or it seems contrived and clumsy. Said can be a safer option in many cases for less experienced authors.

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      1. Yeah, said is probably the safer option – Leanord seems like the type of person who writes clear concise novels. I don’t know if I like them Mich though – sometimes ‘said’ gets a bit boring, especially if the actual dialogue isn’t much.

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  13. I don’t obey some of these rules myself (rules are made to be broken, right?) however, it’s an interesting perspective. Might try to apply them sometime to see how it works. 🙂

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  16. I’ve always considered significant character development, & descriptions of places & things unavoidably mandatory. Many authors(Flannery O’Connor, Mark Twain etc) thrive on regional dialect/patois

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  17. I’m a confirmed Leonard fan, but like all rules, his are what works for him. His ‘never open a book with the weather,’ for instance, is good advice unless the weather will play a key role in your story. It would make sense if at some point in the story your main character has to deal with a storm to open with the storm so the thought is hovering there in your reader’s imagination.

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    1. I completely agree – there aren’t (nor should there be) hard and fast rules. People write differently, speak differently, express differently, and ought to have the freedom (whether others like it or not) to do so.

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