Sunday, May 10: The A.D.D. Detective
PROFESSIONAL TIPS – Elmore Leonard
by Leigh Lundin
Today I’m going to save you fifteen bucks, or ten bucks, or fifty. That’s the price of the great Elmore Leonard‘s 10 Rules of Writing, hardcover, Kindle, and hardcover deluxe, respectively.
What you won’t get in today’s column are Joe Ciardiello‘s illustrations that come with the signed, numbered, limited edition hardcover books which were deemed by the Boston Globe as "art-book luxurious", with beautiful cloth foil-embossed binding, real leather spine, full cloth slipcase, stunning four-color marbled end papers, and a satin ribbon marker. Joe’s a pretty good caricaturist, as shown in the program cover he illustrated for the recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction. He penned, inked, and lettered the illustrations in the books.
I’m a believer in white space, the setting off of text (and illustrations) with surrounding ’emptiness’ to lend readability and visual attraction. William Morrow and HarperCollins charge dearly for white space. Typically, each copperplate rule appears as a single sentence on a page following a woodcut number and a full-stop, thus:
1.
NEVER OPEN A BOOK WITH WEATHER
On the next page appears a Joe Ciardiello illustration or cartoon.
On the following page is a one paragraph comment.
Then a blank page. Or more.
We’re planning to do the same thing with Criminal Brief as soon as we become really famous. 10 Rules is a beautiful book, but I’ll give you the gist for free.
Alternatively, you can buy two books and mail one to me.
- Never open a book with weather.
- Avoid prologues.
- Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
- Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said,” he admonished gravely.
- Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
- Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
- Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
- Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
- Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
- Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
And finally, remember it’s Mother’s Day. Get mom a copy.
Maybe I’m growing smarter because, like those listed yesterday by John, I agree with your rules except for 6. I think there are times when “suddenly” is a good word. Number 1 had me puzzled until the third or fourth reading.
Wonderful Leigh! This fits in perfectly with the article in the June 2009 issue of The Writer listing Anthony Trollope’s advice to writers taken from his Autobiography. (article by B. K. Stevens no less!)
Several years ago when I worked at the bookstore, Dutch had a scheduled signing. A few days before, there had been a spirited discussion on the MWA listserv after I had posted a few of the 10 rules for consideration (1, 3, and 10).
When I mentioned to him that some writers had objected to his rules as being too confining, he looked startled and said, “Those rules aren’t meant to tell other people how to write. They’re meant for how I write. They’re mine.”
I think I’ve broken every one of the rules at one point or another, but the truth is that you can do a whole helluva lot worse than writing like Elmore Leonard.
Leonard’s one of my alltime favorites. I’ve been reading him since he was writing westerns! I met him once at a signing at Lemuria Bookstore here in Jackson, Mississippi, and he was everything I had expected him to be.
As Dick said, I agree with all of Dutch’s rules except number 6. And maybe, now and then, number 2.
Darn!!! she screamed lively (because she can’t use gravely)
While reading your article, why y’all, all hell broke loose and suddenly….
Well, you get the picture…..
Enjoyed the article even though I am an atrocious rule breaker.
(innocently) Were you referring to writing rules, alisa?
I guess James Lee Burke, Phillip Roth, John Updike, Walter Mosley, and Elizabeth George will never have careers….
Suddenly, she gravely and in all sincerely sighed while fannin’ herself underneath the magnolia tree right outside the plantation….”Why darlin’ o’course I meant writin’…”
Make that sincerity….I’m not as good at feigning innocence as you Leigh.
Hmmmm, good advice (some of them)!
But as to 1, 3, 4, and 6 . . . I would say “never say never.” I use the word “suddenly” sometimes (yes, only sometimes), and I don’t see what’s wrong with it. After all, if something suddenly happens, you just say it the way it is! There are, of course, other words and other techniques, but in some instances “suddenly” conveys what you want to express best.
I think some of these rules were meant to be broken! (he screamed suddenly, and also gravely)