Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules

I've been an Elmore Leonard fan for some time. Recently, FX has developed one of his characters, U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens from Pronto and Riding the Rap, into a show - Justified. It stars Tim Olyphant, and I have enjoyed his previous work as well (Deadwood) .

Watching Justified got me thinking about Leonard's rules and other musings of that sort.

Here are Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules on Writing, from New York Times article, “Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle."

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.

Interestingly, in the years after this essay was published, Elmore Leonard whimsically said that he had an 11th rule:

"Don't be afraid to break the rules if it makes the story better."

Upcoming Stuff

I have not had as much time as I had hoped for to write. As luck would have it, though, I have been working on a slew of essays for an essay writing class. I think I will post them as my "posts". I need to turn them in first, however.

In other free time, I have spent time helping to plan this wedding that is coming soon - 10 weeks. 10 weeks seems long, but it will go by quickly. The only thing left to determine are the unforeseeable problems that will come up. It would not be a wedding unless things went wrong. I do not intend to become upset unless more than 9 think go wrong between May 1 - June 5, the homestretch.

I like our wedding date, 6.5.2010. In general, I like numbers, and it is fun for me to know we are getting married on the 5th day of a month, and the digits of the date add up to 5 (6+5+2+1=14 -> 1+4 -> 5). I think there probably is someone out there who has assigned meaning to this randomness, however, for me, it is merely a way to pass the time. It's fun; nothing more, nothing less.

I never thought I would ever get praised for my use of semicolons, however, the writing instructor maintained I use semicolon courageously and properly. I like semicolons because they convey the types of pauses or breaks in thoughts I myself have ongoing in my head. I dunno if that is courageous, but I will not turn away compliment from this woman; she is a good writer and her comments on our writing reflect her acumen.

Okay, I need to head to a meeting, but one should expect to start seeing me post my essays up here soon.