Leonard's Rules of Writing

Watching the live stream of the National Book Award Ceremony!

The 2012 Recipient of the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, Elmore Leonard, just gave an informative and compelling speech about his writing process.  I have to remember to show clips of it (particularly the part when he discusses learning to "show, not tell" in his writing) to my creative writing students in the spring.


In addition to an impressive resume, Leonard also has a delightful list of "10 Rules of Writing," on which he elaborates in his book by the same name.

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.

Source: http://mysterypeople.wordpress.com/tag/elmore-leonard/

In less than an hour the National Book Award Winners will be announced.  I'm voting for This is How You Lose Her by @JunotDiazDaily (fiction), Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo (nonfiction), and Never Fall Down by Patricia @McCormickWrites (Young People's Lit).  I haven't read any of the poetry collections, so I won't weigh in on that contest. We'll see if I'm right!