Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules for Writing:
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Never open a book with weather.
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Avoid prologues.
Okay, so I’ve seen this floating around the internet, and I get annoyed every time I read through it. I thought I would finally raise my objections here. First off, I’ll admit I had to google this Elmore chap. I had never heard of him. Apparently, he was writing crime thrillers and suspense in the 1950s. Cool. Probably why I never heard of him.
But anyway. I have nothing particularly against Mr. Leonard. Thriller writers are typically quite good at what they do. But I sometimes wish fewer writers would blindly follow “rules” set by pulp authors. In fact, in my opinion, anybody in a creative field who claims to have actual rules rather than guidelines is probably bluffing.
Okay, but before this post becomes a formless rant, let’s get to the main content, shall we? I want to take these “rules” and examine them one by one. Let’s take a closer look and see how much good advice we actually have here.
#1 Never open a book with weather.
This is a classic. Speaking of classics, you can probably name one or two that open with weather. As I find with most of these rules, there is a right and a wrong way to break it. Why are we so persistently cautioned against talking about the weather? Being a reader who loves atmosphere, I tend to have few complaints when an author sets the scene with a heavy summer rain, or a dark autumn day with a storm looming in the west. Also, don’t forget that weather effects characters’ moods and plans, so it can actually become a plot-mover in a lot of cases.
#2 Avoid prologues.
I know why people say this. Too often authors will use the prologue as a backstory-dump. It can also delay our meeting with the protagonist, since they often take place in a setting remote from that of the main plot. But a prologue doesn’t have to be dry and unrelated. I like to think of a prologue as the pre-credits scene in a movie. Keep it short, keep it intriguing. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with prologues. You just have to do them right.
#3 Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
I use “said” the vast majority of the time. I also use “asked” when appropriate. Sometimes it just sounds odd to use “said” for something that isn’t a statement. Also, if someone is whispering or screaming, I will mention that as well. You know those “Said is Dead” infographics you see hanging around the internet? I am with Leonard here, to a degree. Words like “wondered”, “warned”, or “mused” are usually redundant if the dialogue is written strongly enough to indicate that the character is, in fact “warning” another character, for example. I will, however, use words like this when I’m taking a slightly ironic or humorous tone now and then.
#4 Never use and adverb to modify the verb “said.”
So, I think the modern horror of adverbs is reactionary and slightly unreasonable. There are legitimate times and places for adverbs. But let’s talk about the reasonable side of this. People tell authors to avoid adverbs because it is sometimes a sign that the verb you’re using isn’t strong enough. As we just discussed, Leonard doesn’t want us using any verbs stronger than “said” here. So…I think what he’s getting at is, you must use the dialogue itself to convey how it was delivered. Not a bad goal. But what about cases when the words and the way they are delivered actually contradict each other? This is a place where I will often use an adverb. Once again, it depends on your voice. For me, adverbs help me write ironically.
#5 Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
I’m kind of hoping he’s excluding dialogue, here. I consider myself very stringy with my exclamation points. My WIP is around 112k words long. I did a quick search and found it to have 88 exclamation points—all in dialogue. So, you’ve got a 13-year old girl and her unruly Irish wolfhound. A storm is coming. The dog won’t come home. So, I guess she’s like, “Here boy. Come.” Okay. Why? A burning drone hurdles out of the sky. “Watch out.” “Run.” “Ow.” I think I might have made my point. You know when you can totally exclamation points? When someone makes an exclamation.
#6 Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
Never. Okay, so “suddenly” can be a crutch word. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its place. If something actually is happening suddenly—as in, the characters are jolted by it—you can say it happened suddenly. Just use discretion that you aren’t just using it as a quick transition. Don’t say the character suddenly went to make a sandwich. That probably wasn’t that sudden, actually. But if the sandwich suddenly explodes, you probably don’t have to delete “suddenly” in that case. “All hell broke loose” is a cliché. Yeah, avoid it in your narration, but remember clichés are perfectly fine in dialogue.
#7 Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
If he’s talking about spelling out accents and dialect here, I actually really agree with this one. I really don’t like seeing accents spelled phonetically. It never sounds right in my brain when I’m reading it, and sometimes I really don’t know what the character was supposed to be saying. This also is going to make no sense if the POV character actually has the accent. In the character’s mind, that is how the words are pronounced when written correctly. You’re confusing everybody here. Sorry, this is one of my pet peeves.
#8 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Oh boy. Here we go. I think this big ugly myth right here comes from the lie that everyone should imitate Hemmingway. Don’t try to be Hemmingway. There is literally no reason to imitate someone else’s style. I would argue that this lack of physical description of characters is actually making characters’ personalities flatter. I’m not talking about in Hemmingway here, I’m talking about in the multiple generations of non-descriptive underwritten characters that followed. Guys, description is your friend. Please describe your characters. You’re an artist. You paint images with words in other people’s minds. Paint your characters. Go beyond hair and eye color and approximate age. I want to see what you see when you write. All you have to do to avoid hurting your story with “too much” character description is make sure you don’t drop it all in one place. Make a first impression. Tell us what we would notice on first meeting your character. Then start weaving it into the action. You’re going to do fine. Don’t be afraid of description.
#9 Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
You guys have my permission to ignore this list. Leonard has basically told us now that it is not an author’s job to describe people places or things. Great. You know I think Van Gough would have been a lot better if he hadn’t used so many colors in his paintings. Probably why he did to poorly. I can’t help but wonder how good this guy really was at writing suspense, now. I don’t know how you write suspense without any visceral sensations. That’s what description is for. You use it to put your readers in this incredibly sharp-focus setting you’ve created. You use it to create a movie in your readers’ heads so they can literally see what’s happening on the page. Call me an upstart for challenging this. I’m just not a fan of underwritten novels, and I think people like this expert here really have pushed their opinions on newer writers and intimidated them with their elitism to the point where everyone is really skimping on artistry. Do what you want at the end of the day, but I really like descriptive writing. And I think if you can do it in this day and age you’ve got quite an edge on your competition.
#10 Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
Let’s wrap this up on a positive note, shall we? This is solid advice. You’d be surprised what you can get away with just not including. Often, if you’re bored with what’s going on, your readers are going to be too. So, avoid the infodump, the dull backstory, the commute to work. Get to the good parts as fast as you can and look for ways to cut filler. Your readers will appreciate it. Good job Leonard. This was a good tip.
So, see how I feel about rules? I understand we have to have rules in certain parts of our lives. If you don’t follow the rules as a brain surgeon, people could die. But as an artist, you’re probably not going to kill anyone by experimenting. As an author, you have to find your own voice and your own style. You’re doing nobody a favor by trying to be the next Hemmingway. You have to be the first you.
Thanks anyway, Elmore Leonard.