
Elmore Leonard's Rules for Writers (2010) - rmason
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/24/elmore-leonard-rules-for-writers
======
logfromblammo
Tell your story with the fewest words possible.

Don't cheat the previous rule by using sesquipedalian words.

Describe the action instead of the irrelevant details. Every detail you
include is a Chekhov's Gun that will have to be fired later.

Take out the character that is most like you. Take out the character that is
least used. Make them fight to the death in their own short story, and reward
the winner with a nice, hot shower in a post-apocalyptic dystopia. If they
survive, they can be more interesting in the next story you let them into.

------
and0
I've enjoyed his prose for exactly these reasons, though he's not a favorite
author or anything.

If you're a film buff, you can thank him for Quentin Tarantino + Joel & Ethan
Coen.

If his story-telling philosophy sounds appealing, check out Justified. It's a
TV show loosely based on some of his characters, but it's written like a love
letter to his work. It finished just after his death, and was refreshing to
watch right around when the concept of "prestige" TV started to collapse into
itself / constant navel gazing trying to be the next Breaking Bad. There's a
lot to take in about modern Appalachia (it takes place in rural Kentucky), but
there's no heavy-handed metaphors. It's not trying to be a Greek tragedy or a
Dickens novel, just razor-sharp dialog and fun action that somehow adds up to
more than the sum of its parts.

~~~
dexterdog
Big second for Justified. It was a great show with few low points and a solid
finish. And, oh the dialogue... It's like what Sorkin would have written if he
wanted his characters to sound like human beings.

~~~
sizzzzlerz
Tim Olyphant as Raylan Givens and Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder absolutely
nailed their parts. Leonard expressed his appreciation for the actors and for
the writers on numerous occasions. An amazing but underappreciated show.

------
jaclaz
Related:

[http://gioclairval.blogspot.it/2010/02/umberto-ecos-rules-
fo...](http://gioclairval.blogspot.it/2010/02/umberto-ecos-rules-for-writing-
well.html)

The original Italian by Umberto Eco:

[http://www.webnauta.it/wordpress/40-regole-per-scrivere-
bene...](http://www.webnauta.it/wordpress/40-regole-per-scrivere-bene/)

which was in itself inspired by William Safire:

[http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/01/fumblerules-of-
grammar.ht...](http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/01/fumblerules-of-grammar.html)

[http://www.maximumawesome.com/reference/g-safire.htm](http://www.maximumawesome.com/reference/g-safire.htm)

------
decasia
"My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writing,
I rewrite it."

There's an interesting relevance to software here. You don't usually want your
creation to foreground its own artifice.

~~~
klodolph
If anything sounds like writing, it's this comment.

I agree with the sentiment, though.

------
InclinedPlane
Some pretty good advice overall, but it's more important to understand why
these rules are important and why it's valuable to follow them (and why it
might be worthwhile to break them). Also note that there are exceptions to
every rule, but _you_ are probably not the exception.

Most importantly, writing (like coding) is not a process of scrubbing through
a checklist of rules and making sure you follow each one. Build your toolkit
through practice, refine it by editing yourself with a critical eye (using
lists of advice if you like), learn to improve what comes out the first time
in the future, and get closer and closer to a natural cycle of being able to
reliably produce good writing without herculean effort. It's the same as in
coding. You need to learn the lessons to know what patterns of code are
useful, what code smells are worth putting in the effort to fix, how to
effectively refactor code and go from one design to another without dropping
the ball or hitting a wall along the way. It'll never stop being work, but you
can get good enough so it will feel natural and you'll be able to produce
stuff that you can feel proud of (even when you look at it years later).

------
thomascgalvin
> Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Think of what you skip
> reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words
> in them.

There are two good pieces of advice here, I think.

One is about thick paragraphs of prose, and I think it really comes down to
ergonomics. It's hard to read big walls of text. Word _count_ in this context
doesn't matter so much as word _spacing_.

The second point is that some writers tend to include all the mundane details
and in-between stuff that surrounds the story, but isn't actually part of the
story itself.

What constitutes "the story" and what constitutes "the other stuff" is, of
course, dependent on the story being told, the author, and even the reader. If
you're reading Tolkien, the journey is the story. But if you're reading modern
fantasy, you might want to skip all the walking between battles.

~~~
the_af
I thought the same about Tolkien. Tolkien breaks almost every suggestion from
the list: he is verbose, his writing is intrusive -- he's constantly reminding
you there's an author, with weird phrasings and lots of "and lo!" \-- his
descriptions of weather and geography go on forever, as do his prologues.

BUT I don't think Leonard is saying Tolkien is wrong. He's just saying you
aren't Tolkien, and that most writers should take heed of his suggestions, not
that _every_ writer _must_.

------
curtis
This might be good advice for a lot of writers, but it might depend on genre.
In particular, some of it is surely wrong for science fiction...

~~~
adamsea
Because science fiction is known for the quality of its prose? ;)

~~~
Zanni
It is these days. Check out China Miéville for starters. And Michael Chabon
won a Hugo award.

~~~
adamsea
Those names shine so brightly because the sky is so dark ;). China Mieville is
awesome, as is Michael Chabon. And I’ll throw in Charles Yu ( How to Live
Safely in a Science Fictional Universe). You’re right that there are lots of
talented writers out there in the field. I love science fiction, and my
criticism was a bit of “making fun of your own.” You can’t deny there is also
a huge mass of third rate hackery - same as with other genre fiction like
Crime, Romance, Historical Fiction, etc. Its not all Ursula LeGuin and Samuel
Delaney ;).

~~~
Zanni
Fair enough. And I did see your wink. :) I do think the trend is increasingly
towards literary sci-fi, though, especially in print (less so in film and TV
where it's become almost synonymous with action).

------
cacrawford
The eleventh rule should be: understand exactly why all of these rules exist,
so you can know when it's possible (or necessary) to break them.

------
stewbrew
These items are rather common sense guidelines almost everybody would agree
with. As I'm not in crime fiction and since English isn't my mother tongue, I
have to confess that I don't know EL. I'd suggest to another rule though:
don't write a book if you have nothing new to add. Recommend some classic
instead.

~~~
Semiapies
Yes, everything except the admonition against describing the weather is
_extremely_ common English-language writing advice, as mentioned in countless
books and essays over the years. With the bit about weather, he tries to be
punchy, but he immediately has to backtrack and explain what he _actually_
meant: get quickly to character action and don't belabor set-dressing.

------
paulpauper
What works for one writer won't work for another. It depends on many factors,
such as the audience or the genre of writing. It's possible to break these
rules and have huge success. Some people like huge expository descriptions.
Others like dialogue. Some like short and simple words. Others like
complicated.

~~~
joe_the_user
Yes,

It's worth noting Leonard is described as "hard boiled crime writer" and his
rules for paring down writing to the minimum seem for the kind of writing that
moves the reader relentless forward, not wasting any time to "stop and smell
the roses". That legitimate approach - just not the only approach.

------
Stronico
There is a great chrome extension waiting to be written based on this.

~~~
sebnukem2
I don't know about Chrome extensions, but there's Grammarly and the Hemingway
App.

------
whalesalad
I read this as rules for winters and was hoping for a list of things that help
cure seasonal depression brought on by winter.

It's clearly starting to mess with my head.

------
awl130
not uncoincidentally, these make for great transitions to a screenplay.
Leonard's screen adaptations have been, in the aggregate, very successful.

------
aphextron
Rule 11: Develop your own voice, and know when to completely ignore rules
1-10.

------
panglott
Shorter: Just write dialogue.

~~~
dragonwriter
I think "just write _action_ " would be more accurate, though dialog is an
important subset of action.

------
Semiapies
A pretty standard set.

