Are Elmore Leonard’s rules to die for?
There’s a delightful piece in the Globe and Mail in which Elmore Leonard, mystery novelist and author of 10 Rules of Writing, tosses off one of his favorite mantras:
The trick to storytelling, Leonard believes, “is leaving out the parts readers skip.”
Oh how every writer wishes she could do that!
Leonard was talking about the TV treatment of his western, Justified. Produced by Canadian Graham Yost, it’s on the Super Channel Monday nights. That’s a channel I don’t get, so I’ll have to go along with Leonard’s assessment of the only Western currently running on TV.
Leonard’s new edition of 10 Rules of Writing (Weidenfeld & Nicholson) is just out. It’s a beautiful little book but honestly, I think it’s more a marketing ploy than a literary how-to-do-it.
This little pocket book size edition is filled with pretty cartoons, large type, and just a few words of copy on each page.
His “leave out the parts readers skip” is No. 10.
First on his hit list is “Never open a book with the weather.”Well, hardl ever, he later avers. “Of it’s only to create atmosphere,” well that’s a different matter. And, “There are exceptions.” Of course.
That’s the problem with these rules of writing. There are always exceptions.
I like his dictum to avoid prologues. Providing you can find another way of telling an essential backstory. And I almost agree with his rule of “never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue. Except when … I might add.
But overall, I don’t think his rules are ones to die for.
Lots of other successful writers have their own rules. Here’s a sampling:
Helen Dunmore – Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite.
Margaret Atwood – Prayer might help. Or reading somnething else.
Hilary Mantel – Write a book you’d like to read.
Guy Vanderhaeghe – Write the book you want to write and hope somebody wants to read it.
PD James – Increase your word power. The greater your vocabulary the more effective your writing.
David Hare – Write only when you have something to say.
And my own rule?
A good story’s like an iceberg. The reader sees only the tip of it. What makes the story float is all that stuff — research, knowledge, instinct — that’s under the surface.,
