Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing

Locations
Call Number: 808.3 Le, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Writing & Publishing / Leonard, Elmore
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	808.3 Le	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Writing & Publishing / Leonard, Elmore	4-week checkout	Due 05-05-2024

"Originally published in the New York Times, July 16, 2001, as 'Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamations Points and Especially Hooptedoodle'"--Colophon.
Presents ten fundamental rules for aspiring writers to help avoid specific elements that can slow down the action and distract the reader.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

A cute little novelty submitted by SurfGrape on June 15, 2014, 11:33am Originally an article in the New York Times, ELMORE LEONARD’S TEN RULES FOR WRITING is not much longer than this review. This list has been reproduced online multiple times, but even so, HarperCollins made it into a hardcover book suitable for gift giving. There’s nothing wrong with the content. Leonard’s advice is timeless and witty. My problem is with the book itself. Putting a few hundred words into hardback and expecting writers to pay $14.95 for it is ridiculous. But writers aren't really the market for this book. It’s the kind of book that people buy for writers. It’s the perfect example of the kind of book that non-writers think writers like.

Leonard’s rules are things that every writer has already heard from teachers, editors, and other writing books. Things like “don’t open with the weather” and “keep your exclamation points under control” are writer 101. Others are unique to Leonard, but won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s read his books. “Avoid detailed descriptions of characters” and “don’t go into great detail describing places and things” are rules that work for Leonard’s style. He writes hardboiled murder mysteries that are mostly dialog. However, someone writing historical fiction or thrillers in exotic locations would have no use for such advice.

ELMORE LEONARD’S TEN RULES FOR WRITING is a puff piece for Leonard himself. It shows the rules that he follows when writing his own books, nothing more.

I can imagine how many aspiring writers received ELMORE LEONARD’S TEN RULES FOR WRITING for Christmas, finished it in five minutes, and promptly forgot about it. I’m not sorry I read it–it was a fun novelty–but it’s not something I will ever feel the need to read again.