Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules for Writing

On July 16, 2001, The New York Times published -- on the op-ed page, if I remember correctly -- an essay by Leonard entitled "Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle." About six and a half years later, William Morrow published that essay as a book, under the title that everyone had used to describe it anyway.

Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing is a short and small book -- even shorter than it looks, since there's only text on the right-hand pages (and not much of that). Plus, this book is printed on some kind of cardstock, notably thicker than even the bulkiest regular book paper. There also are illustrations by Joe Ciardiello, which are either an added value or a detriment, depending on how you feel about pictures in your books. (I like 'em, but I like pictures in general.)

Leonard's rules are well-known and widely disseminated now; they weren't radical even when he wrote them. But writing is one of those fields where the simple, obvious things need to be repeated over and over again: like sex, it's a field that enthusiastic amateurs jump into every day. His tenth rules sums them all up pretty well: Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

His rules are really aimed at writers of popular fiction; they'll be somewhat useful to journalists and other folks who do popular non-fiction, but less applicable to professional and "literary" writing. (Leonard says up front that his rules aren't for writers who "have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you" -- which probably describes the way every would-be writer sees herself.) In fact, the entire essay is utterly focused on fiction; writing that isn't a "story" might as well not exist.

Since the whole essay is still available online in the Time's archives -- here it is, for you curious souls -- the only reason to buy the book is as a gift or for the illustrations. The publisher is pushing it as a gift, but I'd be a little wary of that -- the implied message is "you're a really bad writer, but maybe Leonard can help you." I'd suggest that curious souls either just read it online or check it out in their local library, as I did. More daring souls could try just reading it cover-to-cover in the bookstore; that shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes.