Writing Rules To Be Learned & Only Then Broken At Will, part 1

Elmore Leonard:


1. Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle.*
2. Never open a book with weather.
3. Avoid prologues.
4. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
5. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” . . .
6. Keep your exclamation points under control.
7. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
8. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
9. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
10. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
11. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
12. If it sounds like writing, rewrite it.




* = "Hooptedoodle" — From John Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday:  "Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That’s nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don’t have to read it. I don’t want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.”



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