Elmore Leonard was one of America’s greatest novelists and certainly the best writer of his generation. Before he died last week, Leonard authored 49 novels, 9 screenplays, and innumerable short stories. His novels spawned several iconic characters including Assistant Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens, Chili Palmer, Jackie Brown (nee: Burke), and Joe Kidd.

Though he wrote the book on writing crime fiction, Leonard might be best remembered for his greatest contribution to the craft of writing itself, Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing. Originally published in the NY Times as “”, adhering as closely as possible to these rules will make one’s writing better, regardless of type, style, topic, or forum.

Here are Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules for Writing, with the commentary of a veteran web copy writer, blogger and editor.

1. Never open a book with weather.
   – I’ve done this before in blog posts. Readers don’t care. They have a limited amount of time and don’t need to read what amounts to a warm-up exercise.
2.  Avoid prologues.
   – Your first paragraph should be sufficient to introduce a topic or an idea. If your blog post requires a prologue, perhaps you need to better explain the topic in a unique article.
3.  Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
   – This rule is especially true for business and technical writing, and doubly true for reporting, reviewing, and quoting sources. Any emotion that needs to be conveyed can be done in the dialogue itself. As for quotes, it’s not your job to apply emotional quality to a speaker’s words.
4.  Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…he admonished gravely.
   – Again, trying to describe the emotional tone of a speaker takes away from the speaker’s words. It is best to let a speaker simply say what it is they’re saying.
5.  Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. 
   – It doesn’t matter if you’re writing an Apple product fan blog or the copy for the newest Blackberry, exclamation points demonstrate an over-eager but inexperienced imagination. That won’t sit well with tech readers.
6.  Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
   – Leonard is referring to writing fiction but the rule applies well to blogging and business writing. No business person is comfortable with the word “suddenly”. Nothing happens “suddenly” without a lot of organization before hand. If something does suddenly happen, it’s more likely a problem rather than a benefit. Avoiding the latter of the two phrases, “all hell broke loose”, in business or blog writing is excellent, if not obvious advice.
7.  Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
   – Again, Leonard is writing about writing fiction but the rule applies well to tech-sector and copy writing. A lot of lingo, which is easily understood within the tech industry, is mystifying to many business and other non-tech readers. This is especially true when you remember the world of tech has co-opted many general use words such as “server”, “bandwidth”, “packet”, “mouse”, “monitor”, “page”, and “site”. It’s also created its own acronyms such as FTP, HTML5, PHP, SMM, and the once ubiquitous, WYSIWYG. Avoid all of this and try to write in plain English.
8.  Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
   – Let your reader’s imagination construct the face and body of the character you’re writing about. Again, this is especially true in business and tech writing.
9.  Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
   – Again, allow the reader’s imagination to fill in blanks. The most important thing is to get your ideas, or that of the subject you’re writing about, on page. The  details are merely details and you risk losing readers among them.
10.  Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
    – Sort of like Yogi Berra’s advice, “Hit it where they ain’t”. There’s a reason you gloss over parts of articles when you read them. Think about what is important and what can be sliced.

There is an eleventh rule to Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing which states, “If it sounds like writing, rewrite it“. It is the most important rule of all, written to sum up the rest. What it really means is edit your work and then edit it again. Make your writing as sparse as you can. Strip out the extraneous and accentuate the meaning of each message.

American literature lost a master writer last week but good writers retain Leonard’s Rules. Follow them and your writing will improve, your readership will grow, and, if you’re lucky, you’ll enjoy writing for work a bit more.

RIP , 1925 – 2013

Jim Hedger

Jim Hedger is an organic SEO and digital marketing specialist. Jim has been involved in the online marketing industry since 1998 and a SEO since 1999. Best known as a broadcaster, interviewer, content writer and search industry commentator, Jim is a frequent conference speaker and organizer. He hosts the search focused radio show Webcology on WebmasterRadio.FM and is a WebmasterRadio.FM conference interviewer. Jim brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, passion and creative thinking to each project. Preferring a teamwork approach, Jim strives to inform and train his clients and their staff to run and maintain their own search and social media efforts.

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