Elmore Leonard provides his 10 rules for writing which emphasize showing rather than telling through dialogue, dialect, and description. The rules advise against using weather to open a book, prologues, adverbs to modify dialogue, and cliched phrases. Leonard also recommends using minimal exclamation points and avoiding overly detailed character, place, and thing descriptions. He concludes with the overarching rule that if any part sounds over-written, to rewrite it.

1. ELMORE LEONARD'S
1 0 R U L E S F O R W R I T I N G

2. T H I S I S
ELMORE
LEONARD

3. MANY BOOKS
Even if
you've
never
read any
of his

4. B
A
S
E
D
YOU'VE PROBABLY SEEN SOME OF THE MOVIES OR TV SHOWS
ON THEM

5. HERE ARE HIS
FOR WRITING
RULES10

6. 1) Never open a book with weather.

7. 2) Avoid prologues.

8. 3) Never use a
verb other than
'said' to carry
dialogue.
shrieked
muttered
yelled
groanedwhispered
snapped
begged
demanded
blurted
insisted
agreed continued
explained
cautioned
pleaded

9. 4) Never
use an
adverb to
modify
the verb
'said'.
recklessly.
frankly.
bluntly.
darkly.
gravely.
kindly.
correctly.
...she said

10. 5) Keep your exclamation points
under control.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

11. 4) Never use the words
'suddenly'
or
'all hell broke loose'.

12. 7) Use
regional
dialect,
patois,
sparingly.

13. 8) Avoid
detailed
descriptions
of characters.

14. 9) Don't go into great detail
describing places and things.

15. 10) Try to leave out the part
that readers tend to skip.

16. There's one last rule,
one that sums up all 10:
If it sounds like writing,
REWRITE IT.