So long 'The Dickens of Detroit'... So long 'Dutch'.... - by Queue
Queue on 20/8/2013 at 18:51
Elmore Leonard passed away today at his home in Bloomfield Hills, one of the suburbs of Detroit. I became of fan of Mr. Leonard back in the mid-1980s when, during the heydays of WJR (when it was still the 'Great Voice of the Great Lakes', and not the Great Bastion of Absurdity and Right-Wing Lunatics), Leonard would come on J.P. McCarthy's show to, more-or-less, hang out and shoot the shit--and I became impressed by his sense of realism and strange sort of honesty when it came to writing. Certainly, here was a writer who respected his craft, not the celebrity or idea of a 'public persona'. Here was a writer who, as Martin Amis once stated, "...[his] prose [made] Raymond Chandler look clumsy." And here was a writer who summed his '10 Rules of Writing' in this way: "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."
Truly, he was a writer who was dedicated to writing well, not selling out for mass appeal; and his faithfulness to his art, his ear for dialog, and his gritty prose laced with copious amounts of realism will be greatly missed in a world of ever increasing fantasy bullshit, phoniness, and best-selling banality.
So, so long, Mr. Leonard, and thank you for all the great reads over the years and what you did for the craft.
----
Is case you've never heard of them, here are “Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing":
Quote:
1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”...he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
Angel Dust on 21/8/2013 at 00:56
Despite being an avid reader I have not, to my shame, read any Leonard. Where would you recommend I start?
Still sad news though. :(
Queue on 21/8/2013 at 04:59
I'd say maybe "Swag" or "Pronto", but if you like a damn fine western try "Hombre".
nickie on 21/8/2013 at 06:53
I only know some of the films. I do approve of 10. and wish more writers would follow that.
