How to Write a Best-Selling Novel

As someone who’s made a fair part of my living writing, I gobble up advice from successful writers whenever I can find them.

I consume advice about writing fiction and nonfiction, poetry and drama, essays, and news. I’ve read all the best-known books and dozens of essays. But because of their brevity, I’m especially fond of checklists.

Judith, my editor, just sent me this list from Elmore Leonard, a very successful novelist that wrote, among other things, Hombre, the book I’m reviewing below.

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.But Leonard’s most important rule is one that he says sums up all 10: “If it sounds like writing, rewrite it.”