Just two days ago world renowned crime writer Elmore Leonard passed away.
It’s a sad day for those of us who loved his work and a sad day for the entertainment industry as a whole.
Elmore Leonard started out writing Westerns and transitioned into crime, becoming one of the great crime writers of the century.
Elmore Leonard was a prolific writer and many of his books were adapted into movies. Although not impressed with the vast majority of the early adaptations of his work, latter works came as close as possible to being faithful to his novels, with such delightful movies as Out of Sight and Get Shorty.
Love his books or hate them, there is no denying that Mr. Leonard’s work was original and hugely influential. Even Quentin Tarantino (another master of great dialogue referred to Mr. Leonard as one of his main influences and inspiration—hence the Jackie Brown homage based on Leonard’s Rum Punch).
Pick up any of Leonard’s books and the first thing you’ll notice is the dialogue. Indeed, it is the dialogue that drives his work. His books are notoriously sparse on action, focusing instead on the dialogue and interactions between the characters.
Read an Elmore Leonard novel and you’ll realize that there are few other writers quite like him. His dialogue flows beautifully, and it’s as though he was born with perfect pitch.
Any screenwriter, or writer for that matter, who wants to master dialogue should look no further than Leonard’s writing. His dialogue was sharp, witty and about as truthful as you could get.
One of the things I loved most about reading an Elmore Leonard novel was the simple fact that they were never boring. The writing was so tight and the characters so interesting, I was hooked the moment I started reading.
In my previous job as a screenplay agent, I had many screenwriters ask me for advice on writing dialogue (the fact that they thought I knew something they didn’t always amused me). But the one thing I always said was this, “read Elmore Leonard.”
This advice holds true to this day. Any screenwriter who is struggling to write engaging and interesting dialogue should check out Leonard. This will give you a sense of how an “interesting” conversation should read.
Note, dialogue in books and movies is different to dialogue in real life. Real life dialogue is boring and mundane with lots of “uhmmms” and “errrrrs.” You’ll want to avoid all of these if you want to write great dialogue.
Leonard even offered some wise advice to fellow writers, with his 10 Rules for Good Writing:
- Never open a book with weather.
- Avoid prologues.
- Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
- Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…he admonished gravely.
- Keep your exclamation points under control.
- Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
- Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
- Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
- Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
- 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.
It’s some wonderful advice and I’ve spoken to quite a few well-known screenwriters who have these rules printed out and stuck above their desk.
In reflection, when I look back on Mr. Leonard’s work, I can’t help but be grateful that such a wonderful talent could grace this earth.
His books Maximum Bob, Stick, 52 Pick-Up and Gold Coast were personal favorites. I savored every chapter, every page, and every line.
One of my screenwriter friends summed it up this way, “I gave up reading fiction a long time ago, the only writer I couldn’t give up was Elmore Leonard.”
*Jennifer Sloane has worked as a screenplay agent in Los Angeles and Nashville for the last five years. Jennifer loves good movies, music and animals. A former television and movie executive, Jennifer currently heads business development at Script Mailer (a company that connects screenwriters with agents and producers in Hollywood).