Elmore Leonard’s famous 10 rules have just been published in book form (with brilliantly sinuous, hard-boiled drawings by Joseph Ciardiello) in the UK, but you can read them for nowt here on The Guardian’s website, along with more 10 rulers from Diana Athill, Margaret Atwood, Roddy Doyle, Helen Dunmore, Geoff Dyer, Anne Enright, Richard Ford, Jonathan Franzen, Esther Freud, Neil Gaiman, David Hare, PD James, AL Kennedy Hilary Mantel, Michael Moorcock, Michael Morpurgo, Andrew Motion, Joyce Carol Oates, Annie Proulx, Philip Pullman, Ian Rankin, Will Self, Helen Simpson, Zadie Smith, Colm Tóibín, Rose Tremain, Sarah Waters, and Jeanette Winterson.
Leonard’s rules also featured on BBC2′s Culture Show and be viewed/downloaded here.
The Guardian contributors’ rules elicitied a nice tetchy response from Lynne Reid Banks (the author of The Indian in the Cupboard) in a letter published in last Saturday’s (6 March) Review section. Sadly, this isn’t published on the website, but ends with her Rule No 3:
“For God’s sake, know your place in the scheme of things. The world will wag on very well without you as a writer – as it can’t without the practitioners of some other professions, such as medicine, science, bus-driving and plumbing.”
Feel free to comment with your own rules and ways of bending, breaking and doing without them.
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#1 by K F on March 21, 2010 - 10:26 pm
Thanks for posting these up. I read them a while ago and meant to keep them, but they accidentally got burnt on the fire. I’m guessing there are no other comments because everyone’s busy writing?
#2 by Mick North on March 22, 2010 - 1:40 pm
You’re welcome. Worth noting that The Guardian’s website is something of a treasure trove for writers and lovers of good writing, with regular poetry workshops, a poem of the week, the AL Kennedy on writing blog, and the Author, Author series.
As to why there are no other comments, let’s hope it is because everybody’s writing rather than reading about writing or thinking about writing or worrying about not writing. There’s a story I like about an American writer, slightly worse for wear, visiting a university creative writing program (sic). “How manya you people wannabe writers?” he says to a room full of students. Up go the hands. “Then why the f*** ain’t you at home writing,” he says, before tipping off his stool.
#3 by nick pemberton on March 25, 2010 - 2:45 pm
Cheers for this, Mick. I photocopied The Guardian article and was going to scissor and paste them (literal, not virtual scissors and paste) into book like object and then photocopy them again and give them to a friend but the age of steam punk is over so I think I’ll just post the link.
Here’s my rule: Don’t get it right. Get it written.
#4 by Mick North on March 25, 2010 - 11:49 pm
Good rule, although you could add: And then get it right. And that terrifying and terrific quote from Beckett: “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”