Makin’ All the Rules

Just over a week ago, we reported that The Rap Sheet would be holding a contest through which some lucky reader could win a free copy of crime novelist Elmore Leonard’s forthcoming non-fiction book about the art of fiction composition, appropriately titled Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing. The contest rules have now been posted. To quote from The Rap Sheet:

We’ll give a copy of Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing to the person who can send us the cleverest Leonard-related five-line limerick. Feel free to integrate the titles of Leonard’s novels or any of his characters into your submission, or you might incorporate one or two of the 10 rules of writing that this author has spelled out before, and about which we assume he has more to say in his forthcoming book. Alternatively, you could set out deliberately to break as many of his rules as possible in your limerick. Anything you can do to make your doggerel distinctly Leonard-esque is fine with us. Extra points will be given for rampant creativity.

All limericks must be submitted to The Rap Sheet by next Saturday, October 27. E-mail them here. And please write “Elmore Leonard Contest” in the subject line.

The Rap Sheet will announce a winner on October 30, the official publication date of Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing.

For more information, click here.

Get Elmore

While Elmore Leonard (Get Shorty, Up in Honey’s Room) turned 82 yesterday, fans might celebrate his birthday later this month with the purchase of the author’s first work of non-fiction, Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing. We’ve yet to see the book, but Leonard’s notoriously no nonsense style, as well as the tantalizing tidbits about writing he’s let fly over the years, makes us think the 96-page book will be one to stand up for.

Leonard has been credited with telling writers not to “write what the reader will skip over anyhow,” and advising them to “never use an adverb to modify ‘said.’” So it’s hard not to try to imagine which few words this man of not many of them will choose to impart in Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing.

One lucky reader of January Magazine’s sister publication, The Rap Sheet, won’t have to imagine. The Rap Sheet will be giving away a signed and numbered copy of the book, one of only 10 the publisher is producing. “It’s being left up to us to decide how this exclusive edition ought to be disseminated,” writes editor J. Kingston Pierce. “Because we just received this invitation ... we haven’t determined yet how to choose this book’s lucky winner. Maybe through a trivia contest? Or perhaps a beauty competition, with the signed volume going to whoever looks best in a bikini? While that latter approach might brighten up our rain-dreary days, it’s altogether too commonplace. There’s got to be a better idea.”

Pierce is taking suggestions prior to deciding what sort of contest will determine this rare copy’s new owner. We’ll let you know when he nails down and posts the rules. Pierce’s first post on the topic is here.