My hero the sublime Elmore Leonard inspired this latest writing contest: write one sentence breaking all or as many of Leonard’s ten rules of writing as you can. In case you’re unfamiliar with his rules, here they are:
- 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 word “said.”
- Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
- Keep your exclamation points under control.
- 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.
Send your entry by midnight February 1, 2012 along with your postal address to: Day6@CBC.ca, The subject line should read “Elmore.”
Good luck and may the worst writer win.