Elmore Leonard on writing

US News runs a Q & A with Elmore Leonard, whose 10 Rules of Writing will soon be out as a book. Cluelessly, the interviewer spends some of his first few questions quizzing Leonard about ending sentences with prepositions. Oy. As usual, Leonard is entertaining. He talks about turning down people who write and ask him to give them blurbs for their own books.

One guy I turned down, I read the first page of his book and it was awful, so I told him I didn’t have time to do much reading, and he wrote back, saying, “I would have thought that a letter from a professional writer like you would have been more artfully crafted.” Artfully crafted. I loved that. I said, if you’re writing a contract, that’s when you worry about artfully crafting your words.

Remember, when asked what kind of writing pays the best, Elmore Leonard’s the one who answered, “Ransom notes.”