I’ve posted about how I hate seeing “said bookisms,” in fiction. I’ve posted about a lot of common mistakes new writers make, always trying to back it up with good links and facts.

Here’s something I love. It’s ten rules for writing fiction by Elmore Leonard. I hope readers take heed with this post, too. In fact, I think it’s especially important for readers to know these things nowadays being that they are reading so many inferior novels and don’t even know it. You are, as readers, going through the slush pile at times and you don’t even realize it. And you can spot these mistakes now in most excerpts on retail web sites where e-books are sold. I see them all the time.

This way, as readers and paying customers, you’ll know the basics of what defines bad fiction. And when you go over to goodreads to leave a review for an author and you say something was poorly written, you’ll know what you’re talking about this time.

Here’s what I’m talking about now. You can get there from here.

Elmore Leonard started out writing westerns, then turned his talents to crime fiction. One of the most popular and prolific writers of our time, he’s written about two dozen novels, most of them bestsellers, such as Glitz, Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, and Rum Punch. Unlike most genre writers, however, Leonard is taken seriously by the literary crowd.

What’s Leonard’s secret to being both popular and respectable? Perhaps you’ll find some clues in his 10 tricks for good writing: *

1. Never open a book with weather.

2. Avoid prologues.

3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. (Mr. Leonard said, “Never.” He didn’t grumble, “Never.” He didn’t mumble, “Never.” He said, “Never.”)

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…he admonished gravely.

5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.

10. 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.