Author Elmore Leonard, Part II

Part I of our interview with Elmore Leonard

One of the most prolific writers of our time, Elmore Leonard has seen more than 20 of his works adapted into movie or TV adaptations. Among his works made into films are the classic western "3:10 to Yuma," and it's 2007 remake starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, 1997's "Out of Sight," directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, and Quentin Tarantino's under-appreciated "Jackie Brown," starring Pam Grier and Samuel L. Jackson.

The latest adaptation of his work is FX's "Justified," a series starring Timothy Olyphant. Leonard will be appearing at Butler University's Clowes Hall in Indianapolis Dec. 6 at 7:30. The event is free and open to the public.

In Part 2 of this interview, Leonard discusses his rules of writing, what he hopes to accomplish yet in his career, and his beloved Detroit Tigers.

Your Rules of Writing started as almost a joke by the way I’ve read about you describing it. Can you tell me about how you came up with them?

Yeah, it was the year 2000, I was the guest of honor for the Bouchercon, which is a writer’s convention, named for I think his name was Anthony Boucher, who was a book reviewer. So that afternoon in the hotel I wrote my 10 rules. They were pretty much the same as they are that day. So I presented them on stage, and as I was walking off some guy came up to me and said “can I have those?” So I gave them to him. They were just written in longhand on some yellow sheets of paper, because I knew what they were. Then years later the New York Times asked me to do a column, I wrote on the rules of writing, and I had them more formally developed. But this guy who had the originals, last year or the year before he offered them up for sale on one of the…I don’t know what they are…what do you call them?

Auction sites?

Yeah, auction sites. I don’t know about that stuff. I don’t have a computer or e-mail or anything like that, so when the Wall Street Journal calls me and asks about a particular phase or particular end of writing that way, I say “wait. I write longhand. I’ve been writing for 60 years and I do it all by hand. That’s the way I like to do it. I’m closer to it, and I’m in it. I’m not looking at a screen a couple of feet away. That probably cut their interview in half, because that’s what they wanted to ask me about.

So you write in longhand and someone types it for you?

Well, I type as I write. I’ll write a page, then I’ll type it and look at it. It takes me maybe three pages to get a page that I like. Then I type it up, and when I finish it I give it to my daughter, and she’s been typing my stuff up for probably 25, 30 years, and she types it up and sends it out whatever way you send things on the Internet.

So you do your rewriting while you’re writing, then.

Yeah. If I wrote the entire book, then tried to rewrite it, I think it would be almost impossible. There are so many things that look good that don’t help the story, that don’t move the plot along. So when I rewrite daily, I keep it moving. I keep it with the sound I want. I don’t use an outline ever. I don’t want to know what happens next. I want to surprise myself while I’m doing it.

Is there anything you still want to do in your career?

Well, after I do this Raylan book, I’m going to write another book. I don’t know what it is, but I’m interested to find out. I never know until I finish a book, then I start thinking about the next one. It might be a photograph in the newspaper. For example, I saw a photograph of two marshals standing in front of the Miami courthouse where someone was being tried possession of cocaine, a Colombian. One of the marshals was a woman, and she was holding a shotgun stock against her hip, and the barrel was pointing in the air, and she was good looking, and I thought, “I have to use her for sure. She’s a book.” And she became a book.

The last thing I wanted to mention to you. There’s a friend of mine who is a Detroit Tigers fan, and I’m a Cardinals fan. We were both at a movie screening a couple of years back during the World Series when the Cardinals and Tigers played, and neither of us knew the other was a fan of the other team. We were both wearing our team’s jersey, and we saw each other and kind of smiled. Anyway, for my friend Matt, can you give us an outlook on the Tigers for next year?

I’m kind of surprised they haven’t done better than they have the past couple of years. They keep getting new people. The middle of the infield has been a question for a couple of years now, but they have good pitching now. I’ve been going to games when it was the old Tigers Stadium, and I went with Mike Lupica, who has a column in the New York Daily News. He was interviewing me for a piece he was doing with Esquire, and we sat in the stands, and one of the guys came up with a cooler full of Pepsi Cola and said to me, “Are you Elmore Leonard”? I said yes, and he looked at Mike and said “who are you?” And Mike just said “oh, yeah.” And he came back 5 innings later and had one of my books, “La Brava,” that he bought for $5. It was marked inside on the first page. So I signed it for him. Well, then Mike took me down on the field, and Ernie Harwell was there, and some people from New York, and I was introduced to everybody. And I told Ernie Harwell “this is the first time I’ve been on the field,” and Ernie said “Well, why didn’t you call me?” Just out of the blue like that.

[laughs] So you just pick up the phone and call Ernie Harwell.

Yeah, exactly. But I always go to a number of games every year. George Kell, the third baseman in the late 50s, was my favorite. I did a piece on him for a book on Major League ballplayers, and I sent it to George, and he liked it, and he started inviting me to games he was going to broadcast, and he invited me to breakfast first, and we’d go to the park. George Kell was a big third baseman, and he had 50 doubles several years.

Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to me. I’m going to try to get out to Butler, and I’m excited about it.

Well I hope to meet you there!