Rules for Writing II

As I've said before, I love practical writing about writing, from Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" to Strunk & White. Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing is an excellent representative of the genre:

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

Unless you’re Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. But even if you’re good at it, you don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.