December 29, 2005
Elmore Leonard has famously talked about his 10 rules for writing, one of which is don't write about the weather, or perhaps it's, don't start with the weather. Joe Konrath has chimed in on his website about this as well, and I think it's probably pretty good advice overall.

It's sort of amusing, actually, because one of the things I remember off the top of my head about Joe's first novel, Whiskey Sour, is Jack Daniels arriving at the crime scene in freezing rain. I just pulled the book off the shelf to double-check, and sure enough, there it is in the second sentence: "Several people had gathered in the parking lot behind the yellow police tape, huddling close for protection against the freezing Chicago rain."

Now, Joe, if he's reading this, will probably argue that it's not the first sentence (it isn't, that's "There were four black and whites already at the 7-Eleven when I arrived.") and the focus isn't the weather. He would be right. It's part of the scene and the setting.

Robert Crais, an author I admire greatly, has from time to time begun his novels with the weather.

The reason I bring this up at all is because I started reading "Live Bait" by P.J. Tracy and although it doesn't begin chapter 1 with the weather... oh, wait. I just checked. The first sentence is: "It was just after sunrise and still raining when Lilly found her husband's body."

Okay. Never mind. But let's go to PJ's second chapter.

"April in Minnesota was always unpredictable, but once every decade or so, it got downright sadistic, fluctuating wildly between tantalizing promises of spring and the last, angry death throes of a stubborn winter that had no intention of going quietly."

PJ then goes on to talk about the weather for two more paragraphs before bringing on main character Detective Leo Magozzi, and his reaction to the weather for a couple more paragraphs. And I just want to point out as a sidebar of interest, that "paragraph" above is only one long sentence.

Anyway, should you pay attention to Elmore Leonard's rules? Sure. Or, as they say in "Pirates of the Caribbean," "...the code is more like guidelines."

What both Joe and PJ (which is a pseudonym for a mother and daughter, not to be confushed with PJ Parrish, a pseudonym for two sisters, or, for that matter, PJ O'Rourke or... anyway...) have done, actually, is entertain us. Jack Daniels shows up at the crime scene in freezing rain wearing a lightweight coat because of her expensive clothes and spends some time complaining about how she's freezing, which is the cost of being fashion savvy. It's setting and character development and amusing and sets the tone and the scene remarkably well.

PJ sets the time of year and the scene too, and does so in a very witty, amusing way, leading us to why Detective Magozzi is sitting in a lawn chair in his front yard watching the neighbors run around the neighborhood instead of being out and about trying to hunt down murderers. And what I noticed about their writing in general was how entertaining it was, even while describing the weather. First-class writing, as far as I'm concerned, which may be the point.

If you do it with enough energy and style with the intention of entertaining, you can probably get away with anything.

Leonard's most trenchant "rule" is: leave out the parts readers skip.

That is to say, the boring stuff. You can write about the weather all you want, just don't bore us. That's pretty much the only rule you need to follow. Don't be boring.

Best,
Mark Terry