Limerick Ode To Elmore Leonard
Written with fond apologies to the late, lamented Elmore Leonard, after re-reading his New York Times piece, WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle. (His article cautions against the abuse of prologues, adverbs and other description, exclamation points, weather references, regional dialect, the word “suddenly,” etc.)
On a hot, sunny day, an attractive young man sat in a tiny, darkened room, compulsively reading Elmore Leonard’s essay on writing. Carefully noting his ten writing no-nos, he bellowed loudly, “Fuggedaboutit! I can violate all of Leonard’s rules in a single limerick!”
“It’s raining!” he loudly cried out.
Then suddenly felt like a lout.
“A mensch I shall be…”
From this you can see
Leonard’s rules are what writing’s about.
Tags: Elmore Leonard, Writing & Publishing Humor, Writing Rules, Writing Satire
Yes! This is great! I love breaking all the rules!!!!
Oh – but it’s good to let go sometimes! A very good limerick too, which I enjoyed (suddenly, unexpectedly, and loudly!).
A flippant wave at closet rules. Love the brash jauntiness of this limerick.
I do not like breaking all the rules, I just don’t know how to follow them. I enjoyed reading your piece
Ha!!! First learn the rules, then learn to break them with humor and abandon!!!
anyone that thinks they own writing is daft…
Lenny, Lenny, Lenny. You left us
sore about you leaving. I’d cuss
but doubt you would approve –
I’m sure you’d just reprove,
admonishing: don’t make a fuss
This made me smile!
Thanks so much everyone for your delightful comments!
Haha! Hilarious. I love it, and thank you for sharing.
lol! I loved this!
Thanks Justin and Talon!