Here are Elmore Leonard's ten tips for writing, ignore these at your peril.

• Never open a book with weather.
  
• Avoid prologues.
  
• Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
  
• Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
  
• Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
  
• Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
  
• Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
  
• Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
  
• Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
  
• 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. '

See also this video