Elmore Leonard has no idea what comes next, and that’s the way he likes it

Elmore Leonard’s “10 rules of Writing,” originally published as a New York Times essay and to be published as a book this fall, contains fine advice from a novelist at the pinnacle of his career. Leonard has some idea of what works, having published 42 novels and enjoyed watching Hollywood turn out popular movies based on his books, including “Get Shorty,” “Jackie Brown” and “Out of Sight” (three more films are in progress this year).

But the 10 rules came last. First, he sat down at his typewriter.

“I imitated Hemingway in the late ’40s and early ’50s, as so many thousands of people did, because he made it look easy,” Leonard told an audience at The Music Hall on Friday, May 12, describing his routine of rising at 5 a.m. to write a couple of pages before going to work to write Chevrolet ads.

“I’d copy a paragraph from Ernest Hemingway on my typewriter, then I’d write the next paragraph to see how it sounded. Then I’d look in the book to see what he’d written,” Leonard said. He kept writing. He discovered author Richard Bissell, a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy whose novels reflected his experience as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River.

“This was real to me. I wanted to get real people into my stories. These are people you know,” he said of his discovery. Bissell’s sense of humor appealed to Leonard’s own urge to include “at least a character or two that had attitude” in his own stories.

Eventually, through the act of writing, Leonard became a writer. “You have to write something like a million words to have any confidence in your style, the way you tell a story,” he told the audience at the latest installment of the Writers on a New England Stage series.

Reading from notes during the first half of the program, he spoke of his approach to writing, upcoming film projects and the plot of his novel-in-progress. Bathed in low-level house lights, the crowd listened closely, laughing warmly at his occasional touches of modesty and humor.

Leonard’s books are well known for being populated with “real people” who find themselves in tight circumstances, and it’s clear he gets a kick out of them. His granddaughter is filming a version of the short story “Sparks,” which he described as being about a woman who burns her house down because she doesn’t like the Chinese furniture her deceased husband’s previous wife bought. When an insurance investigator pays her a visit, Leonard describes, “He says, ‘We have good reason to believe you set fire to your home.’ She says, ‘Would you like a martini?’”

He laughs. “I really can’t help it, and (the characters) can’t help the way they are. They want to cut corners. That’s the way they are, and that’s OK with me.”

His first published novel, in 1953, was “Bounty Hunters,” a pulp western set in southern Arizona. His favorite, because he had the most fun writing it, is “Tishomingo Blues,” the story of a high diver who gets caught up with the Dixie mafia and is ultimately forced into a confrontation during a climactic Civil War reenactment, which even the villains take very seriously. His characters also include stunning defense attorneys, ex cons, immigrants and thieves. Lacking a gift for language, he says his goal is to introduce his characters to readers, then remain invisible while their lives unfold.

Leonard’s next novel brings together, for the first time, several of his characters from other books, including Jack Foley, played by George Clooney in “Out of Sight.” Leonard grew visibly more excited as he explained how, through several plot twists, he was able to bring back one character who had been given a 30-year-jail sentence, and to save another who had been shot three times in the chest. The two end up meeting in Los Angeles in the new book. “I don’t know how this book is going to turn out, but I know George Clooney is going to love it,” he said, to much laughter.

New Hampshire Public Radio host Laura Knoy interviewed Leonard during the second half of the program, asking about the World War II homefront setting of his current novel, “Up in Honey’s Room.” An audience member asked if he ever becomes stuck on plot details, and, if so, what he does. “What comes next?” he asked. “Something. If you’re stuck, go out to the kitchen, get some peanuts or take a phone call, then get back and it will be clear to you what comes next.”

The program will air during “The Exchange” on NHPR on Friday, May 18 at 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. Writers on a New England stage will return to The Music Hall on Oct. 3 with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo discussing his new book, “Bridge of Sighs.” Filmmaker Ken Burns is also scheduled for the fall, on a date yet to be announced, and journalist Cokie Roberts will visit next spring.