There is no accounting for taste when it comes to writing styles. I never cared for Elmore Leonard’s clippy all-dialogue method. When it works, it’s great, but it can get tedious.
I would strongly recommend reading some early Gerald Seymour: Harry’s Game, Archangel, The Contract. His later work is uneven, this happens with “book a year” contracts.
I never thought of Leonard’s writing as “clippy,” although it certainly is dialog-heavy. I try to emulate that part of his style, which works for me since dialog is my forte.
What I like about Leonard’s writing is how I immediately become immersed in the story. His sparse description and masterful use of indirect speech creates an intimacy with the reader, even in the third person.
Another aspect of Leonard’s writing which I have learned is to make the antagonists complex. I have had readers tell me how attached they became to the bad guy in Collateral Crimes. And I’m glad about that because I never set out to make him as mean as I did. It’s just that the story demanded it.
I’m not concerned about contracts. My goal is to write each story better than the last, and I have built into Collateral Crimes enough continuing character arcs, interesting back stories, and sequel possibilities to keep me busy the rest of my life.
After looking up “clippy”, I take that back. Elmore Leonard, who learned from the works of Hemingway, did indeed write in a style that some people call clippy.