Ellis began work on what would become Less than Zero in 1980.[2] He cites his major influences as Joan Didion and Los Angeles noir, but he was also inspired by the moral ambiguity of American Gigolo.[2]
Less than Zero was to become Ellis' first attempt at a proper novel, following much roman à clef juvenilia. Its first draft was incredibly emotional and overwrought, and in the third-person. Ellis's creative writing teacher, novelist Joe McGinniss, advised that he return to the first-person style of roman à clef (which Ellis was hesitant to do) and Ellis stripped it back, from there evoking the minimalist style for which it became famous.[3]
In the former child actor Danny Bonaduce's 2002 autobiography, Random Acts of Badness, Bonaduce notes the striking similarity between the fictional high school in Less than Zero and The Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, California, where Bonaduce, recording artist Michael Jackson, film actor Christian Brando, and other children of wealth and celebrity went to school together.[4] In commenting on the novel, Bonaduce said, "When the book Less Than Zero came out, all my classmates were pissed. Not because it was an exact portrayal of our school – but because we failed to get any royalties."[4]
