Kurt Vonnegut - Eight rules for writing fiction

[anonymouse]

Kurt Vonnegut - Eight rules for writing fiction:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

-- Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1999), 9-10.


(Source: http://www.americanstate.org/vonnegut.html)

[orchid]

great advice!

[TomOfSweden]

My favorite author. yay. Thanks

[Rhabbi]

Well, as much as I hate the attitude of vonnegut, I have to admit that he knew how to write, and his stories never left me feeling cheated.

[anonymouse]

His point #5 interests me. I realize it's a joke but, there's also a certain usefulness about it. Two of the biggest problems I have as a writer, and they're related problems, are (a) I spend so much time setting the background that (b) my impatience with the story not actually going anywhere causes me to abandon it.

What I try to do these days is work the scene-setting/background into the fabric of the story -- to reveal things as I go.

anonymouse

[Rhabbi]

His point #5 interests me. I realize it's a joke but, there's also a certain usefulness about it. Two of the biggest problems I have as a writer, and they're related problems, are (a) I spend so much time setting the background that (b) my impatience with the story not actually going anywhere causes me to abandon it.

What I try to do these days is work the scene-setting/background into the fabric of the story -- to reveal things as I go.

anonymouse

Was it really a joke? If you read some of the things that arre produced in the name of writing today you will see where this rule would be very handy for some authors, robert jordan comes to mind.

[anonymouse]

Well, a joke in the sense that it's satire and, like all good satire, it's rooted in truth.

anonymouse

[Talia]

Thank you anonymouse for sharing this with us....I've moved this thread to this forum for this is helping others in their writing... I think this would also be something useful in Writer's Block...

[anonymouse]

Thanks Talia,

When I first posted, I was unsure where it really belonged. It's funny, but it's also a good list of useful discussion points.

anonymouse

[ElectricBadger]

Heh...very nice stuff, thank you for sharing Anon. Can't say I agree with all of it, but it at least gives some clear intentions of writing, which (as mentioned) are soemtimes horribly lacking.

[Satan_Klaus]

Number six should be no problem for a lot of us here

Satan_Klaus

[TheVariableX]

Excellent advice.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

In my last story I wrote the entire 11 chapters just to play out a scene in one of the last two. The first 9 chapters, while very enjoyable, were actually just there to put the end in context.

While cruising this forum I have been staring at a time line for a new story I am working on and I have been considering the merits of skipping the important context and first jumping straight into the good stuff.

[Playfulsub]

All good points, and I agree with many. I have to disagree with the last one though; I think suspense is good.

[Faibhar]

Rules are meant to be broken, are they not?