Wikipedia: Kurt Vonnegut

merlin:

inky:

In his book Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, Vonnegut listed eight rules for writing a short story:

  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. No 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 hell 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 qualifies the list by adding that Flannery O’Connor broke all these rules except the first, and that great writers tend to do that.

Posted 2 months ago 96 notes

Notes:

  1. colectivoplanner reblogged this from tigs
  2. dennisdemori reblogged this from tigs
  3. thesimplestuff reblogged this from tigs and added:
    In his book Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, Vonnegut listed eight rules for writing a short story: 1....
  4. tolgaerkal reblogged this from tigs
  5. tigs reblogged this from merlin and added:
    I think the first one also applies to advertising.
  6. mashenka reblogged this from supersteph
  7. supersteph reblogged this from stevekinney and added:
    (viastevekinney)
  8. skzavideoz reblogged this from inky
  9. ourladyofthejenesaisquoi reblogged this from maxistentialist
  10. ryanmacg reblogged this from dwlt
  11. dwlt reblogged this from merlin
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  15. theobscureone reblogged this from taratallman
  16. ad7am reblogged this from merlin
  17. wearenomads reblogged this from sympathyfortheartgallery
  18. zachfey reblogged this from maxistentialist and added:
    Orwell’s Politics of the English Language i. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used...
  19. thedaytheytriedtokillme reblogged this from inky and added:
    That first rule is one that we violate all the time around here.
  20. onidavin reblogged this from inky
  21. themiw reblogged this from merlin
  22. rosasay reblogged this from merlin
  23. sympathyfortheartgallery reblogged this from merlin
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  32. maxistentialist reblogged this from merlin and added:
    This is the best writing advice I have ever read.
  33. stevekinney reblogged this from inky
  34. merlin reblogged this from inky
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  36. inky posted this

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