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“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.”
His works such as Cat's Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), and Breakfast of Champions (1973)
blend satire, gallows humor, and science fiction.
Mr. Vonnegut has eight tips on how to write a good short story:
- Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
- Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
- Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
- Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
- Start as close to the end as possible.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
I love Vonnegut and the quotes you picked are great. I'm teaching one of his books right now in a lit class: Bluebeard, his satire on the art world, which is right on target.
ReplyDeleteCatherine:
ReplyDeleteVonnegut was a genius and made you both think and smile at the same time: a hard thing to do. I wish you fun and success in your lit class! :-)
And that's why his writing was so amazing. What a great compilation of his advice. I love this Roland!
ReplyDeleteHeather:
ReplyDeleteI am so happy you enjoyed this post by Vonnegut. Yes, he was, indeed, an amazing writer! Thank you so much for visiting and commenting! :-)
never heard of him. thanks so much for introducing me!!
ReplyDeleteRead Slaughterhouse 5, but not sure I liked it. Vonnegut was an acquired taste but fit in well at the time he was writing.
ReplyDeleteWriting tips with a touch of cynicism are always welcome. (cockroaches eat the pages?)
Hi Roland .. open the window and your story will catch pneumonia ... love that description - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteGood advice for short stories but not all of this applies to a novel.
ReplyDelete"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"--------First thing I thought of when I read this is my daughter saying, "The dog ate my homework..."
Breakfast of Champions is one of the best books I've ever read! Great quotes. There were so many layers to his work.
ReplyDeleteTammy:
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to introduce you. I think you would like Nick's choice: BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS. :-)
D.G.:
Like Ann Rand, Kurt Vonnegut, is an acquired taste in literature for some. As for his humor, I think he and Mark Twain would have gotten along famously (pun intened!) :-)
Siv:
LOL. Ah, yes the dog excuse. Yes, Kurt was talking about short stories here.
Nick:
Weren't there an amazing amount of layers to his work? Now, I'll have to go back and re-read BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS! :-)
"Start as close to the end as possible" - awesome!
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff Roland! I used to read a lot of Vonnegut back in the day..he was a genius.
ReplyDeleteI love that last one on the list. The visual of the cockroaches eating the last few pages and the reader smiling because he knows where the story ends up!
ReplyDelete