Vonnegut's Eight Rules for Writing

[Mercy]

I found this and I thought that a different outlook might be useful. =)

Eight rules for writing fiction
by Kurt Vonnegut:


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.


Source: http://www.troubling.info/vonnegut.html

[johnroyal]

I like this.

[Alice Glitterhorn]

Suddenly I feel like I've learned a lot, just reading this. I'm sure #4 will help a lot - that's a good point. And #7... I don't think I usually make love to the world, but alright :) Thanks for posting!

[Lykaios]

I'm not sure about the last one. I wouldn't want to read a predictable book, or one that I could finish, it'd be boring. I think suspense is very important as it keeps the interested, curious, even. Some genres can't allow the reader to know everything; thrillers, mysteries, etc. And why would you want to know everything? It'd be like having an info-dump in the first couple chapters and then the rest just being predicable as you already know it all.

But the others are good.

[johnroyal]

I'm not sure about the last one. I wouldn't want to read a predictable book, or one that I could finish, it'd be boring. I think suspense is very important as it keeps the interested, curious, even. Some genres can't allow the reader to know everything; thrillers, mysteries, etc. And why would you want to know everything? It'd be like having an info-dump in the first couple chapters and then the rest just being predicable as you already know it all.


If you've read Vonneguts work, you could easily say that giving as much information as possible isn't exactly making it predictable. If anything, it makes you wonder what the hell's going on.

Like Galapagos, in which I wasn't even sure what he was talking about most of the time.

[Fiction]

Looks good to me!

[Dakilleux]

I don't like number 8 :P

Keeping them guessing means they'll keep reading

[Peppermental]

I don't like number 8 :P

Keeping them guessing means they'll keep reading

have you read Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle? He practically tells you the ending and you can't stop reading. And I'm not even a huge fan of that book xp

[Mercy]

have you read Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle? He practically tells you the ending and you can't stop reading. And I'm not even a huge fan of that book xp
He does that in Slaughterhouse-Five, too. I couldn't put it down. And even then, it was for sleep, and it took me forever to sleep because I wanted to read more.

[Ninjatrone]

I feel that whenever I try to limit myself to common conventions it impedes my progress, limits my freedom and the ability to express myself.
These seem like kind of uncommon conventions though. I love when people act realistic.

[Kiba]

Yay, I'm already following rules 2, 3, and 7! The others are kind of iffy, though; I don't like the idea of starting too close to the end, because that can give you such a limited window for the feel of the story.

[Rowenny]

Nice one, thanks for putting it here. These rules made me think about my own writing and how I construct it.

[Valencian]

I've doing 2, 3, possibly 4, 6 and 8.

Actually, I make disasters happen to my MC's every other sentence. Then I read it over and think 'What have I done?'. And it always seems that I have killed most of the characters in the first two chapters of the book.

[Anira]

This was actually very helpful, because even if I am not following all of the rules exactly it at least makes me be aware of when I am breaking them.

[Valencian]

It was helpful to me as well. I will now strictly try and follow those rules so it's not really strictly at all

[Nyx]

To be simple: I really like this , thanks for posting it up! =)

[bookmonster]

I think I was already doing some of these but it's still helpful.:)

[SapphireSeaBird]

Number 4's a good one. Kind of a way to make you focus and pay more attention to what you're actually writing.