Here is Kurt Vonnegut's advice to writers in "Eight Rules of Writing Fiction" from his book Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short 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. 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 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 conveys more on his craft with these brief rules than many who have written books on the subject.
Grey Swan
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