DeScribe

"Kurt Vonnegut created some of the most outrageously memorable novels of our time, such as Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast With Champions, and Slaughterhouse Five. His work is a mesh of contradictions: both science fiction and literary, dark and funny, classic and counter-culture, warm-blooded and very cool. And it’s all completely unique.

With his customary wisdom and wit, Vonnegut put forth 8 basics of what he calls Creative Writing 101: *

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.
Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. 8. 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.

The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964). She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that.

* From the preface to Vonnegut’s short story collection Bagombo Snuff Box"

http://www.writingclasses.com/Informati ... PageID/538

I really love this. Simple and concise, I did a print out and stuck it to my wall. Wow, loser like much? Brilliant though.

Yeah, well, I've got an Edgar Allen Poe quote on mine, basically reminding me not to be a pretentious tool (it happens, it happens).

Good ole Poe. I think you avoid pretentiousness by simply writing for other people. You fuck up when you write for yourself.

I think you avoid pretentiousness by simply writing for other people. You fuck up when you write for yourself.

I don't know about that. When I was younger, my diary (just for myself) was written plainly and simply - emotion first, style second. But if I was writing for an audience, it would be the wordiest and most impenetrable Latinised piffle you ever did see, because I was showing off.

I think some people will just always be pretentious ("pretensh" as my Dad says). The only real fix is to get a sense of what is really off-puttingly pretentious, and then get the strength to destroy it.

Also. I LOVE Kurt Vonnegut. I read Breakfast of Champions (note "of", not "for", thank you very much) over and over back in high school. I think the illustrations are terrific -

For instance, this is my drawing of an asshole:

*

And I just love the style. I don't think I'd ever read something so minimalistic and pseudo-objective before. I always found it really powerful. I've recommended it to others who've found it really difficult to get through, though. Shame.