{"id":5343,"date":"2007-12-05T19:35:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-05T14:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indiauncut.com\/?p=2065"},"modified":"2007-12-05T19:35:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-05T14:05:00","slug":"eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight Rules For Writing Fiction\u2014Kurt Vonnegut"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’ve read VS Naipaul’s advice to beginning writers<\/a>. Now here’s Kurt Vonnegut:<\/p>\n

\n

Eight rules for writing fiction—Kurt Vonnegut<\/b><\/p>\n

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.<\/p>\n

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.<\/p>\n

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.<\/p>\n

4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.<\/p>\n

5. Start as close to the end as possible.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

These tips are from Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction<\/a><\/i>—and I first came across them here<\/a>, courtesy email from Gauravonomics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I especially loved the bit about the story getting pneumonia. All stories should get pneumonia and die, and then we writers should have to start all over again. Um, where to begin?<\/p>\n

(Previous posts on writing: 1<\/a>, 2<\/a>, 3<\/a>, 4<\/a>, 5<\/a>, 6<\/a>, 7<\/a>, 8<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You’ve read VS Naipaul’s advice to beginning writers<\/a>. Now here’s Kurt Vonnegut:<\/p>\n

\n

Eight rules for writing fiction—Kurt Vonnegut<\/b><\/p>\n

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.<\/p>\n

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.<\/p>\n

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.<\/p>\n

4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.<\/p>\n

5. Start as close to the end as possible.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

These tips are from Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction<\/a><\/i>—and I first came across them here<\/a>, courtesy email from Gauravonomics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I especially loved the bit about the story getting pneumonia. All stories should get pneumonia and die, and then we writers should have to start all over again. Um, where to begin?<\/p>\n

(Previous posts on writing: 1<\/a>, 2<\/a>, 3<\/a>, 4<\/a>, 5<\/a>, 6<\/a>, 7<\/a>, 8<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nEight Rules For Writing Fiction\u2014Kurt Vonnegut - India Uncut<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eight Rules For Writing Fiction\u2014Kurt Vonnegut - India Uncut\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You’ve read VS Naipaul’s advice to beginning writers. Now here’s Kurt Vonnegut: Eight rules for writing fiction—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. 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. These tips are from Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction—and I first came across them here, courtesy email from Gauravonomics. I especially loved the bit about the story getting pneumonia. All stories should get pneumonia and die, and then we writers should have to start all over again. Um, where to begin? (Previous posts on writing: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"India Uncut\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-05T14:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/iu-placeholder4.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"822\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amit Varma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amit Varma\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Amit Varma\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/#\/schema\/person\/890a3d673b0c90c97d76c45a1754ac3c\"},\"headline\":\"Eight Rules For Writing Fiction\u2014Kurt Vonnegut\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-05T14:05:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-12-05T14:05:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut\/\"},\"wordCount\":256,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/#\/schema\/person\/890a3d673b0c90c97d76c45a1754ac3c\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Arts and entertainment\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut\/\",\"name\":\"Eight Rules For Writing Fiction\u2014Kurt Vonnegut - India Uncut\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-05T14:05:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-12-05T14:05:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Eight Rules For Writing Fiction\u2014Kurt Vonnegut\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/\",\"name\":\"India Uncut\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/#\/schema\/person\/890a3d673b0c90c97d76c45a1754ac3c\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/#\/schema\/person\/890a3d673b0c90c97d76c45a1754ac3c\",\"name\":\"Amit Varma\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/amitvarma-bio.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/amitvarma-bio.jpg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":200,\"caption\":\"Amit Varma\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Eight Rules For Writing Fiction\u2014Kurt Vonnegut - India Uncut","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Eight Rules For Writing Fiction\u2014Kurt Vonnegut - India Uncut","og_description":"You’ve read VS Naipaul’s advice to beginning writers. 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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. These tips are from Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction—and I first came across them here, courtesy email from Gauravonomics. I especially loved the bit about the story getting pneumonia. All stories should get pneumonia and die, and then we writers should have to start all over again. Um, where to begin? 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