Kurt Vonnegut schools your ass in fiction-writing!

[alder_knight]

Or rather, my ass! Eight tips! Thank you, 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

Comments

[barrowjane]

Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

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I love this one, because it's so very true and when it stops being applicable in stories is, to me, when the plot drives the characters rather than the other way about.

[alder_knight]

Yes! I think that is the most useful of the tips.

"Start as close to the end as possible" is very good advice as well, though far easier said than done, I think.

[capelia12]

Words to live by! :D

[alder_knight]

Live and write!

[redcirce]

These are all great advice, and so practical! I especially love 8. NGL, though, I read "...that the reader may see what they are made of" and immediately went to that same line from "On the Prowl". So my new favorite song. <3

[alder_knight]

BUT THEN I WANTED MORE.