Thursday, June 23, 2011

Short story rules from Kurt Vonnegut

In his book Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, Vonnegut listed eight rules for writing a short story:




Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

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

Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.

Start as close to the end as possible.

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.

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. To hell 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.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Editing tip

I was preparing the handouts for my fiction editing workshop at Willamette Writers Conference in August, and read up on a tip from Dave Browne and Rennie King that intrigued me: To make your writing more sophisticated, avoid participial phrases and “as” clauses; instead move your sentences straight into action. 
Here's the example from Browne and King:

Ripping off several large, dripping hunks of burrito, she pulled up a chair to the kitchen table and took a large bite. As she chewed, she wondered who she was maddest at. Clark, she decided.


The doorbell rang. “Heather, it’s me!” boomed a deep, authoritative voice. “Clark!”


Spotting her favorite red silk kimono crumpled on the floor, Heather stooped over and picked it up. As she pulled the kimono over her shoulders, she said a prayer of thanks that the wrinkled look was in.


As her fingers unfastened the chain lock, she wondered how Clark had gotten her address. It wasn’t listed in the telephone book.


“Good evening,” Clark greeted with a small bow as the door swung open.


“The bug man came last week,” Heather said sarcastically, refusing to budge from the door. “I thought he’d exterminated all the pests in my life, but I guessed he missed one. A big one.”


“Funny, very funny,” Clark said, clearly not amused as he leaned an arm against the door jamb. “Now you’d better let me in before I start causing a scene.”

Their edited version:

She pulled up a chair to the kitchen table and took a large bite of the burrito she’d found behind the stacks of Tupperware in the fridge. Who was she maddest? Probably Clark.


The doorbell rang. “Heather, it’s me!”


Clark. It had to be.


Heather sighed, stooped over, and picked up her red silk kimono from the floor. Thank God the wrinkled look was in. But how had Clark gotten her address? It wasn’t listed in the telephone book.


“Good evening.” He made a small bow.


Heather didn’t budge from the door. “The bug man came last week. I thought he’d exterminated all the pests in my life, but I guessed he missed one. A big one.”


“Funny, very funny,” Clarke leaned an arm against the door jamb. “Now you’d better let me in before I start causing a scene.”

This has given me some good ideas for editing of my own work and that of my clients. Let me know if it works for you.