From Wikipedia:
"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.
Vonnegut qualifies the list by adding that Flannery O'Connor broke all these rules except the first, and that great writers tend to do that."
If I could choose two? It's be Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury.
*EDIT*
Three? Vonnegut, Bradbury, and Harlan Ellison
1 comment:
Haha, nice unrelated-to-HK post. I've actually never read anything by Vonnegut (I know--shameful) so I don't have anything to contribute. But yeah. Ray Bradbury -- him, I like. I've only read Fahrenheit 451, which I loved, and a collection of short stories (I forget the name). Don't remember much about his writing style. I just remember things being dark and loving it. Anything you recommend in particular?
And borrowing your mandarin book would be schhwweet. Except I never actually see you! I went swimming with Cheho and Jonathan the other day, whom I believe you hang out with. You should join us next time!
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