Short Story Pointers

A few words of wisdome from one of the greats:

Kurt Vonnegut

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

Give the reader at least one character he/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 character, 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 the 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 heck with suspense, reader should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they can finish the story themselves, should the cockroaches eat the last few pages.