How To Write Short Stories

A lot of people find that they want to write a short story, even though they are not a "writer" or an "aspiring novelist." Many people find short stories to be therapeutic, fun, relaxing, enjoyable. Writing short stories can be a great hobby, and can enable you to use your free time in a productive manner. At the same time, however, short story writing is not all that much fun if no one reads your story!

Kurt Vonnegut was one of the masters of modern American literature. With a vast collection of novels, short stories, and essays that stretched over 50-plus years, Vonnegut's work was highly acclaimed and well regarded. Somewhere along the way, Vonnegut compiled his list of "rules" for writing short stories. The next few paragraphs capture these ideas of his.

Vonnegut's first two rules dealt with the way you should take care of the reader - first off, by making absolutely sure the reader won't feel like you wasted their time, and secondly, that you give the reader at least one character they can root for. From here, Vonnegut stuck with characters next, saying that each of your characters should want something - even if this "something" is insignificant - and then he said that every sentence should either reveal character or advance action. Vonnegut next implored writers to do the following: Make horrible things happen to your characters, even if they are kind and sweet. By doing this, you allow the reader to see what the characters are made of. He advises writers to start as close to the end as they possibly can, and to write to just please one person. To understand this last one, realize this: If you write to please one person, and that one person loves your story, then all others who have similar tastes to your "one person" will love it also.

Finally, Vonnegut tells writers to give as much information as possible as quickly as possible. "To heck with suspense," he said. The reader should always have an absolute understanding of what is going on, is what Vonnegut said.

Of course, Vonnegut allowed that it is entirely possible for someone to break every one of these rules and still write great short stories. But you could sure do a lot worse than Kurt Vonnegut if you are going to find a writer to take advice from for writing short stories.

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