You don’t write for the whole world, for ten people, or two. You write for just one person. -Kurt Vonnegut

Is the above statement true? But who are we writing for? Ourselves, our true love, friends, kids, our secret crushes? Vonnegut wrote  for his loves, wrote for therapy (after his suicide attempt) and the social, economic and political issues of his time. here are the guidelines I am living by for my shorts and the screenplay pieces I am working on:

Kurt Vonnegut: 8 Basics of Creative Writing

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut created some of the most outrageously memorable novels of our time, such as Cat’s CradleBreakfast Of Champions, and Slaughterhouse Five. His work is a mesh of contradictions: both science fiction and literary, dark and funny, classic and counter-culture, warm-blooded and very cool. And it’s all completely unique.

With his customary wisdom and wit, Vonnegut put forth 8 basics of what he calls Creative Writing 101: *

  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 character or advance the action.
  5. Start as close to the end as possible.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck 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.

I admire his writing style and thank you to Gotham Writer’s Workshop for the wonderful article.

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2 thoughts on “Who do you write for?

  1. Short stories have taught me more about writing than anything else I have ever done. I have been forced to pare away unnecessary words, characters, and subplots to get to the nitty gritty as quickly and succinctly as possible. All 8 of Vonnegut’s rules have served me well in this endeavor

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