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 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
–Kurt Vonnegut
Nice tips to help with writing. I will have to keep them in mind.
Vonnegut’s zany and surreal world reflects the absurdity of our own and really bent my mind to different modes of thinking. His work has inspired my own visual arts for quite some time and I created a tribute illustration of the author with the help of an old typewriter. You can see it at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/11/happy-birthday-mr-vonnegut.html and tell me how his work and words also affected you.