"Report on the Barnhouse Effect" by Kurt Vonnegut
Eight Rules for Writing Short Stories by Kurt Vonnegut
In his book Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, Vonnegut listed eight rules for writing a short story:
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.
Writing a Short Story
Plot
Conflict: A short story should be centered on one situation or problem to be resolved.
• Put a man up a tree.
Rising action: The events that lead up to the climax (or anti-climax).
• Throw rocks at him.
• The climax of a story is the “turning point” or peak of the action. Sometimes a short story is anticlimactic; the action seems as if it were building to a climax, only to leave us hanging or disappointed in the triviality of the ending.
Resolution (dénouement): The solution to or alleviation of the conflict. The outcome of the events of the plot.
• Get him down.
Setting
The setting refers to the “story world.” This includes the place and time the story takes place as well as the social environment and cultural context. Settings can be places that don’t exist in real life!
Because of the limited space in a short story, you don’t need to spend a lot of words establishing your setting. Try to do so with as few words as possible.
Use imagery(language that appeals to the senses) to transport your reader to your story world!
Characterization
Too many main characters gets confusing. Try to keep it down to a small few that you expect your reader to identify it with.
There should be a good reason for flat characters’ existence.
Don’t get bogged down trying to narrate extensive character descriptions. In a short story, it is better to reveal your characters through dialogue and action.
• What does your character say and do? How does he or she react to the events surrounding them?
Dialogue
A short story can reveal a great deal through dialogue. Well-crafted dialogue can give us background information, bring life to characters, and contribute to the theme and even establish setting.
Everything your characters say should contribute to the story in some way. No one should waste any words in a short story: not the author or the characters!
Theme
Your story should be about something. That is to say, decide what your theme or your message is, and let everything in the story work toward establishing it.
Unlike in a novel, which generally has multiple themes, a short story is probably better off focusing on one theme/message.
Your reader should be able to make an interpretive claim about your meaning!
