Writing Wisdom from Kurt Vonnegut

In Kurt Vonnegut’s interview with The Paris Review he describes the advice he gave his creative writing students.

Talent

Vonnegut was originally destined to become an architect or a chemist. Some how he ended up as a writer instead.

“I thought people were supposed to grab their talents and run as far and fast as they could.”

He makes it sound so simple. And maybe it is. Maybe there’s something we have the ability to do but we’ve prevented ourselves from pursuing it.

Why Should You Write

“I think it can be tremendously refreshing if a creator of literature has something on his mind other than the history of literature so far. Literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak.”

Writing isn’t just for writers. Everyone has a perspective.

Learning the art and science of writing

Vonnegut was asked if writing could be taught. His response:

“About the same way golf can be taught. A pro can point out obvious flaws in your swing.”

Imagine Kurt Vonnegut is your golf swing coach. Here are his suggestions:

Who are you writing for?

“Every successful creative person creates with an audience of one in mind. That’s the secret of artistic unity. Anybody can achieve it, if he or she will make something with only one person in mind.”

Don’t be afraid of cliches

“Life is a dream, cowboy and policeman stories always end in shootouts. If a lover in a story wins his true love, that’s the end of the tale, even if World War III is about to begin. Somebody gets into trouble, and then gets out again; somebody loses something and gets it back; somebody is wronged and gets revenge; Cinderella; somebody hits the skids and just goes down, down, down; people fall in love with each other, and a lot of other people get in the way; a virtuous person is falsely accused of sin; a sinful person is believed to be virtuous; a person faces a challenge bravely, and succeeds or fails; a person lies, a person steals, a person kills, a person commits fornication”

Play Practical Jokes on the Reader

“Don’t take it all so seriously. I would remind the students that they were learning to play practical jokes. If you make people laugh or cry about little black marks on sheets of white paper, what is that but a practical joke?”

Develop your characters

“Make their characters want something right away — even if it’s only a glass of water.”

Let people know what’s going on

“You can also exclude the reader by not telling him immediately where the story is taking place, and who the people are.”

Stage confrontations

“Students like to say that they stage no confrontations because people avoid confrontations in modern life.”

“The writer’s job is to stage confrontations, so the characters will say surprising and revealing things, and educate and entertain us all.”

Treat Writing as a Trade

“Carpenters build houses. Storytellers use a reader’s leisure time in such a way that the reader will not feel that his time has been wasted. Mechanics fix automobiles.”

Be a hustler. Don’t wait passively for somebody to discover you. Insist on being read