Kurt Vonnegut on picking a lane: Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style. I am not urging you to… Show more
November 5, 2006
Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer and Congiusta:
I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don’t make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana.
What I had to say to you, m
... See moreVonnegut neither wrote down to his readers nor tried to go over their heads with wisdom. He was playful at the same time as he was profound,
Your goal as a writer is to always be looking for the topics, subject matters, and categories you are most qualified to write within. “Write what you know,” as the adage goes.
Vonnegut’s “Creative Writing 101” Rule #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.