Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on How to Write a Good Short Story

I NEED A WRITING COACH AND WILL PAY SOMETHING FOR THE HELP

Hi Eleanor,

First of all what do you expect a writing coach to do for you? Perhaps you need an editor. Defining what you need to complete mss is easy if you have a goal. If not then you can tread water until it ices over.

We can talk more if you like.

Retired for five years now. Pursued a series of pointless hobbies, followed by impossible activities including, mountain climbing. Now, being seventy five, the effort upset my enlarged prostate, and didn’t do my back any favours either.
On reading your article on short story writing, I was thinking, am I too late? I await your reply with bated breath. At my age the bated bit should not be taken literally.
Happy new year to all,
Brian.

Hi all,

I’m a short story writer and novelist who would love to guide or help out anyone if needed. I’ve won some awards and worked on a wide variety of written communication professionally. Presently I am a freelance business writer – resumes, Linkedin profiles, bios, etc. Leave me a message here and I’ll get in touch.

Hey Mark,I’d really love your help and to get in contact with you.We can stay in contact through Facebook,Whatsapp or Email,whichever suits you best

Hey all,

I’m like Brian, a 45 yr old wife & mother who has always dabbled in writing. I wrote my first short story when I was 8 yrs old. I’ve written several short since then, but then I turned to poetry and that’s my true love. My short stories and my poems are all “confessional”, and according to my son, quite depressing. I’ve always been afraid to allow anyone other than my husband and children to read anything that I’ve written. My daughter suggested that I take my little “notebooks of honesty” and have them printed so my family will always have a copy. Has anyone ever done that?

Interesting… The responses are more interesting, than the article. Americans seem to think that they are capable of doing anything they bloody-well like, given enough time and resources – that everyone is capable of being a world-class athlete, or an author, or a brain-surgeon… Not so. Writers have to be storytellers, pure and simple. If you don’t have a story to tell, you will only ever be a technical author, or administrative assistant… Words dribble-out of writers, like turds from dogs. They can’t help it, it’s a compulsion. I would say that in order to write, you have to give-up all dreams of ever becoming famous (or even good), and just get into the habit of telling stories. ‘Writer’s write’, to quote an old maxim. Just do it; let posterity worry about quality or usefulness! You should never approach any branch of the arts with a desire to become lauded or rich, but merely satisfied.

I think that is a fantastic idea. I always found it interesting when someone made their fears/ bad times/ lows of life into something creative and interesting. And who knows, not only will it distract you and give you something challenging and interesting to do, but you may also have a byproduct as an extra source of income and a fan following too (see Diary of a wimpy kid, the Wonder years.. heck even Walt Disney with his fear of mice)!

You know, I came to this site due to my love for writing as well as storytelling. I came because my friends want me to show what I can do at an open mic night, where I refuse to sing, or share my poems which tend to get people to worry. I write a lot to be honest, but my stories are often long and wouldn’t count as a short story. So I came here so I could relearn how to write a short story to perform. I read this but, then I looked down at the comments. You know, my thoughts may not mean much to you as I am only just going to be turning 18 soon, however, if you want to write, just do it. It takes me a thousand times before I am happy with it, heck, I am still working on some of my stories that I started two years ago. Why? If I get tired of it, it won’t be fun. I write multiple stories at once and many times I scrap 70% of them. Don’t worry about age as regardless of it, you should be able to express yourself in any way you see fit.

45 years young, lots of stories to tell. I started writing 30 yrs ago not appreciating the creativity as I do now. I read what I recorded in wonder!!! Is it possible I continue and make better?

At least 2 characters (Protagonist and Antagonist) good guy/bad guy. Your protagonist must have a worthy goal and the antagonist works to prevent him/her from reaching their goal. Start with an outline and make each chapter sequential scenes to tell the story. Take a look at some of your movie DVDs where the inside cover lists the various scenes of the movie. If it were a book, each one of those scenes would be a chapter in the book. Your first chapter needs to start your story with the Inciting Incident, which is the action that causes the story to happen. For example, if it’s a murder mystery, the first chapter should be about the a murder. Have fun,

Darryl

How can I get an honest critique of my writing? I’m an industrial painter and all my friends are beer swilling meatheads so they can’t do it. Is there a place I can send my stories to receive some input or corrections?

I’ll take this advice with a grain of salt, considering that half the stories in Bagombo Snuff Box were stories published in other books and then mangled by Vonnegut to suit the times instead of leaving them the gems they were. I literally threw the book across the room in disgust twice after reading his new versions of two stories…and Vonnegut is one of my favorite authors.

You have to write a lot of bad stories before you can write a good one. Works the same with songs.

Write with is one of the most critical steps of the writing process and is probably relevant to the first point. If you want to get your blood pumping and give it your best, you might want to write with passion, and give it all you got. How do you do this? Make sure that you have the right mindset whenever you are writing.
Check this out How to Write a Book That Can Change the World
Hope this will also help. Thank you.