Found this while reading an article on Kurt Vonnegut.
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 heck 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.
So my idea of writing a story that opens with Clany-esque minute-by-second details of two sets of quintuplets (the main characters) getting dressed in the morning to get ready for their day of doing nothing, ten years before they reach a crossroads in their lives (which coincidentally is they win the lottery and live happily ever after), is probably not a good idea?
I love this guy! Found any of his books yet? I’m reading Sirens of Titan right now. Found it at a second hand book store for $2.50. How could I leave it? And the great thing was, we don’t have this one! I may have given our original copy away, trying to convince one or the other of my relatives to read something good for God’s sake, but none the less, I felt like I’d found a treasure — and I get to read more of his words. You’d like him, Ryan. As a matter of fact, when I’m done, I’ll send it to you.
And that’s why my library’s never quite complete.