Tag Archives

  • Home
  • /
  • Tag Archives: "Kurt Vonnegut"

Writing for Longevity

November 13, 2013 0 General Advice , , , , Permalink 0

Linkoping, Ostergotland, Sweden

Last week, I blogged about Kurt Vonnegut’s “Eight Rules for Writing a Short Story.” As many of you may know, Vonnegut passed away six years ago at the age of 84.

He lives on through his many works:

  1. Player Piano (1952)
  2. The Sirens of Titan (1959)
  3. Canary in a Cathouse (1961)
  4. Mother Night (1961)
  5. Cat’s Cradle (1963)
  6. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965)
  7. Welcome to the Monkey House (1968)
  8. Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
  9. Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971)
  10. Between Time and Timbuktu (1972)
  11. Breakfast of Champions (1973)
  12. Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons (1974)
  13. Slapstick (1976)
  14. Jailbird (1976)
  15. Palm Sunday (1981)
  16. Deadeye Dick (1982)
  17. Galapagos (1985)
  18. Bluebeard (1987)
  19. Hocus Pocus (1989)
  20. Fates Worse Than Death (1991)
  21. Timequake (1997)
  22. Bagombo Snuff Box (1999)
  23. God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (2000)
  24. A Man Without a Country (2005)
  25. Armageddon in Retrospect (2008)
  26. Look at the Birdie (2009)
  27. While Mortals Sleep (2011)

To create such a body of work, it goes without saying that Vonnegut dedicated a lot of time to writing, but what might go unnoticed is the importance he placed on exercise. In an excerpt from a letter to his wife, Jane, dated September 28, 1965, he describes his daily routine:

I awake at 5:30, work until 8:00, eat breakfast at home, work until 10:00, walk a few blocks into town, do errands, go to the nearby municipal swimming pool, which I have all to myself, and swim for half an hour, return home at 11:45, read the mail, eat lunch at noon. In the afternoon I do schoolwork, either teach or prepare. When I get home from school at about 5:30, I numb my twanging intellect with several belts of Scotch and water ($5.00/fifth at the State Liquor store, the only liquor store in town. There are loads of bars, though.), cook supper, read and listen to jazz (lots of good music on the radio here), slip off to sleep at ten. I do pushups and sit-ups all the time, and feel as though I am getting lean and sinewy, but maybe not.

Similarly, another one of my favorite writers, Haruki Murakami, places a huge importance on establishing a writing routine and pairing it with exercise. In Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words, Jay Rubin writes:

By 1999, Murakami had run 16 full marathons and so completely identified himself with physical fitness that one magazine ran a 25-page spread on the connection between his running and his writing. ‘You’ve got to have physical strength and endurance,’ he said, ‘to be able to spend a year writing a novel and then another year rewriting it ten or fifteen times.’ He decided that he would live as if each day were 23 hours long, so that no matter how busy he might be, nothing would prevent him from devoting an hour to exercise. ‘Stamina and concentration are two sides of the same coin… I sit at my desk and write every day, whether it’s painful or enjoyable. I wake up at 4 a.m. and usually keep writing until after noon. I do this day after day, and eventually–it’s the same as running–I get to that spot where I know it’s what I’ve been looking for all along.

Murakami is the author of numerous books in his own right; most of them have been translated into English:

  1. Pinball, 1973 (1985)
  2. Hear the Wind Sing (1987)
  3. A Wild Sheep Chase (1989)
  4. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1991)
  5. Dance Dance Dance (1994)
  6. The Elephant Vanishes: Stories (1994)
  7. The Windup Bird Chronicle (1997)
  8. Norwegian Wood (2000)
  9. South of the Border, West of the Sun (2000)
  10. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche (2000)
  11. Sputnik Sweetheart (2001)
  12. After the Quake: Stories (2003)
  13. Kafka on the Shore (2005)
  14. After Dark (2007)
  15. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2007)
  16. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2008)
  17. 1Q84 (2011)

Take these two literary giants as primary examples.

If you hope to write for the long haul, not only do you need a writing routine, but you will also need to take care of your physical health. If you take care of your body now, you will hopefully add more years to your life, so, like Kurt Vonnegut and Haruki Murakami, you can write your heart out well into your golden years.

 

Photo credit: Swedish National Heritage Board / Foter

Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Rules for Writing a Short Story

November 6, 2013 0 Rules for Writing , , Permalink 0

In a earlier post, I praised Kurt Vonnegut for his skill with creating intriguing titles. His book, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, is no exception.

In it, he lists 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.

 

Kurt VonnegutHowever, Vonnegut qualifies his list by adding that Flannery O’Connor broke all these rules except the first, and that great writers tend to do that.

I hope these rules help you. Write the stuff that only you can write, the stuff that interests you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. Here’s a hilarious clip featuring Vonnegut sharing his thoughts on the shapes of stories:

 

Photo credit: mike dialect / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

NaNoWriMo Is Almost Here!

October 30, 2013 4comments Announcements , , , , Permalink 0

Press StartWhen people think of the month of November, they might envision turkey dinners and pumpkin pie. Family visits. Black Friday shopping.

I did. That is until Edwin Vega-Roman inspired me to accept the challenge of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

As per their website, “NaNoWriMo is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that believes your story matters. We organize events where kids and adults find the inspiration, encouragement, and structure they need to reach their creative potential.”

For the first time ever, I’ve officially signed up this year as a participant. I will be joining a community of over 150,000 writers from all over the world, all of us with the same individual goal: to compose 50,000 words from November 1 to November 30. I think of it as a writing marathon.

Now let me preface this by saying just the thought of writing 50,000 words scares the crap out of me!

I’m teaching five days a week, so I don’t have a lot of free time, but as for fiction, I don’t think I’ve ever written more than 5,000 words in a month! I’m notorious for revising and editing while drafting. I actually can’t begin a new page unless I’m comfortable with the previous page. I’ve read of other writers, like Kurt Vonnegut, who used this approach. He referred to these writers and himself as “Bangers,” and he called writers who are able to suspend their inner-editor “Swoopers.” I know I’ll need to turn off my inner editor and intuit a Swooper mindset when writing if I’m ever going to be able to be a “NaNoWriMo Winner.”

At the very least, though, I’ll have more of my novel completed by the end of the month.

So if you’ve ever thought about writing a novel, why don’t you join me? Signing up is free, and depending on your location, there will be several local events available for you to attend to help you maintain your focus and determination. Also, there are online forums available if you can’t attend any of the coffee shop meet-ups or workshops.

For more information on NaNoWriMo, or to sign up, please click here.

Wish me luck, y’all! Write your heart out.

 

 

 

 

Photo credit: NaNoWriMo.org

Judging Books by Their Titles

August 21, 2013 0 General Advice, Modern Writer v1.0 , , , , Permalink 0

Banned Books Week Banner

It probably goes without saying that strong titles are absolutely necessary to catch the attention of editors and readers alike.

A while ago, I read somewhere that people purchase books after first studying their covers and then reading their titles. (Though this doesn’t account for the power of positive reviews and word of mouth!)

If you’re like me, you probably spend a lot of time worrying about the titles of your stories/books. And it seems like every writer approaches titles a little differently: Some will create a title from the very beginning of a new writing project; it just comes to them. Others will wait until the project is completed.

I fall into the latter category. I hardly ever have the foresight to name my work before it’s finished.

Here are a few of my thoughts on this tricky business:

  1. List all of your favorite titles from your favorite authors. Analyze what they have in common. See if you can find patterns to steal. More than likely, each title uses active, specific language. You should, too! (I particularly like titles from Kurt Vonnegut and Haruki Murakami.)
  2. If you’re having real trouble naming your story/book, it could be that it just isn’t quite finished yet. Generally, when a story knows itself, it’s easier to name.
  3. Scan your work for a line or phrase that you could use as a title. Listen to what your characters say or think.
  4. Your title should give a hint as to what it is about, but it should also give a slight indicator of its tone. The most important aspect, though, is its ability to intrigue readers.
  5. Sometimes editors will rename your book to something that has more promise of selling.
  6. On a similar note, short story collections are not always titled by the best story in the collection. I used to spend lots of time analyzing title choices of some of these books, only to hear authors uncandidly confess that weaker stories often supplied a collection its title just because it sounded cool.

For an alternative approach to titling a book, you can also use Lulu’s Titlescorer. It will score the likelihood of commercial success for your book by referencing data from past bestsellers’ titles. (Although I’ve played around with this, and some of my favorite books fail to score well by its standards.)

So how about it? Do you place a high importance on titles for your work, or the books that you read? What are some of your favorite book titles? Please send me a comment or two below, and thank you for reading.

Write your heart out!

 

Photo credit: DML East Branch / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox

Join other followers: