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September 5, 2007
Literary Boredom
Education Guardian - Literary Boredom
‘Academics love a dull read’ according to Jonathan Wolff. I totally agree with him but would point out that Kurt Vonnegut recommends the following for short story writers:
‘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.’
Wolff’s main point is that good writing involves keeping the reader in suspenders while academics encourage the opposite:
‘At least in my subject, we teach students to go sub-zero on the tension scale: to give the game away right from the start. A detective novel written by a good philosophy student would begin: ‘In this novel I shall show that the butler did it.’ The rest will be just filling in the details.’
I’ve often advised students to follow Vonnegut’s advice on the tension question. His other rules are worth a look too. You can find them here:
American State - Kurt Vonnegut’s rules for writing fiction
And here’s the book where you’ll find them:
B-)
Posted by Billy at September 5, 2007 11:43 AM
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