In his book Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, [Kurt] Vonnegut listed eight rules for writing a short story:
- Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
- Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
- Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
- Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
- Start as close to the end as possible.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Start as close to the end as possible. That’s my favourite rule of writing. It’s my favourite rule of storytelling.
How much does your audience really need to know to get the point? How much do they actually want to know?
You know that person, maybe it’s your husband, your girlfriend, your best friend, who always gives way too many details when they’re telling a story? They didn’t start as close to the end as they could have.
Vonnegut was right. Start as close to the end as possible. It will make your presentation more interesting, your story more interesting, your blog post more interesting. Your awful corporate bio more interesting.
Don’t keep writing just because your story doesn’t seem long enough.
