

How to Write with Style (1985) - rcoppolo
http://peterstekel.com/PDF-HTML/Kurt%20Vonnegut%20advice%20to%20writers.htm

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kansface
The Elements of Style is both dated and largely self-contradictory. Vonnegut
judged his own work by slightly different metrics:

1\. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not
feel the time was

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.

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d23
> The Elements of Style is both dated and largely self-contradictory.

That's a bold statement. Care to back it up?

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jeffreyrogers
I don't know what the OP meant, but I remember reading it and noting that the
section on not using the passive voice used the passive voice. There were
probably more things like that.

Unrelated, but in general I think the advice of Nassim Taleb is good: most
people looking to improve their writing style are really lacking something to
say.

~~~
mercer
> I don't know what the OP meant, but I remember reading it and noting that
> the section on not using the passive voice used the passive voice. There
> were probably more things like that.

Are you sure that wasn't a joke? I recall that the writers often would
cleverly break their 'rules' to make them examples of what to avoid.

~~~
jeffreyrogers
No, they gave examples of the active voice that were actually passive voice,
just better written.

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seahorse
The Elements of Style - W. Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

[http://faculty.washington.edu/heagerty/Courses/b572/public/S...](http://faculty.washington.edu/heagerty/Courses/b572/public/StrunkWhite.pdf)

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meesterdude
i read this and liked it, only after I scrolled up did I realize it was Kurt
Vonnegut.

Also, I really love this video of his, on the shape of a story
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ)

As a side note I found the formatting, or lack of formatting, interesting. It
felt very much like a document, or a piece of paper, than a web page. That
surprised me.

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tobias2014
I can thoroughly recommend "The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing
Well" by Paula LaRocque

([http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Writing-Ultimate-
Guide/dp/098...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Writing-Ultimate-
Guide/dp/0989236706))

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jdeisenberg
I remember reading this in an advert for International Paper when it first
came out. It's absolutely wonderful, and one of the most readable things I've
ever seen from Vonnegut.

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INTPnerd
This reminds me of many good principals of writing code.

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blackhaz
This is wonderful, thank you.

