tokyokevin: Kevin Ryan in Tokyo

Author: tokyokevin

  • Vonnegut’s 8 Rules for writing fiction

    Kurt Vonnegut is in my top 3 writers. Here are 8 reasons why.

    From the entry in Wikipedia.

    In his book Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, Vonnegut listed 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.

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

    1. Banned Books Week

      Last week was banned books week. All over the world, books are continually banned for their content. At this Interactive map of banned books, you can find out which books were challenged at school and in libraries all over the US and Canada. It would be great to do a version of this for Japan.

      Banned Books Interactive
      Banned Books Interactive

    2. Tool #100: ShowaELC

      ShowaELC Logo
      ShowaELC Logo

      Showa ELC, or English Language and Communication, is our unofficial department website for students and community building. I’ll be posting any further tools for students over there, and tools for teachers here. I’ll be maintaining that web site too, so keep a look out for new stuff there. Set up your News Reader to get both this site and that one. You won’t be sorry.

      This ends the 100 Tools in 100 Days. I’ll continue posting ideas and tools here, but add other topics like Japan, social life, economics and politics as well. I hope you have enjoyed these tools and will use some of them. I certainly will.

    3. Tool #99: Screeds: Liven up your web pages

      Scrolling messages in a .gif picture
      Scrolling messages in a .gif picture

      Some of you will end up making web pages for your students. This will liven up any message you have to send to them, such as a warning about a deadline or important information they need to see. It is called a screed. Try it, it only takes about 30 seconds to make one, then just save it to your computer and use it like any regular picture.

    4. Tool #98: Japanese IQ test

      Get everyone across the river
      Get everyone across the river

      This is supposed to be a Japanese IQ test, given to all students in Japan. The online version is like a game. I would guess many fail it, but the best thing about it is they could discuss between themselves in small groups, how to get everyone across the river. There are many rules (reading practice) and this would create lots of discussion about hypotheticals.