Vonnegut Creative Writing 101

From the Introduction to Bagombo Snuff Box by Kurt Vonnegut:

Now lend me your ears. Here is Creative Writing 101:

1. Use the time of a total strange 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 heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they should finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

These rules are intended to govern the writing of short stories, of which Vonnegut says: "It proves that a short story, because of its physiological and psychological effects on a human being, is more closely related to Buddhist styles of meditation than it is to any other form of narrative entertainment."

He also makes the point elsewhere that not only do short stories have a calming influence on the reader, much like meditation, but they have the added bonus of allowing you to meditate with another person, even one long dead.