Because MYspace blogs are wacky just now--

 -- I was unable to comment to author Terry Odell who is hosting a short story writing panel and offered this to us all beforehand, at

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog....  She said:

Kurt Vonnegut had some interesting things to say about short stories in his collection, Bagombo Snuff Box. And who am I to argue with a master?

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.

   Excellent advice. Terry also said:

I thought I'd share the second page of my handout from the short story workshop, with more quotes about the craft. If you missed the first page, it was Friday's post. Any favorites?

"I have written a great many stories and I still don't know how to go about it except to write it and take my chances."
~John Steinbeck

"I'm a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can't and then tries the short story which is the most demanding form after poetry. And failing at that, only then does he take up novel writing."
~ William Faulkner

"Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short"
~ Henry David Thoreau

"I'm sorry this letter is so long, but I did not have time to make it shorter."
~Blaise Pascal (often attributed to Mark Twain)

"I try to leave out the parts that people skip."
~Elmore Leonard

"Short stories are designed to deliver their impact in as few pages as possible. A tremendous amount is left out, and a good short story writer learns to include only the most essential information."
~Orson Scott Card

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
~Thomas Jefferson

"You learn by writing short stories. Keep writing short stories. The money's in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed."
~Larry Niven