Kurt Vonnegut's 8 Rules for writing.

[Isaac_Brody]

I feel that his list is certainly applicable for screenwriting. Feel free to use this or ignore. I think some of them would definitely help scripts. My favorite of his rules are number 2, 3, and 6.

Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 rules for writing

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 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.

[Al MacLeod]

Good stuff...thanks for posting that!

[Anthony Todaro]

Hell yeah, 'Slaughterhouse-Five' is one of the best novels ever written.
I think Kurt actually wrote one screenplay that was produced.
He was a great storyteller. Good find. Thanks.

[cap10kirk]

Nice read.

[Chris Messineo]

Love it!

[goodgoings]

Thanks for this. I've been reading Vonnegut's books lately.

[Philip Goetz]

If you are not advancing plot or character you are doing nothing. Woolfe?

[KhamIsk]

Thanks - this is helpful.

[Saharanturtle]

I like this