I love pretty much all the writing of Kurt Vonnegut; I think he was a tremendous writer who always had something interesting to say.  I stumbled across this blog post today which contains much wisdom from the man himself, as concerns writing.  Including these gems:

“Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.”

and

“Start as close to the end as possible.”

I particularly like this last one.  Too often in stories – or in web projects, come to think of it – there is a ton of stuff you don’t need to get done, that you don’t need to put yourself through.  A story has an end point … a bunch of necessary stuff needs to happen to get to that point, but by being strict in determining what is necessary, and what isn’t, you’ll save yourself a lot of heartache.

I’ve a sudden desire to re-read Breakfast of Champions this weekend.