How to Write Like Kurt Vonnegut

Anyone who knows me well, must know that I am a huge fan of Kurt Vonnegut's work. Half in tribute to his style and half wishing to emulate it, I sketched out a recipe for Vonnegut-like composition:

1) Write out just one action sequence. Circumstances need not be viable - you will make them understandable in the preceeding text, which you will write later. Instead just write the draft of the action scene.

2) Find details that are intriguing, coincidences that are remarkeable, and parallels that are noteworthy. Resolve to discuss these throughout the course of the plot building up to the action sequence you have already composed.

3) Write out the necessary plot to arrive at your action sequence. Open windows into each of the lives of your characters. Make sure some have interesting beliefs that expose the puzzling nature of human morality. Make certain all have at least one aspiration, even if it is for "a glass of water." Most importantly, monkey around with their histories as you write. Let some of their paths cross serendipidously.

4) Give away the outcome of your action scene early and often. While you will, in effect, spoil the ending, it will sound as though the coming action sequence very urgently needs to be read.

5) Above all, concern yourself with humor. Understanding that even the most soft-brained, intuitive, poorly researched remarks will be well recieved if delivered conciscely with humble and comedic authority.