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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48196
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48196
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Having googled Kurt Vonnegut's writing tips, I found several different explanations of tip #5. Since all explanations have some merit (as far as being useful advice), and since I don't know which one Vonnegut actually intended, I'll bring them all here.

The first explanation is the one Jedediah suggests: **cut as much of the exposition as you can** without sacrificing the story.

The second one goes: **show right from the start where you're leading the story.** In _The Lord of the Rings_ we know from the second chapter onward that the goal of whatever happens is going to be the destruction of the Ring. In _For Whom the Bell Tolls_, we know it's all going towards blowing up the bridge. The reader shouldn't wonder where it's all going and why. (But he may well wonder how we're going to get there, and whether the goal will be achieved.)

The third explanation: **try to bookend your story**. By ending the story where you started it, or starting where you plan to end it, you show the journey that has been traversed in the course of the story. By showing something that hasn't changed, you're shining a spotlight on everything that has. An example would be _The Lord of the Rings_ again, starting and ending in the Shire. But the characters have changed, and the world has changed. (More about bookends on [tvtropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BookEnds)).

Again, I'm not sure which interpretation is the one Vonnegut had in mind, but I figure all of it is advice that might be useful.

Original score: 16