The WRITE Advice Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kurt Vonnegut

In the introduction to "Bagombo Snuff Box," a collection of magazine stories written by Vonnegut and first published in 1999, Vonnegut gave his eight rules for writing short stories. Among the advice was, "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water," and, "Start as close to the end as possible." A proponent of brevity, Vonnegut's other five tips concerned not wasting the reader's time (his first rule), making every sentence count, giving as much information as possible early in the story, writing to please just one person, and including bad events in the story so that characters show "what they're made of." But Vonnegut also said about writer Flannery O'Connor, "She broke practically every one of my rules, except the first. Great writers tend to do that."

Answer: Edgar Allan Poe

Practicing what he preached, Edgar Allan Poe published "The Raven" in January of 1845 to immediate success. Artistry in words, his prose and indeed his grammar were indeed pure:
"Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor."
["The Raven"]

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway had experienced two plane crashes prior to his acceptance of the Nobel Prize in October of 1954, and he declined to travel to Stockholm to accept the award. He asked John C. Cabot, then U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, to read the acceptance speech for him. The speech, read from Hemingway's script, ended with "I have spoken too long for a writer. A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it. Again I thank you."

In "Ernest Hemingway on Writing" by Ernest Hemingway, the "perfect characters" advice was included, in a compilation of Hemingway's letters and reflections.

Answer: Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard began his writing career with Westerns. In fact, five of his Westerns were made into films. He is more famous for his crime novels, two of which were made into motion pictures. "Get Shorty" and "Out of Sight" made the big screen in the 1990s.

Answer: Toni Morrison

These inspiring words, from a 1998 interview with Elizabeth Farnsworth, showed the sheer love of writing Ms. Morrison had. The Ohio-born author and retired Princeton University Professor advised, "If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it."

Answer: George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair, born in India in 1903, used the pen-name George Orwell. "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever," said Orwell. His life as a socialist and anarchist, and his work for the BBC in propaganda, gave him a dour view of humanity.

He did, however, give good advice on writing. His "Politics and the English Language", published in 1946, gave his six elementary rules for writers.

Answer: Jack Kerouac

Kerouac wrote a list that he called "Beliefs and Techniques for Modern Prose".
In it, he advised to "Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind." Holy contour! The road ran deep over Mr. Kerouac's writing pad!

Answer: "Never miss a good chance to shut up."

The quote "Never miss a good chance to shut up" was attributed to Will Rogers in "Vaudeville Old & New." The other quotes were advice from Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who wrote under the pen name of Mark Twain. Twain, a great humorist, gave much advice, but shutting up was seldom part of it.

Of the three Twain quotes given here, two were from his essay, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses", and the adjective advice came from his novel "Pudd'nhead Wilson".

Answer: Ray Bradbury

In Bradbury's 2001 keynote address at Point Loma Nazarene University's Writer's Symposium By the Sea, he gave advice on writing to young writers, as well as stories on his own writing experiences. His writing was indeed noteworthy. On June 6, 2012, The New York Times headlined "Ray Bradbury, Who Brought Mars to Earth With a Lyrical Mastery, Dies at 91." His stories were among the best in science-fiction. In fact, the opening line from "Fahrenheit 451" noted in the question, is often listed in the best-opening-lines-of-novels lists.

Answer: Douglas Adams

Adams spoke of keeping clean in "A Talk With Douglas Adams," by John Shirley. Showing his impressive control of words and ideas, he mused on grammar and syntax in "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" (1996), with convoluted reasoning: "One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of becoming your own father or mother. ...

The major problem is simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr. Dan Streetmentioner's 'Time Traveler's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations.' It will tell you, for instance, how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it.

The event will be described differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is further complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations while you are actually traveling from one time to another with the intention of becoming your own mother or father." With a mind like Mr. Adams', he has no need of mind-altering substances!