Kurt Vonneguts tips for writing short stories:
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
WTF? That only happened ONCE in Vonnegut's novels,
God Bless You, Mr Rosewater. Other than that, his characters in his *novels* were all pathetic losers. They were still great books, but I didn't root for anyone.
His short stories are another matter. Harrison Bergeron was a direct parody of Ayn Rand, but I still liked the character.