As a writer, you must know what promise your story or novel makes. Your reader will know. Nancy Kress More Quotes by Nancy Kress More Quotes From Nancy Kress Every paragraph should accomplish two goals: advance the story, and develop your characters as complex human beings. Nancy Kress writingcharactertwo Fiction is about stuff that's screwed up. Nancy Kress stuffwritingfiction What characters do must grow out of who they are, and who they are is, in turn, influenced by what you make happen to them. Nancy Kress turnscreationcharacter Changers are characters who alter in significant ways as a result of the events of your story. They learn something or grow into better or worse people, but by the end of the story they are not the same personalities they were in the beginning. Their change, in its various stages, is called the story's emotional arc. Nancy Kress emotionalcharacterpeople Characterization is not divorced from plot, not a coat of paint you slap on after the structure of events is already built. Rather characterization is inseparable from plot. Nancy Kress coatsplotevents Technology is Darwinian. It spreads. It evolves. It adapts. The most dangerous wipes out the less fit. Nancy Kress fitwipetechnology You must learn to be three people at once: writer, character, and reader. Nancy Kress threecharacterpeople In commercial fiction especially, everything in the story usually contributes directly to the plot The shorter the story, the truer this is Nancy Kress plotwritingfiction There are two wrong reactions to a rejection slip: deciding it's a final judgment on your story and/or talent, and deciding it's no judgment on your story and/or talent. Nancy Kress rejectionfinalstwo Some writers find that they don't know their themes until they've finished the first draft (I am one). They then rewrite with an eye toward balancing on that tightrope: not too contrived, not too rambling; does what I'm saying about the world below me actually add up to anything? Other writers pay attention to these things as they write the first draft. Either way, an awareness of the macro and micro levels of theme can provide one more tool for thinking about what you should write, and how. Nancy Kress eyewritingthinking Religious reverence for one's own job, even if the job is worth doing, is a sexual turnoff. Nancy Kress reverencereligiousjobs Anything said in upper-crust British automatically sounded intelligent. Nancy Kress britishintelligentsaid Conflict is the place where character and plot intersect. Nancy Kress conflictplotcharacter You think intelligence and grit can succeed by themselves, but I'm telling you that's a pretty illusion. Nancy Kress gritsucceedthinking A stereotype may be negative or positive, but even positive stereotypes present two problems: They are cliches, and they present a human being as far more simple and uniform than any human being actually is. Nancy Kress problemssimplepositivenegative Without coffee, nothing gets written. Period. Nancy Kress periodwithoutnothingcoffee Before the scene, before the paragraph, even before the sentence, comes the word. Individual words and phrases are the building blocks of fiction, the genes that generate everything else. Use the right words, and your fiction can blossom. The French have a phrase for it - le mot juste - the exact right word in the exact right position. Nancy Kress blossomwordseverythingbuilding Pace, like everything else in writing, involves a trade-off. If you're not offering the reader a lot of action to keep her interested, you must offer something else in its stead. Slow pace is ideal for complex character development, detailed description, and nuances of style. Nancy Kress youstyleactioncharacter Readers want to see, hear, feel, smell the action of your story, even if that action is just two people having a quiet conversation. Nancy Kress feelactionconversationpeople In one sense, every character you create will be yourself. You've never murdered, but your murderer's rage will be drawn from memories of your own extreme anger. Your love scenes will contain hints of your own past kisses and sweet moments. Nancy Kress angerlovecharactermemories
