Even if your novel occurs in an unfamiliar setting in which all the customs and surroundings will seem strange to your reader, it’s still better to start with action. The reason for this is simple. If the reader wanted an explanation of milieu, he would read nonfiction. He doesn’t want information. He wants a story. Nancy Kress Read Quote
Every drama requires a cast. The cast may be so huge, as in Leo Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina,’ that the author or editor provides a list of characters to keep them straight. Or it may be an intimate cast of two. Nancy Kress Read Quote
Should you create a protagonist based directly on yourself? The problem with this – and it is a very large problem – is that almost no one can view himself objectively on the page. As the writer, you’re too close to your own complicated makeup. Nancy Kress Read Quote
You do not have to dramatize everything. In fact, you usually can’t, not without ending up with a half-million-word novel. Nancy Kress Read Quote
The climax is the place where the opposing forces in your story finally clash. This is true whether those opposing forces are two armies or two values inside a character’s soul. Nancy Kress Read Quote
The parallels between a stage and a book are compelling. You, like all authors, create ‘characters’ in a ‘setting’ who speak ‘dialogue’ encased in ‘scenes.’ Most importantly, you – like the playwright – have an ‘audience.’ Nancy Kress Read Quote
For commercial books in a genre, readers’ and editors’ expectations may be fairly rigid. Some romance lines, for instance, issue fairly detailed writers’ guidelines explaining exactly what must happen in a book they publish (and what must not). Nancy Kress Read Quote
Surreal fiction is a sophisticated art form. Events happen divorced from conventional logic, as events in a dream may happen. But unlike dreams, everything in the story contributes to an overall coherent point, impression or emotion. Nancy Kress Read Quote
As a writer, you must know what promise your story or novel makes. Your reader will know. Nancy Kress Read Quote
A brief short story may require only a few paragraphs after the climax. On the other hand, in his massive novel ‘The World According to Garp,’ John Irving’s denouement consisted of 10 separate sections, each devoted to an individual character’s fate and each almost a story in itself. Nancy Kress Read Quote
