Nancy Kress - Saturday Discussions Continued

This & That

If you're stuck in a story, try going back to the last scene you're comfortable with. Try to determine exactly where it went wrong.

Keep a "Bible" for characters. You'll save yourself a lot of grief.

Print out your first draft and edit scene by scene. Make your changes on the hardcopy and type them in again.

Look at stories closely. How much dialogue is used? How much description? How many scenes? What does each scene do? Analyze stories, tear them apart. This is how you learn. Do it with stories you really like. Don't be afraid to imitate other writers to see how their stories are structured.

In the long run, what counts is what you learn from your failed stories. The ones you publish early don't matter. It's the progress you make. It's what you learn from your stories, even your failures. You're in it for the long haul.

Stories should make you think and feel. A really successful story does both.

Stories have to have a different worldview that broadens the reader's view. That's a successful story. You don't have to like the characters, but you do have to care about them.