Write Great Fiction - Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint

Write Great Fiction - Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint

by Nancy Kress
Write Great Fiction - Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint

Write Great Fiction - Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint

by Nancy Kress

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Overview

Create Complex Characters

How do you create a main character readers won't forget? How do you write a book in multiple-third-person point of view without confusing your readers (or yourself)? How do you plant essential information about a character's past into a story?

Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint by award-winning author Nancy Kress answers all of these questions and more! This accessible book is filled with interactive exercises and valuable advice that teaches you how to:

 • Choose and execute the best point of view for your story
 • Create three-dimensional and believable characters
 • Develop your characters' emotions
 • Create realistic love, fight, and death scenes
 • Use frustration to motivate your characters and drive your story


With dozens of excerpts from some of today's most popular writers, Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint provides you with the techniques you need to create characters and stories sure to linger in the hearts and minds of agents, editors, and readers long after they've finished your book.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781582973166
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 03/15/2005
Series: Write Great Fiction
Pages: 240
Product dimensions: 6.01(w) x 8.97(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Nancy Kress (1948) is an American science fiction author. She is known for writing hard science fiction often involving genetic engineering. Kress first gained attention after winning the Hugo and Nebula awards for the 1991 novella Beggars in Spain which was later expanded into a full length novel. She would go on to win Nebula Awards for Best Novella for Fountain of Age, After the Fall, and Yesterday’s Kin.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What Do Readers Want?1
Chapter 1Types of Characters-Assembling Your Cast5
Chapter 2Introducing Characters-First Impressions Count19
Chapter 3The Genuine Self-What Is She Really Like?35
Chapter 4The Motivationally Complicated Character-But I'm a Mess Inside!51
Chapter 5Showing Change in Your Characters-If I Knew Then What I Know Now67
Chapter 6Protagonists in Genre Fiction-From Lovers to Starship Captains78
Chapter 7The Humorous Character-All Bets Are Off93
Chapter 8Talking About Emotion-Dialogue and Thoughts104
Chapter 9Emotion Suggested-Using Metaphor, Symbol, and Sensory Details to Convey Feeling119
Chapter 10Special Cases of Emotion-Loving, Fighting, and Dying130
Chapter 11Frustration-The Most Useful Emotion in Fiction147
Chapter 12Point of View-Whose Emotions Are We Sharing?158
Chapter 13First Person-I Saw It With My Own Eyes173
Chapter 14Third Person-See Dick Run185
Chapter 15Omniscient Point of View-Playing God205
Chapter 16Putting It All Together-The Fourth Persona213
AppendixChecklist-Critical Points223
Index227
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