Nancy Kress Quotes

I am a very linear thinker, so I write beginning to end. I write hundreds of pages per book that never make it into print.

I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction - by skipping the parts that bored me.

Each book has been different and has been challenging in its own way to write.

I seem to turn out stories that violate the discipline of the short story form and don't obey the rules of progression for novels. I don't think about a particular form: I think more about fiction, let's say a chunk of fiction.

I love rewriting because that is where and how you discover the story. It's like you have this skeleton, and you get to put flesh on it and hair and clothes and really wonderful jewelry.

When I see things in the world that leap out at me, I want to make use of them in fiction. Maybe every writer does that. It just depends on what you claim or appropriate as yours.

I have friends who are capable of writing a very rough draft and then going back and embroidering - they're sort of the cathedral builders of fiction. I never really know what I'm doing, and all my pleasure's on the level of the line.

Some stories or passages are more difficult and demand more fussing with than others, but, in general, I'm a two-draft writer rather than a six-draft writer, or whatever.

Of course, all writers draw upon their personal experiences in describing day-to-day life and human relationships, but I tend to keep my own experiences largely separate from my stories.

I have no favourite genre or style but treat each novel with the same care, imagination and craftsmanship. It's as difficult to write a crime or a children's novel with a touch of style and grace as it is a literary novel.

While writing a novel, I don't read anything new in fiction. I am too engrossed.

To tell you the truth, I don't edit much at all. Most times, when I have finished the first draft, that's the book. Of course, I work on the page I am on until I am happy with it. I might even say that I try to state the landscape.

Becoming an author changes your attitude too. Once you see where books come from, and how they're made, they never seem quite as sacred again.

And I think a good writer's gonna make it interesting. From the first paragraph it will all be interesting. Just work at it and work at it and work at it.

Plot is not my forte. It's like I have to live in my head in the book for a while before I figure out what the story is... My process is a bit messier.

Fiction and nonfiction, for me, involve very different processes.

Writing fiction, I really just sit there and it just comes.

I come from a prose background. I come from short story background, and that led me into novels.

I don't know if it's good or bad, but when I first started writing I imitated the narrative thrust of a movie. And as I worked, I learned what you can do in fiction that you can't do in movies, and vice-versa.

When I write something, I can't remember in the end if this is a memory or if it's not - I'm talking about fiction. So for me, it's the same thing.

The older I get and the more fiction I write, the more I outline, the more I think about plot before I dive in and plunge too far.

I'm not a writer who refuses to talk about a book until I've finished.

I think I've written 40 books, and none of them have been heavy on action. I'm an introspective person.

I'm very involved in the writing on every level.

My writing process often begins with a question. I write down ideas and let them stew for about a year. Then, when I sit down to write, I make a list of characters and try to see how they fit.