Every paragraph should accomplish two goals: advance the story, and develop your characters as complex human beings.

- Nancy Kress

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 peop…

- Nancy Kress

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…

- Nancy Kress

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 …

- Nancy Kress

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

Fiction is about stuff that's screwed up.

- Nancy Kress

Technology is Darwinian. It spreads. It evolves. It adapts. The most dangerous wipes out the less fit.

- Nancy Kress

You think intelligence and grit can succeed by themselves, but I'm telling you that's a pretty illusion.

- Nancy Kress

In commercial fiction especially, everything in the story usually contributes directly to the plot The shorter the story, the truer this is

- Nancy Kress