The Writing Process and Nancy Kress

[cathschaffstump]

Nancy Kress, one of my teachers from Taos Toolbox, has graciously taken the time out to answer some questions about the writing process.

Tamago: Do you have a regular drafting process, or does your drafting process vary from book to book. Can you describe it to us generally, or at least for one project?

Nancy: I do have a regular process. For the first draft, I write non-stop, ignoring mistakes and changes of heart and general inconsistencies, just trying to get the story down. The second draft is a major rewrite: moving, eliminating, or adding scenes. Fixing major inconsistencies. Sharpening the foreshadowing, since now that I have an ending, I know what it is I am trying to foreshadow. Draft three is a clean-up, addressing minor inconsistencies and fiddling with word choice. Then I give the ms. to my husband to read. If he has suggestions--and he usually has good ones--my fourth and final draft is to incorporate those. Then the story or novel gets sent off.

Tamago: I remember at Toolbox you suggested that you could see about two scenes ahead when you wrote. What sorts of methods do you use to plot a story?

Nancy: Two main methods. First, I try to become my characters, feeling my way from the inside about what they might do in the situations I've put them in. Second, I use two questions to create the incidents that make up a plot: What does my protagonist (and also all the other characters) want now, at this point in the story? What can go wrong now, at this point in the story?

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Mirrored from Writer Tamago.