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Write Great Fiction - Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint by [Kress, Nancy]
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Write Great Fiction - Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint Kindle Edition

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Nancy Kress (Author)
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Nancy Kress (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 108 customer reviews
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Length: 241 pages Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled Page Flip: Enabled
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Product Details

  • File Size: 1289 KB
  • Print Length: 241 pages
  • Publisher: Writer's Digest Books (March 3, 2005)
  • Publication Date: March 3, 2005
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B005LIYZUW
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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  • Word Wise: Not Enabled
  • Lending: Not Enabled
  • Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,598 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsAnother great book in a must have series of books
By Erik1988 TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on March 30, 2007
Format: Paperback
I picked up what I thought would be a rehashing of old material covered in other books on the same subject, but The Great Fiction series of books continues to impress and surprise.

So many books on creating characters speak to their physical description, wants, motives and give the character a background. This book goes a step further and tells you how to do those things and hits the key point of showing emotion.

In addition, chapter Eight titled "Talking About Emotion -- Dialogue and Thoughts" was worth the price of the book alone.

Other great topics were "Showing Change in Your Characters" and "Frustration -- The Most Useful Emotion in Fiction."

Like the other books in the series, Appendix A recaps the author's critical points. Thus for the impatient reader, jump to this appendix and read what the book is about. For those of us who enjoy the journey of the reading the previous 200+ pages, the appendix is a nice summary.

Overall, this felt like the first book that brought all the concepts of characterization into one place and provided me with an easy to follow roadmap to creating, deepening and SHOWING my characters off in my story.

My recommended characterization plan:
1) Read this book as a guide on how to breath life into your characters and what you are trying to accomplish with your characters. (Characters are not there by accident!)

2) Pick up The Marshall Plan of Novel Writing by Evan Marshal or First Draft in 30 Days by Karen Weisner. Both of these books take many of the concepts listed in this book and put them into templates and forms you can fill out to plot your novel

3) Write. Write. Write.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsExtremely well delivered advice
By Amazon Customer on May 28, 2005
Format: Paperback
As a beginning writer working on my first novel I'm constantly searching for "the book" on a particular facet of writing. As a general book for beginners, Gotham Writer's Workshop is great. However, this book takes its subject topics and provides insights that can be immediately applied to one's writing. Her chapters on point of view (POV) provide explanations that I have not found in other books. The chapters on character emotion are also very well written.

Buy this book, read it once through without doing the exercises. Then read it again, doing the exercises. You won't regret it.
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4.0 out of 5 starsVery informative and easy to read
By K. Mullen on February 19, 2006
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This is a great overview on creating characters. The author is clearly very knowledgeable, and the writing is never dry. This book continues the trend of the series of including exercises to practice what you've learned. My only complaint is that it doesn't always go into quite enough depth. I realize, though, that the book was designed to be a quick overview and in that respect it works very well. I recommend this book for newer writers aiming at improving their technique.
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3.0 out of 5 starsAnother Solid Entry in the "Write Great Fiction" Series.....But....
By An Android Fan on August 4, 2008
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This book is a good resource for looking at how characters, the emotions they portray and in what viewpoint (first person, third person omniscient, third person limited, etc) to use, and it certainly complements the other books quite nicely. I have read all of the "WGF" books save for the one on revision and see them all as a great investment.

For this particular book, Nancy Kress does do a good job of exploring each element in detail. Like the other books, it is largely an overview of each concept, and, like the other books, she does hit on some similar aspects that the other books cover more extensively (how could she not? All aspects work together to create a work of fiction.) That is to say, the other Write Great Fiction books all cover every aspect of a piece of fiction, but mainly discuss how they relate to the given topic they wrote their respective book about. So brief overviews are found in the other books and each aspect is covered extensively in the given work. So "Plot" focuses on plot while giving smaller and more general explanations of characters, description, dialogue, etc. while "Dialogue" does the same with plot, description, characters etc. while keeping the focus on dialogue and so on and so forth. I would recommend a would-be author grab all four of these books, as this would then allow them to see the whole picture.

My main problem with this particular book is that when she gets to the section where she delves deeply into first person, at one point at least she goes into a small rabbit trail about why some readers don't like and will never read first person. Apparently they're willing to read books but not willing to suspend their disbelief that the character narrating the work was an active participant.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsYet another Home Run
By B. Abernethy on February 20, 2006
Format: Paperback
Writer's Digest Books stikes gold yet again with this book of the superb Write Great Fiction series. Nancy Kress smoothly covers the three areas of interest and naturally flows from one to the next as they are related.

The characterization section is wonderful. Among other things it suggests complex characters that are revealed through the problems the author brings their way. Ensure they have a backstory and if they change through the book be sure to dramatize it at the end. Also covers different types of characters for different types of fiction.

The emotion section was great. Good examples and more general than the rediculous book "creating character emotions" by hood, there, I won't even capitalize the title or author of that mess. Important emotions are covered in detail such as loving, fighting, and dying with a complete chapter on the most important emotion of all for your lead character. Can you guess what it is? Nancy Kress will tell you.

Finally viewpoint. I have read several books already on this subject yet Nancy Kress sweetens the pot even more. Good advice and examples.

I would like to add, most books I have read on writing, where the author quotes works for examples of good prose, seem to fall flat. Apparently you must read the entire book quoted to fully appreciate the snippit given as an example. Surprisingly, Nancy Kress steps up to the mound and pitches some wonderful examples that STAND ON THEIR OWN. Nice work Nancy.

I bought all but one of the Elements of Fiction Writing. Home runs. However this new series from Writers Digest Books, the Write Great Fiction series with its four books surpasses them. Together the four books are a GRAND SLAM!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsHow to build characters with depth and appeal

This book is about how to write characters with sufficient depth that readers will follow them through to the end of a story. Read more

Published 3 days ago by Bernie Gourley
5.0 out of 5 starsEmpowering

The hardest aspect about novel writing is creating 3-D characters with real emotional triggers and identifiable motives. Read more

Published 14 days ago by Waycoldness907
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent

An excellent textbook in characterization. Many useful exercises.

Published 1 month ago by catburglar
5.0 out of 5 starsA great book

A great book that would help an author or writer that needs a bit of advice to make their fiction story a success.

Published 3 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsCharacter writing

Completely took me by surprise for the content and layout of book. Easy to find the necessary information I needed, but am able to read it page by page also. Great layout.

Published 5 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsCharacters, Emotion & Viewpoint

Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint is most helpful to the fiction writer.

Published 6 months ago by Danielle
3.0 out of 5 starsJust OK

This book was OK. It had some helpful suggestions but overall wasn't groundbreaking for me.

Published 6 months ago by AMK Reviews
5.0 out of 5 starsDelivers

Used in our writer's group and a good choice. Very thorough with lots of real-world examples of how to write well.

Published 6 months ago by Charles Wenzel
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat example on the content

as expected

Published 6 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsA Very Good Book

A very helpful aid in writing for your characters in a novel.

Published 8 months ago by Cory M Tsuhako

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