 | Nancy Kress writes craft books full of helpful techniques conveyed in an accessible and encouraging style. Beginnings, Middles, & Ends is one I refer to frequently. She notes “there’s always a gap between the story as you imagined it—compelling, insightful, rich with subtle nuance—and what actually ends up in the manuscript.” The point of studying craft books like this one is, of course, to get what’s on the page closer to our original vision. |
Story Promise:
The first three paragraphs of a short story, or the first three pages in a novel set up the rest of the story, the implicit story promise. “A satisfying middle is one that develops that promise with specificity and interest. A satisfying ending is one that delivers on the promise, providing new insight or comfortable confirmation or vicarious happiness.”
The first three paragraphs of a short story, or the first three pages in a novel set up the rest of the story, the implicit story promise. “A satisfying middle is one that develops that promise with specificity and interest. A satisfying ending is one that delivers on the promise, providing new insight or comfortable confirmation or vicarious happiness.”
BEGINNINGS
“Any flashback, no matter how well written or interesting, will distance your reader from the action. This is because flashbacks shatter the illusion that the reader is . . . witnessing events as they happen, right now.”
Stakes
“In fiction, something must be at stake. . . . In fiction, people try to accomplish things, or cope with things, or just make things go away. They want something, even if it’s just to be left alone.”
- “Your opening should give the reader a person to focus on.”
- Initial conflict “arises because something is not going as expected.”
- “Your beginning must function as an interesting reading experience in itself, full of character and situation and pleasing language.”
“Any flashback, no matter how well written or interesting, will distance your reader from the action. This is because flashbacks shatter the illusion that the reader is . . . witnessing events as they happen, right now.”
Stakes
“In fiction, something must be at stake. . . . In fiction, people try to accomplish things, or cope with things, or just make things go away. They want something, even if it’s just to be left alone.”
MIDDLES
“The middle of the story develops the story’s implicit promise by dramatizing incidents that increase conflict, reveal character, and put in place all the various forces that will collide at the story’s climax.”
All of which must naturally emerge out of the beginning set-up.
Throughline:
One of the most helpful techniques she offers for tight middles, is using a throughline, the “primary events of the most significant line of action.” The throughline is also the story arc; what (or who) changes from beginning to end.
In my forthcomgin short story “Captain Palaio’s Twilight Flight,” Captain Palaio starts the story dreading an unfulfilling retirement, and ends the story looking forward to going home.
In Sky God’s Warrior, the Greek hero Aietos begins the story pining from unrequited love and ends the novel about to marry.
Kress notes: “The scenes you spend the most time on should be those that relate directly to your throughline.” She notes that short stories are often improved by telling the story in the fewest possible scenes. She suggests eliminating or combining scenes for a more compelling story.
“The middle of the story develops the story’s implicit promise by dramatizing incidents that increase conflict, reveal character, and put in place all the various forces that will collide at the story’s climax.”
All of which must naturally emerge out of the beginning set-up.
Throughline:
One of the most helpful techniques she offers for tight middles, is using a throughline, the “primary events of the most significant line of action.” The throughline is also the story arc; what (or who) changes from beginning to end.
In my forthcomgin short story “Captain Palaio’s Twilight Flight,” Captain Palaio starts the story dreading an unfulfilling retirement, and ends the story looking forward to going home.
In Sky God’s Warrior, the Greek hero Aietos begins the story pining from unrequited love and ends the novel about to marry.
Kress notes: “The scenes you spend the most time on should be those that relate directly to your throughline.” She notes that short stories are often improved by telling the story in the fewest possible scenes. She suggests eliminating or combining scenes for a more compelling story.
Character Change:
To make character transformation convincing, Kress says the reader must:
To make character transformation convincing, Kress says the reader must:
- Understand the character’s motivation: why she behaves as she does
- See evidence the character is capable of change
- See a pattern of experiences that might cause character change dramatized on the page
- See a plausible new motivation replace the old motivation
ENDINGS
The ending is the payoff. Where the character demonstrates their internal change, solves the problem, finds love, defeats the villain—”where the decisive confrontation occurs.” Kress states, “all good endings grow out of what happens in the middle.”
“At the end of the story, something must be different from the beginning, something must have changed in a meaningful way.”
She notes, “last paragraph of a short story is the power position—and within that position, the last sentence is the most powerful of all”
The ending is the payoff. Where the character demonstrates their internal change, solves the problem, finds love, defeats the villain—”where the decisive confrontation occurs.” Kress states, “all good endings grow out of what happens in the middle.”
“At the end of the story, something must be different from the beginning, something must have changed in a meaningful way.”
She notes, “last paragraph of a short story is the power position—and within that position, the last sentence is the most powerful of all”
Climax
The climax must:
After the exciting climax, the denouement ties up any loose ends and shows the fate of the characters.
“A successful denouement has three characteristics: closure, brevity, and dramatization.”
“Readers don’t want to decide what happened to the characters. They want you (the writer) to decide”
"Brevity is important to a denouement because if it goes on too long, it will leach all emotion from the climax."
The climax must:
- “Satisfy the view of life implied in your story” (life is unfair, hope is fulfilled, etc.)
- Deliver emotion (readers “should feel whatever the characters feel”)
- Be “logical to your plot and story” (it should grow organically, and be plausible & inevitable)
After the exciting climax, the denouement ties up any loose ends and shows the fate of the characters.
“A successful denouement has three characteristics: closure, brevity, and dramatization.”
“Readers don’t want to decide what happened to the characters. They want you (the writer) to decide”
"Brevity is important to a denouement because if it goes on too long, it will leach all emotion from the climax."
Favorite Quotes:
- “There is no later. Write your best now.”
- “Every paragraph in your story should accomplish two goals: advance the story (the plot), and develop your characters as real, individual, complex, and memorable human beings.”
- “The truth is, writing a novel takes as long as it takes.”
- “Try to build up a habit of steady writing that you can trust to hold over time.”
More from Nancy Kress: Characters, Emotion, & Viewpoint
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