In this guide, award-winning author Nancy Kress explores the crucial relationship between characterization and plot, illustrating how vibrant, well-constructed characters act as the driving force behind an exceptional story. In teaching writers the fundamentals of creating characters that will keep their readers spellbound, Kress utilizes: * Dozens of excerpts from well-known fiction * Enlightening exercises to help writers build strong characters starting from the outside-in * Beginning chapters that focus on the physical elements that comprise a character, providing techniques for using external qualities to reflect personality Building skill upon skill, writers blend these qualities with emotional and mental characterization, forming multidimensional characters that initiate exciting action, react to tense situations and power the plot from beginning to end.