qid int64 1 2.78M | question stringlengths 2 66.6k | answers list | date stringlengths 10 10 | metadata list |
|---|---|---|---|---|
42,961 | In a short story I am writing, I have this misogynistic character who keeps saying misogynistic stuff, and I thought it would be a bad idea to give him dialogue lines. I was thinking that, because I thought the readers might think that I, the writer, is expressing my voice through him even though it's not the case. So ... | [
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"text": "I would use a [Foil.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foil_(literature)) From the link:\n\n> \n> In fiction, a foil is... | 2019/03/04 | [
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42,963 | I often write short poems and quotes here: <https://www.mirakee.com/atd>, but I really want to hear from someone professional to give their valuable feedback on my work, so that I know where exactly I stand in the world of poets and poetry and improve myself at the same time.
How can I connect with someone like that? | [
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"answer_id": 42969,
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"text": "Go to a local university and speak with a writer in residence or a professor who is well-respected. Take creative... | 2019/03/04 | [
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42,984 | As I already mentioned [in my previous question](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/42213/how-to-fill-novel-if-you-have-just-some-moments-prepared), I'm writing a novel with personages both that I created and some already created by others (well, I wrote that when I was younger and now I just digitalize it). T... | [
{
"answer_id": 42986,
"author": "Cyn",
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"text": "**I have 107 characters.** \n\nIn a single-book, standard length, middle-grade novel. There are a small handful of auxil... | 2019/03/04 | [
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42,991 | I'm boring and just use Word and Excel for writing my novel and keeping track of stuff. I've tried a couple others, including Scrivener and Evernote, but never got into it. I like the idea of specialized tools (and use them for genealogy and other things) but don't like to give up control over my content and formatting... | [
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"text": "**I have 107 characters.** \n\nIn a single-book, standard length, middle-grade novel. There are a small handful of auxil... | 2019/03/04 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/42991",
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42,993 | When writing there is one area I am not great at leveraging. That's rhythm or meter. I don't *hear* meter naturally like some people do so I have to really break down the meter in order to work on it. And then what? I'm not even sure what I'm going to convey if I do manage to restructure the writing in a particular way... | [
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"answer_id": 43009,
"author": "Cyn",
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"text": "**Take a dance class.**\n\nI'm not joking. If you feel the rhythm in your body, you will be better able to evoke it on t... | 2019/03/04 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/42993",
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42,996 | Would it be a violation of copyright and/or plagiarism to “borrow” a character from another novel?
For example, I have a short story and want to include as a side character Ewger (of Ewger’s Game). I would preserve Ewger’s name, family, personality, etc. But Ewger would only play a small part in the story.
It’s not ... | [
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"answer_id": 42997,
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"text": "This is *de facto* fan fiction, which seems to be in a legally gray area, where it's generally ignored UNLESS ... | 2019/03/04 | [
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43,000 | Are there any software tools available that will help me dissect my meter? I have always been extremely poor at scansion and while my writing doesn't suffer terribly for it, it makes writing strict meter very difficult for me. In fact I don't think I've ever managed to write a sonnet in strict iambic pentameter. | [
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"text": "This might help with the identifying-meter educational part of it. [For Better for Verse](https://p... | 2019/03/04 | [
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43,003 | EDIT: Many people who are attempting to answer this question are severely misinterpreting the circumstances and setting of the book, so here is some information about UrasMt that I thought I had included but actually forgot to. This novel is *post-apocalyptic*. UrasMt killed her family as a child in an accident, as she... | [
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"answer_id": 43004,
"author": "Amadeus",
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"text": "### So how can I believably and casually show that UrasMt swings both ways ...\n\n***EDITED:*** After clarification... | 2019/03/04 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43003",
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43,008 | In this comments of [How many elements can you focus on during worldbuilding?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/q/42913/33442) a conversation arose about the usefulness of non-genre savvy beta-readers.
Another question [Are "non-readers" useful beta readers?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/q/36683/33442) discusses... | [
{
"answer_id": 43017,
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"text": "Both are useful.\n\nSomeone who is genre-savvy will already know the rhythms and tropes of the genre,... | 2019/03/05 | [
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43,012 | I am wondering how to do this in a novel. Do you write the song (lyrics) in its entirety in one single spurt, or do you spurt a verse at a time interspersed with descriptions of the surroundings/actions/emotions? I really want to write a scene in my novel where the female character sings, but I have no idea how to do t... | [
{
"answer_id": 43015,
"author": "David Siegel",
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"text": "I would say that quite a few different methods are possible. I have read books where a few lines are given, fo... | 2019/03/05 | [
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43,014 | I thought about spreading a story across a video game, comic book and novel, but I am not sure if doing this will alienate my readers, because I don't believe people want to spend a ton of money to experience the whole story, so how do you manage to do this without alienating your readers? Is there some kind of guideli... | [
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"author": "linksassin",
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"text": "Make each medium a complete story in it's own right\n===================================================\n\nThis ... | 2019/03/05 | [
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43,019 | My father wrote a book in Word and I have edited/formatted it so it looks clean in PDF, but now I know that was a bad idea because when we put the book on Kindle all the formatting was lost and the images/text are all over the place. I am now trying to reformat the book using Scrivener and I plan to compile it into a f... | [
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"text": "You can insert a page break under Edit –> Insert –> Page Break. There should be a key shortcut too depending on ... | 2019/03/05 | [
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43,024 | I have the habit of using paired adjectives in my writing:
>
> * The noise from the engine lulled her with its **slow and monotonous** rythim ...
> * ... the lights on the ceiling filled the room in a **soft and warm** hue ...
> * ... his skin was **smooth and thin**, like paper ...
>
>
>
The examples may be not ... | [
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"text": "As a reader, I think that adjectives are helpful in making a better image of what the writer is trying to say. B... | 2019/03/05 | [
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43,026 | I know a writer, who claims to have developed his own style of poetry, called Mirror Alphoppbet poetry. This new style looks a bit odd to me but he seems to spread it all over and encourages others to use it in their poems.
How do I validate that this new form of poetry actually makes sense? Are there any parameters t... | [
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"text": "As a reader, I think that adjectives are helpful in making a better image of what the writer is trying to say. B... | 2019/03/05 | [
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43,032 | I want to give credit to a source without stating their full title again, because the full title is a mouthful.
Earlier in the paper, I had quoted them saying:
"So-and-so states...[direct quotation]" ²
Now I want to quote them saying just:
"[direct quotation]" ²
I'm going to use their exact wording (in the second a... | [
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"text": "Assuming it's an academic paper, it's perfectly fine to just add the number to the quote. \n\nThe number will redirec... | 2019/03/05 | [
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43,056 | Let there be a character. Let the character's name be, for example, Aletuydor.
Now, Aletuydor's parents call him 'Sasha'. His friends call him 'Xander'. His girlfriend calls him 'Alex'. In formal circumstances, he's 'Aletuydor, son of Hhigipm'. To himself, he is all of those - they are, after all, variations on a them... | [
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"text": "I have a character named Aletuydor and the name form he thinks of himself as at any one time reflects his mood and... | 2019/03/05 | [
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43,060 | I was thinking about writing about the Holocaust, but I am not sure if it's a good idea since I am not sure if people would feel offended if I exaggerate certain events or facts even if it makes the tragedy look more horrible. How can I go about setting my story in the midst of this event without causing too much offen... | [
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"text": "In general, avoid writing about things you don't know\n=====================================================\n\n... | 2019/03/05 | [
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43,061 | I have a villain. The villain is the hero of their own story. The villain starts off as good, looking to overthrow a monstrous leader. They were once in the same shoes as the heroes. Part of the heroes' journey will be to not fall from the heroes path the same way the villain did.
Is there something that can make the ... | [
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"text": "**You don't need to do much to make a reader sympathize with a villain.** As you said, a reader doesn't have to **li... | 2019/03/05 | [
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43,068 | Can one legally include a reference to, or an appearance of, a character from an existing work of fiction? How much of that character can be used? What makes this permitted or forbidden under US law?
(This question is to allow answered focused on the specifically legal aspects, additional to those in the linked questi... | [
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"text": "Don’t do it. Characters are protected and the use of another author’s creation will have consequences.\n\nThe gen... | 2019/03/06 | [
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43,077 | **Context**
In my fantasy novel-in-progress, one of the two main characters has a close friend he's known since childhood. Both of them are greatly developed by their interactions with each other throughout the story, and this character is critical to the story as a whole.
The story takes place in a very restrictive ... | [
{
"answer_id": 43078,
"author": "J.G.",
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"text": "Firstly, have the right reasons for writing this story. (This paragraph won't speak to the one scene you're stuck on, ... | 2019/03/06 | [
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43,085 | I was wondering if there were other uses for metaphors other than forming an allegory and for stylistic effect, that is, adding more flair to a description that would be otherwise dull. I've done some research and honestly I wasn't able to find anything that would suggest me otherwise. | [
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"text": "Your two categories cover a whole lot of ground between the two of them. But there's at least one other usage t... | 2019/03/06 | [
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43,096 | End-of-line hyphenation is the process of breaking words between lines to create more consistency across a text block. ([source](https://practicaltypography.com/hyphenation.html)) A long word is broken across a line-break by means of a hyphen. It helps justify a text, along letter spacing and kerning. A word processors... | [
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"answer_id": 43113,
"author": "Ed Grimm",
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"text": "I don't know if this is an answer, but answers shouldn't be in comments, so I'll take a gamble.\n\n```\n\nIn colle... | 2019/03/06 | [
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43,099 | Too often, when people make a story about genocide committed by a fascist government, the story often devolves into a Nazi Germany cliché, especially when the story is set in a modern or futuristic setting. Are there ways to avoid that? I feel it was done so many times that doing so would reduce the value of the novel ... | [
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"text": "You need to distinguish allegory and applicability. Tolkien wrote on the subject:\n\n> \n> I ... | 2019/03/06 | [
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43,101 | By unnatural, I don't mean ungrammatical, but something people wouldn't really say. For example, in many fictions, you find yourself in very weird situations and it's hard to know how a person would react and what they would say in such situations. Often, I feel people would stay silent and say irrational or dumb thing... | [
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"text": "Trust your instinct. Period. \n\nYou are right--I zoned out at 'You turned me into a monster.' Who says that? I mea... | 2019/03/06 | [
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43,107 | We all have seen the headlines: "Touching Moment Where Autistic Boy is Asked to Prom", "Watch This Child With Downs Win Her Heat During a Swim Competition", etc., that are touching at first glance, but in actuality, embody the objectification of disabled people by society, the pity able bodied shower them in, and the h... | [
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"text": "By not making her a victim.\n\nOne friend I had lived most of her life in a wheelchair, had no motor control and ... | 2019/03/07 | [
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43,122 | I drafted a book two years ago that I'm now polishing to publish. When I drafted it, for speed's sake, I named one of my primary characters after an old school friend who I'm still in contact with on Facebook. The character's personality isn't him (though he does look a lot like him), I've just used his name. Let's cal... | [
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"text": "Ask Bob for his approval. \nThis is the easiest and fastest way to clear this up."
},
{
"answer_id": 4312... | 2019/03/07 | [
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43,138 | I've come across a problem with one of the main characters in my book. The "heroine" of my story starts out as an apathetic self-absorbed hacker, who seeks adrenaline thrills to find meaning in her life. With that in mind, I tried to show this kind of outlook is not evil, but neutral instead (the theory that all humans... | [
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"text": "First, love your character. If you don’t, why should the readers care? Make her more than just this skill she has... | 2019/03/07 | [
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43,139 | What should a character interview contain to be successful where the goals are: characters with strong voice who are established with a distinct 'personhood' (?) and are generally interesting to follow?
=====================================================================================================================... | [
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"text": "5 Hours, 5 Days, 5 years (ago)\n------------------------------\n\nUnfortunately, I don't remember where I read t... | 2019/03/07 | [
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43,144 | I would like to edit all of the dialogue of a specific character in my book.
Then I want to repeat this for other characters.
I think this would help to give each of them a unique voice.
Of course I could mark the dialogue with different colors in the manuscript, but then I also still have all the other dialogues inbet... | [
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"text": "You can do this in **Scrivener**, which comes highly recommended for writers but has a steep learning curve, particularl... | 2019/03/07 | [
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43,151 | This is something of a companion question to [How does one write from a minority culture? A question on cultural references](https://writing.stackexchange.com/q/42655/14704)
I have recently had a somewhat unpleasant experience reading Naomi Nevij's *Spinning Silver*. (Loved the book, but still.) My first response upon... | [
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"text": "You should be able to use memory (or flashbacks, but I dislike them); or tell it from the Jewish girl's POV, but gi... | 2019/03/07 | [
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43,157 | **Premise:** I believe that breaking genre expectations can alienate readers. If you go into a book expecting one thing and get another thing out of it - especially if that other thing is the complete opposite of what you were expecting - then you didn't get what you signed up for. Readers generally don't like this.
... | [
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"text": "I don't think readers are as conservative regarding genre as you make them out to be. Roger ... | 2019/03/07 | [
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43,159 | We all know some common symbolism: For instance, red stands for anger, blood, and violence. The cross stands for martyrdom and sacrifice. Common symbols are easy to notice, but what if you decided to use uncommon symbolism, how do you cue in your readers that you are using a symbolism for a meaningful reason? Is there ... | [
{
"answer_id": 43161,
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"text": "Depends on cultures too - red also means prosperity.\n\nIf you wish to use somewhat obtuse symbols, use them. Do ... | 2019/03/08 | [
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43,162 | Let's say I am thinking about making an Indian protagonist who lives in India when I've never lived there, don't know anyone who is Indian and don't know anything about Indian culture. Should I even consider it? The book I would write could end up being extremely offensive. I can think of some situations where it's ok.... | [
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"text": "The simplest answer is: **Research**.\n\nThere is no justification for not doing the research. If you know nothing o... | 2019/03/08 | [
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43,167 | In my story, I will have a [hero](https://writing.stackexchange.com/q/43061/30375) begin a journey. It will be the underdog story as well as good-vs-evil story. Think Frodo vs Sauron for massive oversimplification. Except in my story the hero becomes corrupt. The hero wins. The hero becomes the villain of the next stor... | [
{
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"text": "I don't think you should leave the twist out, though it might be a little too soon to incorporate twist. You also sh... | 2019/03/08 | [
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43,173 | I recently came to know that wordpress.com and wordpress.org are two different platforms for publishing. But despite browsing on various links I am not able to fully understand the actual difference between both in terms of blogging. I am a hobbyist blogger and my requirement is just to increase outreach and readabilit... | [
{
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"text": "One is where you can connect to the millions of sites already created -- .com. The other -- .org -- is where yo... | 2019/03/08 | [
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43,179 | I know it normally takes several months to get an agent and then a contract. But are there any shortcuts, any particular companies that one can submit to directly and get a much faster evaluation? Or can it only happen by luck?
Note: by 'finished writing' I mean you've finished writing, revising and editing it. | [
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"text": "An answer you'll like, then one you won't.\n------------------------------------------\n\n---\n\nIf they li... | 2019/03/08 | [
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43,181 | A while ago, I started writing a short story for a competition. It was supposed to be about four girls in a shared student apartment. The plan was to have everyone conflict with everyone until they united against a common enemy (the landlord or the exams - I haven't reached that far), and learnt to put aside their diff... | [
{
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"text": "If your givens aren't working, change your givens.\n\nIf Vampirella McExplosia is dominating every sc... | 2019/03/08 | [
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43,184 | In the writing practises guides, it is usually mentioned that use of ellipsis is a bad practice.
But I have come across certain usages in professional writing.
To give an **example**;
In the novel **Eat Pray Love** by **Liz Gilbert**, following is usage;
>
> On the other hand, he might just kiss me right now, ton... | [
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43,192 | I've edited the question for clarity following some unexpected comments in the first answer.
I submitted my latest novel to a handful of agents, and had a request for a full manuscript.
On almost all of the agency's submisson guidelines, they state that if they haven't got back to you and another agent shows interest... | [
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43,196 | I understand that a prologue is meant to open up a story and introduce characters, themes, and the world to my audience. It is not supposed to be a long length of text. At the same time, I find my Prologue is more appropriate in length to that of a Chapter.
Here's the problem: my Prologue needs to introduce a set numb... | [
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"text": "I suggest the prolog is only for information that needs to be established about your world – it's history and lo... | 2019/03/08 | [
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43,210 | Is there a way to make sure that what we write sounds consistent with the style adopted by the majority of editors? I am not sure how people do it, but almost all articles seems to have been written by the same person whenever I pick articles at random just to read them. How do you ensure that the edits you make sound ... | [
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"text": "As you read more widely in Wikipedia, you will find that the style is not as consistent as you might think, par... | 2019/03/08 | [
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43,235 | Since I'm writing a paperback, not an e-book, I wonder if and how I can teach Scrivener to use chapter numbers and/or page numbers when I insert a hyperlink.
As a non-fiction book, I have quite a few "see chapter 12 for details" or "as discussed in chapter 4" references. By default, when I enter these references into ... | [
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"text": "Presumably, you are writing with the intention of perhaps publishing as an ebook in the future, otherwise why bother wit... | 2019/03/09 | [
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43,244 | People usually use a musical sheet to tell how a song should be sung, but when you read a lyric you have no idea how a song should be sung without having the musical sheet in front of you, so is there a notation system that exists that allows you to know how a song should be sung? The pacing is very hard to determine u... | [
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"text": "Lyrics are not lyrics until they are set to music. At which point, they are sung to the music... | 2019/03/09 | [
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43,246 | I am not sure if people would agree, but I think because there were some authors who coined terms and idioms, anyone could create their own idioms. The questions is if there's a guideline, and if there's not what should be common rules our coined idioms should meet. Often idioms are rather simple and don't need any exp... | [
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"text": "Strictly speaking, something is not an *idiom* until it is in some degree of common use. One can invent a ficti... | 2019/03/09 | [
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43,256 | Unknown by the characters involved and hidden from the readers, there's this ability of one specific character that allows him to hear/perceive the truth from anyone's speech. If they're telling the truth, what he hears/perceives is what the interlocutor is saying. If there's lies or hidden meanings, he'll grasp the tr... | [
{
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"text": "While this may not be specifically related to your character’s abilities, what I have seen many writers do for c... | 2019/03/09 | [
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43,269 | I have been struggling to write a book on my 14 years research. I have used Microsoft Word exclusively, but I have a problem that the book uses lots of pictures, sometimes six per page and this is where I cannot seem to have a stable document. I place the pictures in a Text Box as recommended by Microsoft. Having place... | [
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"text": "It likely depends on the field you are in and the amount of work and money you want to put into learning a new t... | 2019/03/10 | [
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43,277 | I have been working on a *story* for several years. The manuscript is now currently longer than 1,000 notebook pages (roughly 615 pages in print by my calculations) and it’s only a third of the way through the plot. So, I’ve known for a while that this is going to end up being multiple *books* when it’s completed. I re... | [
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43,281 | Let's say I am writing a fantasy book where magic users doesn't use something called "magic", but use something called "Hermetic". Where in the book should we redefine (give a new definition to the word) the word "Hermetic", and should we redefine through a dialogue, through a descriptive passage and what should the PO... | [
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"text": "Just redefining a word from everyday usage is rarely good. People will always first associate it with their real-... | 2019/03/10 | [
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43,282 | Let's say that a novel consists of three parts: introduction, climax and conclusion. Is it ok if the conclusion is much shorter than the climax. For example, can the introduction be 20% of the novel, the climax be 78% of the novel, and the conclusion be 2% of the novel? Is it a bad thing? You would think a better distr... | [
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"text": "There are many ways to structure a literary work. For example in school I learned about the [Dramatic Structure a... | 2019/03/10 | [
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43,289 | So, in my post-apocalyptic novel, the world was caught up in an international war (basically WWIII), and all the world's nuclear superpowers launched their warheads and killed much of the global population. Ambient radiation from the nuclear fallout has caused humans to develop supernatural abilities.
And that is not... | [
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"text": "Spiderman was bitten by a spider and developed spider-like abilities. Superman is from a different planet and af... | 2019/03/10 | [
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43,291 | I'm setting the book I'm writing in the 1900s ~ 1950s, in the central states of the US: Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. I'm having difficulty getting the language for narration and dialogue correct for the period. Does anyone know of resources that would help in that regard?
A disclaimer: I'm a beginner. Ad... | [
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"text": "Writing accurate dialogue for a time period other than the one you live in can be particularly challenging. Here's how I... | 2019/03/10 | [
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43,295 | I want to write travel story novel.
My plan is to have 4 characters (2 guys and 2 girls), which decided to visit 4 European cities (probably I will choose Frankfurt - Germany, Reykjavík - Iceland, Uzhhorod - Ukraine and fourth must be invented).
I want to show culture and details of not very well known cities (that i... | [
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"text": "Well its a travel story. You can show it as adventurous voyage. \nYou should watch \"Zindagi na milegi dobara\". y... | 2019/03/10 | [
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43,305 | *Sorry if this is an ancient solved problem to ask in 2019, but I googled about this and [Quora](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-appropriate-way-to-describe-a-fictional-black-character-in-literature-other-than-being-black) isn't really answering me. I searched for the words **black** and **race** and **political... | [
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"text": "It seems that you want to want to say the simple fact, but afraid that people will be sensitive for that. In that cas... | 2019/03/11 | [
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43,328 | After I lost a large segment of my novel, I started writing a prequel to it.
I began it differently from the original, planning on this story being one of five shorter stories published as one volume. Surprise, surprise, the characters have other plans. This is evolving into a prequel novel.
In my original novel, the... | [
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"text": "**In a sequel**, I'd say the options are to mirror the original, or completely subvert the original. A Jamos Gunr... | 2019/03/11 | [
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43,337 | Describing mixed races in this way would be too broad. [How do I say that someone is black?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/43305/how-do-i-express-some-one-as-a-black-person)
How do you describe somebody of two or more races?
Word like mixed and biracial do not depict that person's unique features.
Some... | [
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43,339 | I tried to find sales figures about printed fantasy novels and how they compare among different countries, but I couldn't find anything in that regard.
I can find generic statistics about [how the American market for SF&F is evolving over the past years](https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamrowe1/2018/06/19/science-ficti... | [
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43,348 | How do I present a nameless character in a 3rd person narrative who has never known his parents? And has never had extended human interaction with anyone long enough to even be called “Boy” or “Child.” What would the narrator call such a character (until he has a name)? Can anyone provide examples? The only thing I’ve ... | [
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"text": "More than one author has struggled with the same problem before. There is a Russian children... | 2019/03/12 | [
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43,350 | I am not sure if this is true, but I heard there were short poems in the beginning of each chapter in Lord of the Rings. Although, this could be done fairly easily, I am wondering if there are any other way to incorporate poems in a novel. I am thinking there are many instances of it in the rich history of literature, ... | [
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"text": "There are a number of short to moderate verses in *The Lord of the Rings* They do not serve as chapter heading... | 2019/03/12 | [
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43,358 | Is it too distracting to include a major mystery subplot(s) in a fantasy story? I mean a complete subplot or subplots that the character solves. Perhaps the examples below do not qualify as mystery subplots.
I realized that, among many other methods, George R. R. Martin utilized mystery subplots effectively in his bo... | [
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"text": "### Are major mystery subplot(s) in a fantasy story distracting or make a story more appealing?\n\nMore appealing.\n... | 2019/03/12 | [
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43,359 | I couldn't find anything on this one, so maybe someone has a good idea on what would be considered good practice in a scholarly context.
**Background**
For a semester project, I have to observe an online newspaper and summarize their weekly topics.
Each week I have to submit a short note containing my findings and an... | [
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43,367 | I'm an amateur writer from the Philippines. I am writing a novelette for an international writing contest. My story is written in English, but is set here, in my country, with my POV character being a full blood Filipino. My question is, is it unnecessary to use my country's dialect as my characters' dialogue? should I... | [
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"text": "If you are writing for an English speaking audience, then write in English"
},
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"answer_id": 43370,
... | 2019/03/12 | [
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43,372 | My MC - who has a dangerous reputation - is captured by a member of Bolivian Security, who decides to take him to her father in-law (who also has a dangerous reputation)to be questioned instead of going straight to HQ.
DaedUW father in-law is a semi retired master of manipulation and torturer extraordinaire. She only ... | [
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"text": "To recap the question: **\"What steps to get an MC to accept a villain is now helping, when he knows the villain... | 2019/03/12 | [
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43,385 | (EDITED TO MAKE IT LESS BROAD AND MORE CLEAR).
I recently [asked a question](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/43289/do-i-really-need-to-have-a-scientific-explanation-for-my-premise) about if I really need to include scientific proof for my mostly-non-scientific post-apocalyptic novel, and the [best answer](... | [
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43,387 | I'm experimenting with writing nonbinary or generally gender-ambiguous characters in my writing. The most recent example of this is in an urban fantasy story I'm currently working on in my spare time, where the first character is introduced using they/them pronouns. Their pronouns are revealed to be those other than th... | [
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43,394 | In film-making, some people consider a copy of an action scene scene-by-scene to be a homage. Is it any different in literature; how do you distinguish the two of them? If, for example, we take the final scene in *Romeo and Juliet*, and decide to let a scene play out in the exact same way, but reword everything so that... | [
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"text": "It works up until:\n\n> \n> they shrugged and stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind them before star... | 2019/03/13 | [
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43,396 | Is there any complication that can ensue when you seek to have a story you've published in a free domain website, and then have it published through a conventional publisher? What if I were to modify it? I published a lot of short stories in forums in the past, and I thought I could use the material and have something ... | [
{
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"text": "I am not a lawyer, nor is this legal advice, but...\n===================================================\n\nTh... | 2019/03/13 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43396",
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43,406 | For a submission (to a grant program, competition, agent, or publisher) that asks for sample chapters, which chapters do you choose?
For example, a grant program for unfinished works I'm interested in wants 3 sample chapters. They don't specify which ones. Do you go in order? Include the prolog? Add another chapter if... | [
{
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"text": "Typically agents and publishers want to see your first three chapters (or somewhere between the first 10 and 50 pag... | 2019/03/13 | [
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43,426 | I missed my chance to write for About.Com when it was TheMiningCom and now it's DotDash and seems to be under different rules. Suite101 has become Suite.io (blocked from my work, so that's all I know.)
I know at one point I had bookmarked Squiddoo, HubPages, BellaOnline and others to write for. Are they still around? ... | [
{
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"text": "In my experience, the content sites were sinking fast years ago. I honestly stopped looking. However, if you want t... | 2019/03/13 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43426",
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43,428 | In my post-apocalyptic novel, my protagonist is not necessarily "good", and although the antagonist is an honest and kind person, my protagonist perceives her as "evil". My antagonist is the leader of a group of survivors, and cares deeply for her family and group, and is extremely suspicious of my protagonist.
The w... | [
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"text": "The answer to this lies in (frustratingly) another question:\n\n**Why** does your protagonist consider them \"e... | 2019/03/13 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43428",
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43,430 | I want to write a very short book of 100 pages. I want to put into it what I've suffered throughout my life: Hardships, failures, disappointments.... as an inspiration that, despite hardships, I survive!
And, at the end, I want to add conclusion that the protagonist (which is me, who had been bereft of every thing) en... | [
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"text": "First of all, is this a short autobiography? Or a work of fiction with a protagonist based on yourself? In the... | 2019/03/13 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43430",
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43,436 | According to [this wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constrained_writing), *Constrained writing* is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern. The same link also provides examples of constrained writing. I will mention a few for r... | [
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"text": "First of all, I think that that kind of serious constraint is mostly a stunt. It can be interesting, once. Usu... | 2019/03/13 | [
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43,444 | I use [Ulysses 15](https://ulysses.app/blog/2019/03/ulysses-15-released/) for my writing. The tool has a robust global search but, to my knowledge, it does not provide a replace function (only the sheet search has a "find and replace" function).
**Does anyone know how to use the global search, with all of its powers, ... | [
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"text": "### You can't use the global search for a global \"search and replace\"\n\nAs [this deleted answer](https://writi... | 2019/03/13 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43444",
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43,452 | I have two POV (3rd person limited) characters and they start the story as complete strangers and far apart. They don't meet for some time and they have very different experiences.
Now I want them to meet and live through some intense, important event. How can I choose whose POV to take during the event? They would ha... | [
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"text": "In the end it's up to you, but I think you haven't explored all of your options so far. You could also alternate... | 2019/03/13 | [
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43,466 | I am wondering if we can use footnotes to describe technologies used in a science-fiction novel instead of describing it by switching from an omniscient POV, that describes everything in a poetic way, to a "historian" POV. I understand this is not something we see usually in a novel, but I am wondering if there are his... | [
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"text": "It is your book and you can certainly do as you please. If you do this, you might end up interfering with the rea... | 2019/03/13 | [
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43,469 | I need to speak at the unveiling of a memorial plaque ([this one](https://writing.stackexchange.com/q/41549/14704), incidentally).
I have an idea of what I want to say, and how I want to arrange it. My struggle is with the opening.
I have spoken in public before - in academic settings, on fantasy/sci-fi conventions. ... | [
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"text": "I would begin with a story, about somebody you are memorializing. I'd expect it to be tragic, obviously, but the poi... | 2019/03/13 | [
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43,471 | This is an offshoot from a comment exchange on an unrelated question. [What to submit when asked for "sample chapters"?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/43406/what-to-submit-when-asked-for-sample-chapters/43417?noredirect=1#comment71442_43417)
I know a large percentage of traditionally published fiction au... | [
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"text": "Might be helpful, but hardly essential.\n\nThere were two brothers, both studying cereal chemistry. The elder bro... | 2019/03/14 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43471",
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43,477 | As a self-taught developer the only requirement documents I've ever been privileged to read are those of hackerrank and the sort. However the more and more I create my own increasingly complex programs, apps and sites the more I feel the need for a good requirement document. Since most of what I work on is my own work,... | [
{
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"text": "There are almost as many ways to document software as there are to program it, and the important thing to remem... | 2019/03/14 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43477",
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43,479 | I am about 3/4 finished with the first "volume" of a novel I desire to serialize. Not for the money really, though I won't lie that it'd be nice, but more for the fact I can get my name out there. Now, I already know how to go about Print-On-Demand, e-Books, publishing in magazines, and online-distribution to various s... | [
{
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"author": "Cyn",
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"text": "**What you may be looking for is an anthology.**\n\nAnthologies are similar to magazines and, in some cases, may overla... | 2019/03/14 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43479",
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43,480 | I ask mostly out of curiosity. Obviously, a proper cookbook would involve real ingredients and not fantasy creatures. There's such a cookbook for Skyrim and Lord of the Rings. What I am curious about is this: **what challenges are there in writing a fantasy cookbook *where creatures that don't exist in real life* are u... | [
{
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"text": "First, consider the characteristics of the fantasy element in a world-building sense. Then you have a baseline unders... | 2019/03/14 | [
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43,486 | >
> If there is a gun on the mantelpiece in the Act 1, then in Act 2, that gun must be fired.
>
>
>
### Background
I'm a big believer in Chekhov's Gun. I try not to do anything or introduce any new plot point without first foreshadowing it, no matter how subtly.
This is easy in film. A lazy way to do it is to ha... | [
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"text": "There are certain things that are traditionally kept in basements: main breaker panels, furnace, hot water tank e... | 2019/03/14 | [
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43,508 | There are rules to writing and we often talk about them here. But sometimes a good writer will break the rules. And to be honest some of my favorite pieces of writing are from when this is done well.
So how do we do it well? Is there some way to measure whether our own application of rule-breaking is done well? Or is ... | [
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"text": "Neil Gaiman, making a commencement speech in the University of the Arts in 2012, said the fo... | 2019/03/14 | [
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43,519 | I'm reading KM Weiland's [Creating Character Arcs](https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/B01M6VC68U). In it, she lists:
>
> **Questions to Ask About the Thing the Character Wants and the Thing the Character Needs**
>
>
> 1. How is the Lie holding your character back?
> 2. How is the Lie making your characte... | [
{
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"text": "Caveat: I have not read the book but I've thought about wants and needs in the past, and I typically see *wants* a... | 2019/03/14 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43519",
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43,530 | I often feel that we fall into a trap of believing that we must provide a driving goal for a main character at the outset. And yet, as I look at compelling fiction, main characters do not have the same simplicity of a single defining characteristic as does the supporting cast. Main characters are *main* characters. The... | [
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"text": "I think it's like this: a normal person wants a lot of things: a new car, a raise, sex, some... | 2019/03/14 | [
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43,536 | I am a new writer. My work is focused on real people. I ask a series of questions and go from there. Its all about their personal journeys with health. I like to capture the feeling of what people have gone through, and put it into words. I have no problem telling a great story. The problem I'm running into is word cri... | [
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"text": "Honestly, some solid advice that applies to everyone is just cut down on any unnecessary adjectives/adverbs if ... | 2019/03/14 | [
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43,537 | A blogger with the name of Glen C. Strathy said the following:
>
> The first and most important element of any plot is the Story Goal or
> Problem. This is the organizing idea around which the entire plot of
> your novel will be based.
>
>
>
Now, my problem is I want to try to create a character who is morally ... | [
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"text": "A purely self-interested character may be morally neutral, or morally evil, depending on how that self-interes... | 2019/03/14 | [
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43,540 | I'm writing a story that I'd like younger readers to pick up. I and they know and understand that some situations are far better expressed with one f-word than a thousand milder ones. I'm keeping my narrative clean, but when I write the dialogue, I don't know what to do.
Should I:
1. describe, as in:
>
> Taymy slam... | [
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"text": "Each usage has its place.\n\n**#1** is most commonly used in such situations. Even if you're ... | 2019/03/15 | [
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43,549 | This is what Dean Wesley Smith teaches in his articles and workshop videos. He says that all you have to do is just write and publish your books on kdp (Kindle Direct Publishing, the self-publishing platform on Amazon) and just let the money come as people discover them; and promoting is unnecessary and a waste of time... | [
{
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"text": "It is most likely anecdotal evidence. There are always breakout successes where this worked - people published t... | 2019/03/15 | [
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43,556 | Short-stories are a nice format to write. If you have been an aspiring writer for at least one year, it's quite probabile that you've got at least three short stories drafted out, sitting in some drawer or some hidden folder on your computer.
Let's imagine now that you want to publish those stories, bundled together i... | [
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"text": "The most common and easy way to identify which stories belong together is the genre as you have already identifi... | 2019/03/15 | [
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43,557 | In the IT industry, we often write a lot of technical documentation meant for internal use only. Those documents are often stored in an internal wiki and accessed when the need arises.
The content of the documents is not relevant here; the only relevant fact is that in the IT field you are not supposed to [*reinvent ... | [
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"text": "This depends largely on the way existing documentation is written. Normally you have some kind of template that ... | 2019/03/15 | [
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43,577 | I have been communicating with three PoD companies.
I was considering the first, it has been in business for years and provides a certain number of copies to the author, the rest are sold from their site.
I have since discovered a company that, for a considerable outlay, will do multiple rounds of content edit and t... | [
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"selected": true,
"text": "### It may be a scam\n\nWhen I read your question I was reminded of all those scam questions over at Money.SE - y... | 2019/03/15 | [
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43,580 | By "ununderstandable" I mean that this character I'm thinking of isn't human. He's more of a devil sort of thing. Of course he still has his motivations, goals, etc, but he's more of a tool rather than a force in the story. He just wants his thing and has basically no emotions or humanity. ***He doesn't care about the ... | [
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"text": "Yes.\n\nIn every conflict, you will have the protagonist and the antagonist. Antagonist does not need to be human,... | 2019/03/15 | [
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43,585 | One of my main character's traits is that she has some superstitious beliefs. That trait is not essential to the MC, but everyone in the era of my story is. I'm contemplating a plot point near the end that the reader might perceive as deus ex machina, but the plot point isn't the actual climax, it's a *faux* climax.
T... | [
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"text": "Actually, the faux deus ex sounds pretty good. \n\nThat makes it all about the characters perception of the events.... | 2019/03/15 | [
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43,589 | I am planning to write a book about a life of a person. However, the protagonist is a black person. The main plot is not about ethnicity things, but where the plot happens I have to talk about some situations. The book is about romance, but the protagonist is poor and goes to a university to study medicine (in my count... | [
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"text": "Find someone (very patient) to talk to who comes from the region or circumstances you want to write about. Ask que... | 2019/03/15 | [
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43,595 | My story is broken into 8 sections. Sections 1 and 2 take place simultaneously, in two different worlds. The other 6 continue in a linear fashion (switching back & forth between the two worlds as needed).
Right now it's not particularly obvious that 1 and 2 are happening at the same time. There's only 1 character who... | [
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"text": "As soon as you see the shared character in section 2, make it obvious that he hasn't changed since section 1. S... | 2019/03/15 | [
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43,606 | I was seriously wondering if it's a problem to use the antecedent, which is "Mr Shuonur", after the possessive pronoun "his". Also, I am wondering if we can use "his" without ever using an antecedent.
>
> **His** blue eyes starred at the sky
>
>
> Under the bridge to nowhere
>
>
> **His** garment was gray as the ... | [
{
"answer_id": 43601,
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"text": "As soon as you see the shared character in section 2, make it obvious that he hasn't changed since section 1. S... | 2019/03/15 | [
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43,612 | I am not sure if this is possible. I would like to use a metonymy with an idiom, and it doesn't seem to be something people ever did, so it feels wrong.
I have the following sentence:
>
> He was in the middle of our fedora hats celebrating our victory.
>
>
>
I am using it to mean the following:
>
> He was in t... | [
{
"answer_id": 43613,
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"text": "I don't think the problem is the combination, it is the unfamiliar metonymy. The use of \"fedora hats\" to mea... | 2019/03/16 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43612",
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43,617 | I had a few experiences with what-if style brainstorming technique. In those exercises, I found I got lost in minute details. I'd like to know if this is a good price to pay for the thought pouring that happens? Or is it more effective to try to limit my brain dump to generic thoughts?
For instance, I once wrote:
>
... | [
{
"answer_id": 43620,
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"text": "Not a direct answer to \"how specific\", but a technique you might find useful not to get bo... | 2019/03/16 | [
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43,622 | I think my writing tends to be too serious/intense or whatever, so I'm wondering how writers create humorous writing. I'm interested in writing some humorous short stories in particular.
What language features or structural techniques help make writing humorous?
Some of the techniques I've used so far include using l... | [
{
"answer_id": 43623,
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"text": "There is no single right answer for this.\n=========================================\n\nHumorous writing can ... | 2019/03/16 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43622",
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43,627 | I have a scene in a upcoming novel where two people play a game of chess, and I realized how difficult it was to describe it. The problem is due to the fact that there are many pieces and you can't really tell your readers where every pieces are at a certain point, and you also need to make sure that the location of th... | [
{
"answer_id": 43628,
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"author_id": 33717,
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"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "It depends on if you want to be precise or abstract.\n\nIf you want to be precise, proper notation (abc, 123)... | 2019/03/16 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43627",
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43,633 | I am seriously wondering what the limits are concerning the use of elision. It seems from the definition that elision is the omission of one vowel, consonant or syllable:
>
> In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more
> sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable)
>
>
>
N... | [
{
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"text": "It was once common to use multiple elisions withing a single word, writing \"cannot\" as \"c'n't\" instead of ... | 2019/03/16 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/43633",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
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