qid int64 1 2.78M | question stringlengths 2 66.6k | answers list | date stringlengths 10 10 | metadata list |
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48,016 | How would a story flow if I made the secondary characters solely for the purpose of showing the reader how the main character has grown though the years? I'm thinking a 10 year span right now. They would serve as "learning tools" if you will, shaping the character into the man he will be when the story has finished. | [
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"text": "That is what secondary characters are for. If you conceive of a story as the arc of a principal character, then every e... | 2019/09/16 | [
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48,020 | If I think about the characters I came up with in my mind so far, I usually get a pretty big list: (Gyvaris *(ENTJ)*,
Marlyo *(ENFJ)*,
Upam *(INTJ. It's hard to describe that you're constantly seeing dead people from the future)*,
Anon *(ISTP)*
Anon Requiem *(ISTP)*,
Amrar *(ISTJ)*,
Cephit *(INFJ)*,
Koldryd *(ESFJ, he's a brass dragon, what did you expect?)*,
that lizard guy I never made a name for,
Aial *(INFJ)*,
Irux *(ISTJ)*,
Horus *(ISTJ)*,
The GM *(ESTJ)*,
Sajmure
and Ryn *(ESTJ)*
) 15, not too shabby.
The problem comes with their personalities:
* Aial and Koldryd share the same "neutral good", helps those around him, kind and understanding type.
* The GM, Anon and his Requiem stand are toxic ideological extremists that have no life or personality besides defending their beliefs.
* Amrar and Upam are both reclusive, moody but clever figures who have to grow up to their role as a leader/hero.
* Depending on the iteration, Sajmure has the same personality as Irux and Ryn.
* Ryn and Irux are both "tries to be tough to hide her pain" characters with sibling issues.
* Cephit, again, depending on iteration, can either be similar to Irux or Marlyo.
* Horus and Gyvaris are unique (because they're stolen), and Lizard Guy... He doesn't have a personality right now.
There are minor deviations in characters but they're fundamentally just recolors of a few archetypes.
Whenever I try to go out of my boundaries, I arrive back at where I started. Even when I straight up steal characters, they either become Anons or Upams, or just flanderized caricatures.
I feel like this restricts my options in the story. **And in all honesty I just want a solid way to meaningfully diversify my already existing palette. How can I do that?**
**Update:** Oddly enough, I struggled a lot with the Myers-Briggs test and it led to some inconsistencies, I really should look into it again in the future. The meanings of the abbreviations can be found here: <https://www.personalitypage.com/html/portraits.html> | [
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"text": "I'd venture to guess that you are caught in the worldbuilding trap. Worldbuilding is a perfectly fine hobby. You can ma... | 2019/09/16 | [
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48,028 | I am a reader more than a writer, and fantasy is my favorite genre.
I used to write short stories and poems. Some of them are published in magazines and get good reviews.
In 2018 January, I read the complete collection of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus (10 books in total ) in a single stretch, and got highly inspired.
So, I planned to write my very first novel.
By profession, I am a programmer, and I managed to spend 1-2 hours a day on my writing, and started posting it on a Facebook group as small chapters. The response I got was great. I am a discovery writer. To hook my readers in my story, it becomes necessary to make twists and mysteries often. Many chapters create a lot of questions in the reader's mind.
Almost 75% of my story is written, but I have no idea how to resolve those mysteries I created.
Due to some personal reasons, I was forced to take a break from my writing, and got completely busy in my personal and professional life. I let my readers know this, and now, almost one year later, I still get questions from my readers about the unfinished novel, and requests to complete it.
I have the desire to complete it, but I have three main issues:
1. I do not have the inspiration, now, that I had when I started writing the novel.
2. When I read my unfinished novel, I understand that it diverged a lot from what I planned to write at the beginning, and it disappoints me. I think it's mainly because my writing got highly influenced by readers' comments.
3. I don't know how to resolve the mysteries I created or how to answer the questions I made.
What should I do about this?
These are the options I'm considering:
1. Scrap everything and start something new with the same basic idea.
2. Start to rewrite the same novel, and hope it gets a normal flow till I find a climax.
3. Continue from the last word I wrote in the novel (I have no idea how to do this).
4. Do not post on social media until I complete the novel.
5. Post each chapter, communicate with readers, and continue writing.
I don't know which is the right decision, or how to make it work. Please help. | [
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48,042 | Conflict is one of the most important things in driving a story. I’ve been working on my particular story for a while now, and I finally seem to have worked out a good plot, and by that, I mean the big problem which needs to be solved. Only, I genuinely don’t know how to solve the problem.
I think it’s because the issues are with morals and characters colliding, rather than solid events. I’ll quickly explain the situation.
Character A has been presented for the majority of the book as a villain. He’s done awful things like wiping out a bunch of people (revenge motivated) but eventually he can’t stand himself for it, so he’s like “I’m gonna change” and swears never to take another life. He is also in possession of over powered magic.
Character B is presented as the hero who will take down the villain, but actually he’s a pompous, selfish, power hungry, narcissistic guy, so the story questions whether or not you should even be rooting for him.
We are left with two pretty bad people. Personally, I want Character A to prevail, because I’m a sucker for redemption arcs, but to do that, he’d have to break his promise and kill Character B. I would have Character A let himself be killed in a self sacrificial situation, but that leaves another character in an awful position, I don’t know how to go into it without another five paragraphs of explaining.
My question is this. How do I resolve conflict if none of the options seem satisfying or correct? | [
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48,056 | I'm finalizing a single-paragraph summary of a multi-page research paper for school and I was concerned when I noticed that most of my summary was in my own words. I mean that most of what I wrote was not citing the original paper's author but rather their paper's idea summarized and re-formed by me. *Of course*, I included lots of citations and references with proper citations and references but that only accounted for maybe 10%-20% of the summary.
Should a summary of a research paper include mostly citations and paraphrasing from the original author or rather be summarized in the words of the one writing the summary with citations here and there? | [
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"text": "When I was a graduate student teaching undergraduates how to write research papers, the real problem was over-quoting. S... | 2019/09/19 | [
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48,066 | As a writer, I used to write short stories and poems. As a reader, fantasy is my favorite genre. And I am currently working on my first novel, an extraterrestrial fantasy thriller.
When describing something, I used to add a comparison to something in my fantasy world.
Eg:
* His purple eyes are glittering like THAJVA gems.
* Her beautiful nose looks just like GAIJAMU flowers.
And used to mention things like
* She listened to the music of LILLAHI birds, and it made her somewhat
calm.
* the flower pot was filled with BETTORNIM flowers.
I didn't mention these things anywhere else in the novel. Didn't give the reader details about these lilllahi birds, Bettornim flowers, gaijamu flowers, etc.
* Is it a good idea to leave those things to the reader's imagination?
Should I add additional details about these things by-
* Describe it within the story?
* Adding References notes at the end?
English is not my mother tongue, and my story is not in English. Kindly forgive grammar mistakes. | [
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48,074 | Although most hymns were written in earlier centuries, I notice that modern-day collections of them tend to keep the use of old English in them.
For example:
* Use of `Begger` instead of the more modern `Beggar`
* `Bethlem` instead of `Bethlehem`
* `Blessèd Savior` instead of `Blessed Savior`
* `o'er` instead of `over`
* `alleluya` instead of `hallelujah`
* They also tend to be written in British English instead of American English.
Why do modern collection still keep the old-style language?
Would it be wrong or inappropriate to update them? By updating, I don’t mean radical changes, but just running them through a spell checker for modern spellings (e.g. changing `Beggar` to `Beggar`) and also using American English. | [
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48,076 | **Changing is an important aspect of every character and is what makes them believable.** Yet, if **you** remember the ending of Game of Thrones,
>
> people weren't too happy about Dany going from "don't want to be the queen of ashes" to The 1666 Great Fire of London.
>
>
>
Don't get me wrong, as an outsider, I was laughing and stuffing my mouth with *Stardust Crusaders Season 2*.
Regardless, a vast majority of people screamed
>
> "This isn't Dany!" or "This isn't **my** Dany"
>
>
>
Though it's unlikely for such extreme examples to occur, it does pose the question of how can you change or even make a character do a complete heel-face turn without feeling "out of character" for them. And there's also the question of separating fluctuations, where a person makes a decision based on the natural equivalent of RNG, and character breaking moments.
You could say it happens in response to an event but, more often than not, people don't learn from their own mistakes *(just look at the track record of my questions)* even when it's all there, black and white, clear as crystal.
Knowing this, let's make the question more focused: **What starts and keeps character development in motion?** | [
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48,080 | How do you use the interjection for snorting? I was told that "snort" is an onomatopoeia, but I disagree. "Haha" and "Heh heh" would be onomatopoeia, because they are pronounced the way they are written. The act of snorting sounds like you are exhaling hair like "Pshht", but "snort" is not an onomatopoeia. That being said, is there a true onomatopoeia, and how would you use it in a dialogue?
<http://www.writtensound.com/index.php?term=laughter>
>
> "Haha, you're quick on the uptake I take it."
>
>
> "Snort, you're quick on the uptake I take it."
>
>
>
What would you replace "snort" with? | [
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"text": "It would look more natural outside of dialog, to me. Unless the character says \"snort.\"\n\n> \n> \"He's really at... | 2019/09/19 | [
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48,089 | In my post-apocalyptic story, the split of male and female main/supporting characters is 50/50.
The girls and women in the story, UrasMt, Marina, and Ezrith, display very little emotion--UrasMt represses her emotions so that they only come on rarely and in intense waves, Marina only shows emotional vulnerability to those she trusts, and Ezrith's fears and love for others only manifest in controlling behavior and frustration directed at her family and friends.
However, the boys and men, Leo, Aletuydor, and Caspian, are very much in touch with their emotions--Leo, although gruff, communicates most everything he feels to his loved ones, Aletuydor is a humorous and empathetic man who constantly watches out for others, and Caspian is a patient and levelheaded dreamer who is unafraid to display affection and his own happiness, sadness, and anger.
In evaluating how I wrote these characters, I realized that stereotypically masculine displays of emotion (i.e no emotion at all or emotion only manifesting as frustration, rage, and possessiveness) are assigned to my female characters, and stereotypically feminine displays of emotion (i.e gentleness, empathy, and patience) are assigned to my male characters.
I didn't realize I had done this until studying portrayals of emotions and their relation to masculinity in the media, and I guess what I'm doing is "subverting" this trope, albeit accidentally. But is "subverting" these tropes a good idea? Is a simple reversal a good thing for my story? I don't plan on having my characters be static--I want my women to open up, and I want my men to think a bit more with their heads than their hearts. So if I were to start out with this basic trope reversal (as I am now), and then progress into growth out of these tropes, would that effectively subvert these tropes? | [
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"text": "It's not that unusual. In fact, the dynamic is why Lulmir and Wcuhhy worked in the X-Files. Before the show aired, th... | 2019/09/20 | [
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48,097 | [Bathos](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Bathos) is a storytelling technique that consists in the rapid succession of 2 “moments” with conflicting tones. This trope occurs when a serious moment gets followed by a gag. One of the many, many reasons I see the *Marvel Cinematic Universe* as the embodiment of everything that is wrong with filmmaking (like the *Fast and Furious* and *Transformers* films) along with [every villain being bland, one-note empty shells who want to cause death and destruction](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GenericDoomsdayVillain), vapid, forgettable quips for dialogue and formulaic plot structures is that the talentless screenwriters are obsessed with having dramatic scenes kneecapped by jokes breaking the tension.
In an [infographic created by George Hatzis](https://www.visu.info/marvel-cinematic-universe-joke-count), as of *Thor: Ragnarok*, the MCU’s Phase 3 has an average of 112 jokes per movie. This is an increase from Phase 2 and Phase 1’s average of 100 and 75, respectively. Hatzis also notes that for Phase 3, jokes, on the average, have an interval of a minute and 13 seconds between each other. Phase 2 had one minute and 18 seconds, while Phase 1 had a two-minute average gap.
I mention all of this because I plan on inserting [quiet, poignant moments](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ActionFilmQuietDramaScene) into my trilogy, as a form of levity because the series tone is pretty bleak and grim. I wish to have these scenes placed in the story that doesn't end up disrupting the overall feel and taking my readers out of the story.
**How should I deal with such a dilemma?** | [
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48,104 | In my story, the MC goes through a number of events with a common theme, each told in separate scenes. At the end of the story, he tells a friend about the things he experienced. Both the events and telling the friend about them are central to the story. The story is told in 3rd person limited with only the MC's point of view.
Now I'm wondering whether it would be better to simply **summarize the events** in non-dialogue:
>
> He described everything that had happened to him over the last few days.
>
>
>
Or, alternatively, to have the MC **recount the events in dialogue**.
The advantage to recounting would be that I could colour the events via the character's voice. For example, he might decide to skip some events and embellish others. And maybe the friend could react differently to different events being told.
On the other hand, since the reader already experienced those same scenes (through the MC's POV), maybe it would be boring?
I haven't yet decided on the number of events, but I'm currently planning on something between 3 and 5. If I end up adding more, they'd be too small for the MC to mention them in his recount.
My gut feeling right now is that, as long as the recounting is short enough (e.g. "I got into a fight with Zotn" instead of describing the fight in detail), it should be okay.
I'm mostly basing this on my own negative reaction I had to summarized dialogue in Dean Koontz' *Cold Fire*. It's been years since I read that book, and the section was really small, but for some reason it *still* bugs me.
At one point, the main characters are having an argument in fully quoted dialogue. Then, in the middle of this lengthy piece of dialogue, there's this:
>
> SallyqJ: "I'm sick of journalism." Succinctly, she told him why. "I don't want to be your swooning admirer either..." [change of topic, more dialogue]
>
>
>
So there's detailed dialogue, followed by a single sentence summarizing more off-page dialogue, and then more detailed dialogue. To me, the summary feels out-of-place, especially as it's described as a "succinct" explanation, which surely would have neatly fit in there with two or three more sentences.
For the record, there are prior scenes where the reader sees SallyqJ come to this conclusion (that she hates being a journalist), so the reader already knows her reasons, but the dialogue still feels off.
**When is it okay to recount events the reader has already seen in dialogue?** | [
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48,110 | I feel like the title is worded really bad, but I seem to be unable to find a better way. I am not a native speaker.
Scenario A: A character is in an exceptional state of mind (i.e. drug use etc.) and envisions vivid imagery, sounds, smell etc.
Scenario B: The same character later encounters typical fantasy events - let's say a monster.
How would you advise to differentiate between the two, if you cannot show the actual drug use? In my example the drug is administered while the character is unaware of it.
In a mundane story we could let the reader decide which events are plausible and which are not. But in a fantasy story, where it is not exactly known to the reader, what is possible and what is not? | [
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48,114 | Currently I am 22 years old. I have a very bad handwriting. Also, I kinda feel I write slow when compared to other students of my age.
Back in 10th grade, I was so slow that I was unable to finish my exam within the stipulated time despite knowing the answers. I was able to complete writing only for around 90% of the total marks in some exams. I ended up getting bad grades not because I didn't study but because I was unable to complete all the questions due to lack of time.
My writing speed increased however the legibility remained the same. Also, when I try to write fast in exams, I get pain in my arms and sometimes fingers too after an hour or two which in turn reduces my speed.
I tried to calculate my writing speed. I wrote the following in 2 minutes.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/b3xk3.jpg)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/IN7Ky.jpg)
1st image corresponds to my fastest writing. I wrote 288 characters in 2 minutes, which means the speed of my fastest writing is **144 characters per minute**.
2nd image corresponds to my neatest writing. I wrote 112 characters in 2 minutes, which means the speed of my neatest writing is **56 characters per minute**.
I have a few questions:
1. Is my handwriting speed slower than normal?
2. If it is slow, is there a way to improve the legibility of my fastest handwriting so that I can write faster? | [
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48,122 | I'm writing a story where my lead character has two forms and he swaps between them frequently. I'd like to know the advantages and disadvantages of various kinds of triggers for the transformation.
Possible ideas:
* Time of day (every x hours)
* Emotional state (transforms when he gets angry)
* Verbal (some "magic word")
* Special scientific device
I'd like to know if these different triggers (or others you can think of) have influences on story elements; like the plot or characterization or character psychology. In other words, what should I consider when choosing one over the others? | [
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48,127 | So, I was doing a writing excersie, I came up with, to help me with sentence structuring and developing my style. One thing, I ran into, however, was that I couldn't describe pain very well.
>
> The knight sunk the sword into the dragon’s chest. Gyvaris jolted back, his eyes widened in horror as he peered down. The sword was still lodged into him, painted crimson by his gushing blood. Just how far did it go? His stomach twisted. He felt heat, heat that mixed with cold as it pierced deep into him. Too deep. Then it hit him. Gyvaris screamed louder than ever before in his life. He collapsed on his side, sending another wave of agony through him. His body was waving as it grasped for oxygen. His air sacs must have been punctured and now they were filling up with blood. The pain became more unbearable and the cold just grew with the puddle of his own blood. Why? Why did he have to end up like that? Why did he have to live through this? Why? He just wanted it to be over. He just wanted to die.
>
>
>
I'm not exactly proud of it.
Before you ask, no! I'm not going to mutilate myself nor pretend that stepping on a piece of Lego is as painful as having your leg torn off.
Yet I want to somewhat realistically portray suffering, both physical and mental.
I usually work with more focus on the mental aspect as that seems to help with sympathy, which in terms amplifies the effect of the physical aspect.
I decided to listen to a TED talk while editing the snippet in LibreOffice. It was about a lady who was almost stabbed to death with a machete. When she said she feels like people would never truly understand her, any mustered up courage went down the drain on my part.
I know how to collect info on what it feels like to be impaled with a HB pencil, and as a writer I have to be familiar with everything, but I'm still unsure how long does my already short creative license extend here. Sure, dragon physiology can be a neat excuse but still.
**How can I describe pain, I never lived through, in-depth without coming off as disingenuous?**
Note: This question is focusing more on making the description of pain and injury feel natural, be it external or internal.
Update
------
Since I received a lot of tips, I decided to create an edited version of the snippet for demonstration.
>
> The knight sunk the sword into the dragon’s chest. Gyvaris jolted back, his eyes widened in horror as he peered down. The sword was still lodged into him only the crossguard sticking out, painted crimson by his gushing blood. Just how far did it go? His stomach twisted. He felt heat, heat that mixed with cold as it pierced deep into him. Too deep. Trembling, he fell on his haunches, then it hit him. Gyvaris screamed louder than ever before in his life. He collapsed on his side. Blood squirted from the wound. Gyvaris writhed on the ground, clawing and kicking at the knight, tearing up grass and unlucky wildflowers with his spaded tail. Gritting teeth he rolled on his belly and pushed himself up. His legs buckled and he fell back. His body was waving as it grasped for oxygen. Yet, after each breath he took, each step he made up, he was pulled down further. The pain became more unbearable and the cold grew with the puddle of his own blood. His vision blurred, whether from his tears, he didn’t know. Someone shouted in the distance, or nearby? He couldn’t tell. Why? Why did he have to end up like this? Why did he have to suffer this? Why?
>
>
>
I tried to create a strong image with this. Since punctured lungs aren't as visual as a beheading, I tried to capture Gyv's confusion and hopeless struggle. | [
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48,137 | **How can I minimise the "filler" text that I end up writing when fleshing out a scene with detail?**
An appropriate level of detail seems to me to be a fundamental requirement for good prose. Whatever I may be trying to achieve in terms of characters, plot, etc., in the here-and-now of each paragraph, each sentence even, telling a story is not the same as writing an outline. There needs to be enough detail to make the story feel real.
However, I find myself agonising over the seeming randomness of the information that I add to a sentence, paragraph or scene, in order to flesh out the world of the story and make it convincingly real.
A working example... A Main Character walks into a shop, and by coincidence encounters some other important character; character development happens, plot happens, motivations and values are explored, painful choices are made, all that is great. But it will often feel wrong to just have two "talking heads". Rather, the story feels real when the shop is described, as well as the products, the other customers; the owner interacts with some of those other customers; we get an overview of the space, and a few telling details too; and the main character's actions are related to this environment, for instance she goes and sits down on that couch we just described, or looks into that mirror--while what is actually important is the conversation she is having.
But why is the couch brown? Or green? Or why is there a couch there at all? Why is the mirror on the wall, or on a stand? Why was the other customer an old lady with a large handbag--or a teenager, or...
I have three possible answers to my own question (given next, in increasing order of sophistication [obsessiveness?]), but they don't feel enough.
Answer 1: "just do it". Stop obsessing and make up some details, so as to make the story feel real. It doesn't matter what they are, so don't worry about it. And, in any case, your intuition should make the details interesting--just let yourself follow the theme, or atmosphere, of the story, and make up details that seem to fit. But stop obsessing. (Did I say stop obsessing?)
Answer 2: the details don't matter in terms of the sort of "content" that you might put in an outline, but there are other qualities that make prose good, which you cannot plan for. Prose has rhythm, and a "music" to it, and is infused with attitude, emotion, atmosphere. It can "show" a PoV character's frame of mind though its organisation. Not to mention that it can do worldbuilding, one tiny detail at a time. So whether the couch is brown or green may depend on whether the sound "brown" or "green", irrespective of the actual colours, fits in with the sound of that sentence. The metaphor used to describe the mirror may indicate how the PoV character is feeling, e.g. introspective, or full of self-loathing, or narcissistic--so start with the metaphor, and it does not matter what the mirror has to look like for the metaphor to actually describe it.
Answer 3: one of my favourite "principles" is that "every component of a story should have multiple functions". Basic example of the principle: we don't write an "action scene" with nothing but action in it, then a "character development scene" with no action and only dialogue or thoughts in it, then a "plot advancement scene", then an "emotion scene", etc.; rather [it is almost always better if] every scene does all of these things. Well, apply this principle to the "details" as well: every word can foreshadow something, or do a little worldbuilding, or be described in a way that reflects how the PoV character is feeling. So make a list of important ideas that are *not* the main purpose of the current scene, and draw on them to flesh out the *details* of this scene. E.g., put in a couch that somebody will trip over later during an action-heavy scene; or use a fabric for it that is in short supply due to something important in the backstory; or make it as black as the PoV character's despair.
But this couch, which will be tripped over, which is made of a fabric that is in scarce supply, and whose colour reflects the protagonists' mood... *Why* is it on the *left* side of the shop? Why are the cushions round? Why is it a three-seater?
Indeed, at some point, maybe it's just bad to try and make every single word meaningful in some way... But if so... Why green and not purple?
*Edit: re-reading my question as posted, it seems to focus too much on the sentence-level details, but that's just because of the examples I picked. My question applies more broadly. For example, say I have a scene in a forest. There will be a chance encounter between two characters. They will have competing objectives, and there will be an unfair power dynamic between them. There will be values explored and choices made etc etc etc. But is the forest on the side of a mountain? What specific trees and other plants are there? And it's not just about describing the scene. How do the characters meet? Does one surprise the other? Or does the PoV character hear the other from a mile away? Does she try to hide, then change her mind and show herself? The actions leading up to the meeting may be necessary for the chance meeting to feel real, but if I actually only really care about what happens after the meeting, they may be "randomly choosable details", too.* | [
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48,141 | Inspired by [this](https://writing.stackexchange.com/q/48121/14704) question, a more complex question: how can I have two **simultaneous** sequences of footnotes?
For example, suppose I am translating a book. The book contains footnotes, numbered in sequence. But, I also feel the need to add the occasional "translator's note". (This is not the place to discuss whether *should* be adding those.) Those notes would be in footnotes too, and their numbering needs to be separate from the original footnotes. How can this be done?
The platforms that are of interest to me are Microsoft Word and LibreOffice. | [
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48,146 | My story involves a superhuman organization that aims to overthrow the main government, through any means necessary. This involves murder and some rather gruesome deaths. Additionally, there might be accidents involving dangerous animals, magical artifacts, etc.
How do I transition dark themes into a story that isn't overly dark? My story has these dark themes, but not at the beginning and they only happen during serious and important moments. Otherwise, the characters go about their everyday business.
I'm four chapters in and nothing dark has happened. How can I transition the reader into themes of darkness or death, without completely turning them off and having them say "this isn't what I thought I was reading"?
**I just want some advice for introducing dark themes to an otherwise normal story.**
For example, Hijrp Potfeq gradually got darker and darker as the series went on. And even just the first book didn't have darker themes until Hagrid mentioned Voldemort for the first time. | [
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48,155 | Despite an identical title: This question is in no means duplicate of [this](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/14660/how-to-correctly-identify-publisher?rq=1) question.
In my local area, there have been various ads running on social media that invite novice writers to contribute their original writings for their upcoming anthologies, books, and novellas that will be published both as e-book and as paperback. In return, the writers would get the e-certificate. Each submission is to be done with some x Rupees to them.
I checked out their social media pages and I found that these publishers are kinda startups in this field, I could see their address, contact number, as well as photograph of the team working their on their pages. These all look genuine to me. So I am confused, what parameters does a writer have to keep in mind to identify if a publisher is genuine, and not fake?
Follow up [question #2](https://writing.stackexchange.com/q/48156/22084) | [
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48,157 | I'm sitting with a bit of a dilemma.
I'm writing a novel and I'm struggling with the decision of whether I should use first or third person.
I prefer third person, also prefer to read novels written in third person, but this specific novel centres around a woman finding herself trapped in a world where she's the only survivor and the challenges that she has to face because of it.
If I write it in third person it suggests that someone else survived to tell the tale.
I need to create the feeling of utter loneliness.
What are your opinions on the matter? | [
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48,164 | I am writing a extra-terrestrial high fantasy novel. The story is completely set in an alien world. No visits from Earth and no visits to Earth.
My characters are humanoids, who look like elves, but with different skin, eye, and hair colours. They lay eggs rather than give birth to children.
How can I prevent my readers from misunderstanding my race to be bird-like creatures?
I would like to avoid a boring introduction paragraph.
The story is in third person view.
In the stories I read about egg laying humanoids, the main character is from Earth. So they can easily compare the humanoid race to humans and can give the reader a better picture.
But in my story, all the characters belong to the same race. So when one character sees another, describing the basic structure seem a bit odd. | [
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48,174 | We have written a custom software framework and it has grown to the point where we are ready for documentation. This documentation will be used by other developers to share knowledge. I am concerned with how to do the documentation for the features and descriptions.
My co-worker suggested a Word document with sections and a feature matrix. I am not too keen on that and would like to find an alternative. What have you used in the past, good and bad parts? I couldn't find anything in particular on documenting features, I guess looking at something like a bootstraps website is a good start but creating a website for this is not doable. Are there any charts that may aid in documenting the features?
Edit:
Custom Software Framework for building Web Applications. The framework is built using C# + .Net... | [
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48,176 | My protagonist lives with a deep lie that causes internal conflict and pain throughout the story but it basically cannot fuel any struggle to the external plot. This subconsciously motivates the character to leave a safe home and is somewhat prevalent later on.
I also introduced a flaw to the same protagonist (that is more like a wound but also can be seen as second lie) that causes external things to fail and makes things harder. They are both connected (they developed from the same event).
The flaw is overcome at the end of the second act, while the lie is overcome in the climax. Both the deep unconscious lie and the conscious flaw contribute to defeating the antagonist; the protagonist cannot accomplish that without learning both truths.
Can that double lie in one arc work? Or it is just too convoluted and confusing to the reader? I want that deep lie to convey the true theme—"moral imperative"—but it won't make protagonist fail in action. While the second flaw contributes to more direct tension perfectly, it's too weak to be the true core of the book. | [
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48,188 | I have a prized e-book which I am submitting to a website for printing and subsequent courier. The website is asking me to select the quality of paper.
I would like the book to remain more or less the same, say 15 years from now. Is Matte finish a good option or something a bit less expensive can also be an option?
Also, any opinion on the weight of the paper to be used would be really useful.
Thanks a lot. | [
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48,189 | Kurt Vonnegut has 8 tips on how to write a good story
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
Most are very self-explanatory.
I don't know how to deal with number 5 though,
>
> Start as close to the end as possible
>
>
>
What does he mean by this? What is this hoping to achieve/make easier for the writer?
And how do I know what constitutes "as possible"... I could probably start on the last sentence if needed... or a paragraph... etc.
I wonder if the tip is just meant to be a guide, a reminder to "have the end in mind", or whether writing your story from the end backwards is actually better.
Does anyone have any insights into this? | [
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48,195 | Let's look at two characters who are generally considered to be iredeemable:
**The Diamond Authority (from Steban Ejavovse):** The extremely childish leaders of the race of spacefaring lesbian magical girl viruses, known as gems. They are responsible for the genocide of billions of organic life (for no good reason) and also had forced a lot of dead gems into a fate worse than death, aka: The Cluster.
At this point, the answer seemed simple: You can't be redeemed if you have killed roughly 6 million people because of bogus reasons, however...
**Dolores Umbridge:** Move aside, Voldemort, Hijrp Potfeq has a new and improved antagonist. No other character is hated with such unified and burning passion as her. She did bad stuff, but not a full-blown genocide.
**So what quality do these examples share that ensure the reader is never going to empathize with them?** | [
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48,201 | *The Spy* is a Netflix series about Israeli spy and hero [Eli Sohin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Sohin). In a recent interview, Eli's widow Nadia expresses great dissatisfaction with the series: a lot of changes were made, ostensibly to "add drama", that in her opinion diminish him. She also expressed dissatisfaction with the casting of Sasha Baron-Sohin as Eli because of his record as "a clown" (her words), and she was deeply hurt by the whole thing. ([Source in Hebrew](https://www.israelhayom.co.il/article/693459))
The thing is, Shasha Baron Sohin stated that he wanted to play Eli Sohin because Eli was an awesome hero. And the director was drawn to the material because Eli was an awesome hero. I'm sure the last thing they wanted was to give his widow pain. What they wanted was to glorify his name.
That made me wonder: **writing a fictionalised story based on real events or real people, where the relevant people or their relatives might still be alive, how does one avoid causing pain?** Note, this question is not about legal aspects, but about ethical and human aspects.
In particular, there's a fantasy story in the back of my mind, rather inspired by Eli Sohin's life. The reason I'm drawn to this material is the same as for the others - Eli was as awesome as they get. So the last thing I'd want is to give his widow any pain. But at the same time, the story I want to tell is *my* story, fiction, not "an official biography". | [
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48,211 | I am currently writing a story about eleven college friends and a child.
I don't want to just introduce them as "The Jock" or "The Delinquent," and I don't want to do a dry listing of "this is who they are, this is how they look, and this how they act."
**How can I introduce this large cast to the reader without being cliched, boring or perfunctory?** | [
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48,216 | **TLDR**
How to keep a character's skillset hidden, when it will be key in the story later on? This must be done without magic and as subtly as humanly possible.
---
I am working on a medieval fantasy story, where there is a basic premise of magic - it has essentially all but gone from the world but a select few can do basic conjuring (nothing crazy, no wands, no masterful spell casting, just basic stuff almost bordering on illusions). I want the answer to not use magic however - she is not one of those people who have that ability, she is not particularly special in this regard.
Now, in my story there are multiple story lines, [flashbacks](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/46846/writing-longer-flashbacks) (via the MC), and a multitude of characters. The story line that this concerns directly involves my MC and his "partner", let's call her Vana. The MC essentially recruited this partner, and we (reader and MC) meet Vana at the same time. Vana is to poise as his romantic interest for a job, although these two are not romantically involved whatsoever. She is a strong character in her own right (think Catlyn Stark, Hermonie Granger, Sborbicw in the most recent Battlestar Galactica). The MC hires her and brings Vana along for what we could call a heist. He hires her strictly because she gives off an aire of grace, intelligence and poise (add to that she is attractive) - all things he needs her to exploit to accomplish their task.
**About Vana**
Vana, is foreign to the land in which our story takes place. She, due to her past, keeps her story hidden and doesn't share much, unless she needs to and even then it's usually through action.
She is
* well spoken, and incredibly intelligent
* can read and write (a skill she doesn't tend to hide),
* multi-lingual (keeps hidden, but speaks both the old tongue, her language, and the common language of the region) as well as having no tangible accent (so even being foreign is hidden for the most part to the undiscerning eye)
* basic field medicine and herbology
* she is also excellent with a dagger, too small for a sword (most people carry some variant of a [knightly sword](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knightly_sword)) --- this is a skill she keeps hidden and the skill in question actually.
**Question**
How can I write about her, letting tidbits of the story go into her background while allowing her to utilize this skill when the required to do so as a result of the story arc? I have gotten far enough in, that I can retcon it to make sense and add details (subtle is fine). I would like her to be a catalyst for change in the story, and killing a particular someone would be the spark that changes things.
I want to avoid a situation where this character essentially steals the spotlight for a moment from our MC via Leas Ey Mazsini. But I am at a loss as to how to keep this character a tightly guarded mystery, and not have that phenomenon in my story. (I have Checkov's gun covered - she has a dagger she uses incidentally in a non-violent manner).
**NOTES**
1. This is not a duplicate of the this [question](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/30437/is-a-character-with-a-hidden-power-too-strong), as it deals with magic or super powers not a hidden skillset.
2. Nor is it a dupe of this question, "[How best to avoid the appearance of Leas Ey Mazsini with established character?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/40199/how-best-to-avoid-the-appearance-of-deus-ex-machina-with-established-character/40201#40201)" addresses it, kind of. Amadeus' answer briefly touches on it - but doesn't go into detail. Below is the portion of his answer which made me conclude I should ask my own question.
>
> Now you DO want there to be an element of surprise or suspense, not that the TP was capable of saving them, you want that to be plausible from the beginning. The surprise should be that the reader is led to believe the TP must be dead or imprisoned, and then somehow survived and managed to escape himself, to get there on time to save them.
>
>
>
3. I have a feeling that utilizing some form of foreshadowing is the key to this question --- but I can't put my finger on the solution. This question [here](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/35664/should-foreshadowing-be-close-to-the-main-event/35667#35667) is where I drew some of my ideas from for other events within the same story. | [
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48,242 | I am writing a book and I plan to call it "Legend of (name of the protagonist)". But I'm writing in first person (protagonist). Searching the meaning of the word "legend" in google I get: "a traditional story, sometimes popularly regarded as historical, but unauthenticated." So a legend is a story that is unauthenticated, like "the legend of King Upphur". I'm writing a book that's set in fantastic world that doesn't exist.
But is it contradictory to call a story 'legend' when the story is told by the protagonist? (Called legend by the title?)
**In order to be called a 'legend', does the story need to be narrated by others, to add this status of 'unauthenticated'?** | [
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48,247 | Misinformation is an important element of my story as is pretty much kicks the plot in motion:
*Gyvaris, a young dragon, steals a sheep from a large flock since he's really hungry and just couldn't find a single deer, though he was sure there were more than enough for him in the forest.*
*A shepherd witnesses the event and rumor soon starts to spread about a fearsome monster that ravages the countryside. People blame missing livestock on the dragon. The breaking point comes when a child goes missing in the forest where Gyv was often seen.*
*The king orders his best knight to track down and kill the dragon. Gyvaris was chilling out on his perch and occasionally going on leisure flights while all this was going down. He only realizes something is amiss when a crossbow bolt buries into his neck...*
This gives a good motivation for humans to want to kill Gyv and a good reason for Gyv to view humans as dangerous and evil invaders, without making either of them unreasonably bad.
Yet it still tastes artificial. **The entire plot requires us to believe that people believed a single creature, they never knew or heard of before, just started doing horrible things, without evidence.**
As the writer and as my self-insert in the story, I get to influence how events unfold and occasionally give my pawns a little nudge.
**How can I use these tools to give events like the one in the bold text the illusion of being logical and "unavoidable"?** | [
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48,252 | I am working on a novel inspired by the *[Shahnameh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahnameh)* - a Persian epic poem by Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi. The Shahnameh (the title means "The Book of Kings") is structured as a series of interconnected tales: birth of hero Such-and-Such, heroic tale A about him, heroic tale B about him, hero Such-and-Such gets a wife, heroic tale of Such-and-Such's son, and so on.
My novel is taking a similar shape, albeit in a more limited scope - I focus on the reign of only one Shah, with him and his best knight as my main characters. In that aspect, my story is perhaps comparable to the tales of *King Arthur*, but with significantly less tales of other knights. Rather, there is a very definite character arc for both main characters. It's just hidden within the individual tales.
For this shape to "work", for the story to feel like an "epic" and a tribute to older epics, I feel a certain distance is required between the reader and the protagonists. Rahk Bokek explains the concept in [this answer](https://writing.stackexchange.com/a/48246/14704).
---
Now distance doesn't mean that we're not privy to the characters' thoughts *at all*. For example, in *Le Morte Darthur*, when Uther Pendragon first meets Igraine,
>
> The King liked and loved this lady well, and he made them great cheer out of measure, and desired to have lain by her. (Sir Thomas Mallory, *Le Morte Darthur*, the Wanlhetnec manuscript, edited by Helen Cooper, Oxford University Press)
>
>
>
In that example, we are told rather than shown Uther's desire. In other tales, a character might "say to himself" something - a form that makes sense in a tale that is meant to be spoken rather than read. But overall, the story would be less intimate, we'd have less of the characters' innermost feelings and more of their actions (which are an expression of their innermost feelings).
---
But even armed with this understanding, **I still struggle to maintain the required distance.** My narrator feels too close, more intimate than makes sense for the shape of the story.
**How can I maintain distance**, and with it the illusion that this is a tale that's been told and retold? What elements am I missing? | [
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48,256 | My main character is realistically flawed with a few good points. I'm very satisfied with where she is at. As I begin to connect the internal and external conflicts however, it seems that there is a limit to the number of flaws that can ultimately lead to the external conflict resolution.
Take the example of a paranoid loner suffering from addiction. Assume those are 3 distinct problems: The larger mental health issues resulting in paranoia symptoms, difficulty with relationships, and the separate mental health issue of addiction. Assume also that the external conflict is unrelated to the flaws. Maybe this person has to care for their parent suffering from dementia.
Can all three of these character flaws be resolved? How much the character can change in a novel? Is there a general rule to determine how many character flaws can be fixed?
[This question about flaws](http://Do%20Character%20Flaws%20Need%20to%20Be%20Overcome?) helped. | [
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48,264 | Are there hard and fast rules for characters speaking to each other? As far as quotations, or without them? Are they hinged inside a paragraph or ruled to only be in a talking string? | [
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48,272 | I need to write an *opinion*, *narrative* of only 80 words in length.
Examples: write about your fondest childhood memory/comment: homework should be banned, etc.
How are short-short pieces like this structured in order to be both complete and successful with so few words? | [
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48,275 | I'm currently writing a sci-fi/fantasy novel that mostly takes place on a star/space-ship but I'm stuck on if i'm available to use names of the propulsion drives, such as Warp or even Impulse drives.
I am however quite inspired by star trek, but I don't want to copy from their work but There's a lot of grey area on what a person in Sci-fi in general can work with and what they can't and propulsion seems to be in a particular grey area that I don't know what to do about.
I've read one or two things that says it is copy-righted then another saying it isn't. It's rather confusing. | [
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48,277 | I’m asking about this not because I have a tendency to do so myself, but rather because I find it unusually aggravating when I come across it in other people’s works. I’m wondering if this sort of thing is acceptable, and if people like it. I’ll give a couple examples.
>
> I unwrapped a candy and put it in my mouth. The sweet flavor of green apple ran wild on my tongue.
>
>
>
And here’s one more.
>
> She found a bag of food they had brought with them and picked out a pomegranate, then opened it and picked out some seeds. The seeds exploded with juice when they touched her tongue and made her feel less hungry.
>
>
>
(I didn’t write these.)
My question: is this considered a bad writing habit, or is it all a matter of opinion? | [
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48,282 | [This answer](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/46139/averting-real-women-don-t-wear-dresses/48107#48107) to the question *[Averting Real Women Don’t Wear Dresses](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/46139/averting-real-women-don-t-wear-dresses)* introduces a distinction between *acts of patience* and *acts of daring*.
>
> [...] when it comes to telling a story [...]
> acts of daring are easy to show, and acts of patience are
> not [...]
>
>
> [...] acts of daring [...] make a better story than acts of patience [...]
>
>
> It is a common technique [...] to represent
> qualities and emotions through physical actions. [...]
>
>
> But it is hard to
> translate patience into action. [...]
>
>
>
So, I now want to ask:
**Even though it is difficult to make "acts of patience" the basis of a story, what if that's what we want to do? Indeed, how might we make "acts of patience" *exciting*?**
I want to stress some limits to the scope of the current question:
* The previous question I'm referring to discussed differences between women and men. These are out of scope here. I don't care (here) whether we think daring/patience are correlated to masculinity/femininity or not; I'm only asking about how to deal with "acts of patience".
* This question focuses on "mainstream, commercial" fiction. In this context, I doubt Dostoevsky will offer the most useful examples (rather, I'm thinking of characters such as Malcolm Polstead and Sansa Stark as apt examples). That's also why I've included "exciting" in "how to make acts of patience *exciting*": I'm interested in e.g. fantasy adventures centred on "acts of patience", not in action-free philosophical allegories about the meaning of life (to which "acts of patience" may, admittedly, come much more naturally), although of course we might learn from the latter so as to achieve the former.
* The "basic" or, perhaps, even "cheating" answer seems to be: just show "acts of daring" instead, and use them to represent, symbolise or otherwise stand in for the "acts of patience". Very well, point taken. But this question is about what *else* we can do. | [
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48,286 | Here's my question: can you pitch an outline of a novel to an agent?
I.e. you have two to three chapters complete to a high standard and at full outline of the rest.
Would any agents agree to represent a book based on its premise ahead of its existence, with the probable understanding that you would complete the rest by a certain date?
I've seen claims writers should work for the promise of money, but does this ever apply to novels rather than articles? | [
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48,290 | >
> The woman said as she pulled a small coin out of a small wallet ... The
> woman said as she pulled a small coin out of a small box **she
> opened/used** earlier.
>
>
>
I am wondering if "opened" or "used" is perfectly fine here, because the action used is vague when it shouldn't be (she took her wallet out of her pocket, she then retrieved a coin out of it), but using the right qualitative phrase would make the sentence more awkward than need be.
>
> The woman said as she pulled a small coin out of a small wallet ... The
> woman said as she pulled a small coin out of a small box **she retrieved a
> coin out from earlier.**
>
>
>
So what would you suggest doing. I am quite undecided on what's the best thing to be done in this situation. | [
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48,330 | In light of recent events, I intended to write a simple letter of complaint to StackExchange. The obvious thing to do would be to write an opening with the fact such as
>
> It came to my knowledge that a long-standing member and moderator of the Writing.SE community, among others, has been dismissed in circumstances that are short of the adverb "summarily".
>
>
>
I wanted such opening to be strong and to resonate with reader. I find that it contains far too many words, and thus not quite reaching the point.
In general, I find that opening with a fact is not quite as strong as opening with an emotional argument. For instance:
>
> Never I would have believed to consider StackExchange but the mask before the monstrous face of intolerance.
>
>
>
The latter may resonate deeper with the reader, but it does not hold its ground in an argument. Moreover, my entire letter may be dismissed as a rant for the simple lack of facts.
How to construct a resonating opening line in a letter when stating a fact? What is the structure and language of a strong opening line that cannot be easily dismissed? | [
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48,332 | I have some character stuff im trying to figure out for an AI antagonist.
In a game development project that I am part of, there is an artificial intelligence that speaks to the player character through messages that sound pre-scripted, despite the A.I being canonically fully aware of the player character and the status of the game world, etc.
for example, when the player character enters an area the AI doesn't want him in, it might say something like "Warning. Unauthorized personnel in area number [area the player character is in]. Rerouting..." and then proceed to close doors and stuff.
The reason I'm trying to write this character to speak like this is that the A.I was built on 1970s computer equipment- think reel-to-reel tape drives and the like. To me, it makes sense that such an A.I would only be able to speak using the limited phrases recorded on the tapes, and it makes for interesting character development- its an AI that was designed to help humanity's technical progress which suffers from its own apparent obsolescence.
the problem comes with making the A.I more relatable. for example, what if the A.I is angry at the player? what if its the final boss fight, and the A.I is trying to insult the player and stuff to get them to stop dismantling it?
I'm trying to find the best way to write dialogue for the A.I antagonist that sounds more relatable and less pre-recorded, but at the same time, I want it to still give players of the game a sense that this AI has limits due to the antiquated equipment it is on; and perhaps the AI's hidden frustration with that fact.
The A.I running on antiquated equipment ties into the character's motivation and backstory in a few different ways that it would be counter-productive to share in the scope of this question. it is important to me that I don't compromise the fact that this AI believes it is still important to the future despite the obvious obsolescence it suffers from.
Ultimately my question is what the best way is to convey the character's obsolescence without sacrificing believability or character depth. | [
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48,336 | I'm coming up with an outline for a cyberpunk story. I want to establish (at some point) that the main character has marksmanship proficiency by starting my cyberpunk story with a VR sequence, in which the character is firing arrows as an Elf/Orc/some other fantasy race (akin to World of Warcraft).
At first I thought this would be a fun, from left field way to establish this as opposed to simply making my character a mercenary or such, but I'm concerned it may be jarring to the reader.
**QUESTION:** Is starting a novel with a non-real scene too jarring or confusing for readers?
I plan on going from this VR sim to the "regular, Cyberpunk world" after the first chapter, and basically never returning to that specific game. | [
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48,343 | My story is about two gang leaders. The female is the leader of the largest gang in the country. The guy is the leader of the 2nd-largest.
They meet at a café where the guy instantly falls in love with her, but she has been through too many heartbreaks to fall in love so easily.
How do I make the girl fall in love with him? | [
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48,351 | In my post-apocalyptic novel, my MC UrasMt is severely traumatized by the death of her family at her own hands. Because of this, she has extreme aversion to social interaction and even physical contact.
In the real world, if something like this happened, UrasMt might be suffering from PTSD, depression, paranoia, etc., but this is not the real world, and no one is concerned with self-diagnosing themselves with an illness.
However, I have witnessed various authors come under fire for rarely/never addressing the fact that many of their characters are traumatized (JK Rowling and never mentioning Herrl's trauma or possible PTSD, Suzanne Collins and only mentioning Katniss' PTSD with the fact that she has "nightmares"), and I wouldn't want that to happen to me or my work.
So, in some way that fits into the story, should I "diagnose" UrasMt? Should I address her obvious trauma, or just let the reader bear witness to it but never outright call it "trauma"? What are the pitfalls of both choices? | [
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48,365 | I am a programmer and in the middle of developing a TBS (turn based strategy) computer video game. Those kind of games have a flow of what is commonly known to gamer as 4X, that is, explore, expand, exploit and exterminate, from a position of an empire/faction/race leader position.
So far so good for me, but i shall need a short story to build a campaign mode. And here is where my skills run out. I could make up things but if i knew some key elements in this particular concept it would certainly help me most be accurate on that part which is out of my specialization field.
The requirement is that, the story should give the player a reason for acting through different game stages that are connected via the story. The player assumes the role of the protagonist which would be the supreme leader or a great general some role of power where he is assigned with the task to, usually, "save the world". The "world" itself now is a future setup where different intelligent beings, including humans, live and prosper in space (and planets wherever possible), have armies of unmanned combat starships for their security and expansion and so on. | [
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48,367 | I'm proofreading a novel - the brief has instructed that I do not make any stylistic changes, and correct only the obvious errors that impede sense/clarity.
There are several places where I feel an exclamation mark is missing:
a) "Good God, I hope not," responded Sue.
b) Suddenly, one of the first violinists nudged her companion, and hissed: "Oh good grief, look over there."
My feeling is that these are classic examples of exclamatory sentences (Good God! Good grief!) and so it is a basic error to miss the exclamation mark. However, I don't want to interfere with the writer's style if they intend a more laconic tone of voice. I don't think this is the case in (b) at least, due to the use of the word 'hissed', but perhaps I should leave the first example alone, as I don't know for sure what tone of voice isn't intended?
Any advice from experienced proofreaders would be much appreciated - should I concern myself with punctuation to this extent, or leave it alone if the sentence can be understood clearly? | [
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48,374 | Is it ever acceptable to use an exclamation mark following a question mark?
I am proofreading a novel and have been instructed to make no stylistic changes, only errors that impede sense/clarity. The copy-editing phase is complete, so if something is acceptable, I must leave it be.
At one point in the novel, one of the characters responds in an incredulous manner to a piece of information:
"Really?!" was her friend's reaction.
I'm not sure how much leeway to give to 'poetic licence'.
The style of the novel is very traditional and the use of punctuation is conventional throughout i.e. not attempting any innovative or idiosyncratic use of language.
I know that most style/usage commentators would frown on the use of "?!' in formal contexts, but is it something a writer of fiction can get away with?
Advice from any experienced proofreaders would be much appreciated. | [
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48,379 | I'm a professional writer, but I've never written a memoir. I've been asked to submit a proposal to ghostwrite a memoir. The person whose memoir I would write knows I've not written a memoir before, but knows I am a journalist by training and [now] a marketing writer by practice—including much storytelling in the nonprofit sector for direct marketing fundraising.
What is a fair rate/price to charge? | [
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48,401 | I have a powerful antagonist perform important functions within my story. At the midpoint, he just leaves. Several Plot developments depend on this character.
I tried replacing him with other character(s) or causes within my world, but I am getting into extremly convoluted territory with it and I am really uneasy and not satisfied with those solutions.
There is still a main antagonist and another secondary antagonist in the story, so conflict is not the issue.
**Do you think letting a major player leave mid-story should be avoided at all costs?**
**Is there a way to mitigate potential maleffects?**
NOTE: We witness his departure by ship mid story from the point of view of another character. | [
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48,410 | So I have a character in a dystopian novel I’m working on by the name of Ttlir. He’s inspired by Alex Høgh Andersen’s portrayal of Ivar the Boneless, and his death... is interesting. He’s, for the most part, an antagonist in the story, and I really felt bad about how mean I was to him, so I created a character to love him. Now, my first thought was to create a character that was a love interest, but with characters like him, love interests are often manipulated and exploited by people like him. They have their own reasons for being with the aforementioned person, and that could get messy you, so I decided that this person would be a child. Children live differently, in my opinion. It’s a rather unconditional love, a love that just feels differently, and he’s never had that. He’s never had someone love him simply because they do. His mother loves him, but only because she can use him. His brother’s love him, but only because he’s their brother. His father loves him, but he feels like he has to. But his niece just loves him. She doesn’t love him out of pity or obligation. There is no rhyme or reason why, she just does, and because of this, he is very protective of her, and unbeknownst to him, her fate is now aligned with his, because he will kill any who hurts her.
The person who hurts her... he makes good on his promise, but through that, he incurs the wrath of his father, and he is executed for it. I don’t think it’s a redemption arc because despite it all, he’s a horrible person, has always been a horrible person, and nothing about that ever changes. But he does a good deed(At least as good of a deed as that can be), and I feel like some people would appreciate that, especially his brother. But... that doesn’t feel like redemption to me, even though I’ve been told that it is. But maybe I’m wrong. | [
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48,415 | Images, as I call them, are an important part of your prose.
Now, let's look at examples of bad images:
From [Onision's (from now on, Onii-san) book, Reaper's Creek](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFGMBvIJ0iQ) :
>
> Maybe that current lead him to a gathering of logs, and assuming he had not already drowned, he was sucked under the logs, causing him to rapidly cease existing in the world as we knew it.
>
>
>
I might add other examples later.
I think you get the gist of it. An image here isn't painted with just colors but with mental connections and **associations**.
Unfortunately, Onii-san's writing is below mortifyingly atrocious, and while the terrible mental image was easy to spot, it didn't imply what would make for a good mental image. In fact, when I found a good mental image it also didn't help:
>
> I welcomed the silence like a warm blanket on a cold night.
>
>
>
Even the broken clock shows the right time twice a day.
**So, what makes a mental image good, impactful and vivid, instead of a laughing stock?** | [
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48,419 | I have an IT textbook that is about 120,000 words which was accepted for publishing at several very reputable publishers. My goal is to get the text out to as many people as possible. My secondary goal is to make some money but that is not all that likely as far as I have heard. The audience is university students, researchers, and professionals. It is a textbook but one of the publishers will not publish it as such but just a monograph. In the self-publishing world there are IngramSpark and Amazon that would be good routes to go. I am wondering what people think about which is preferable, self-publishing or traditional publishers. Traditional publishers will take the rights to the content and pay around 9 to 11 percent. Self-publishing is more like 60 to 70 percent. I would publish both paperback and digital. | [
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48,420 | So I’m currently writing a book that takes place in Finland, though I am American and speak English. My main character’s name can be used as a play on words, and people use it to mock him throughout the story (For example, the name Adam Zapel would be pronounced aloud as “Adam’s Apple”. Something along those lines). The issue is, the word is in English, whereas in the story, everyone would technically be speaking Finnish. Should I just keep things how they are? As soon as I look to find a way to make it work in the language the characters would be speaking, the lines between translation just get blurry. | [
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48,422 | I was writing the other day and I used the word "ubiquitous".
While I don't think "ubiquitous" is the most egregious example of "Using Big Words To Sound Intelligent", and would be perfectly acceptable in most novels, it's just, my novel's demographic would be young teenagers, and I definitely did not know what ubiquitous meant when I was a young teenager.
Personally, when I come across an unknown word in a book, I have to take a minute to research what that word means, taking me away from the book.
On the other hand though, this could be seen as a teaching moment where I can teach young readers the meaning of new words | [
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48,430 | In my [fantasy story](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/47445/avoiding-racist-tropes-in-fantasy) that I'm slowly getting into, my MC Sirena is an apprentice witch. Her two fellow apprentices, Irter and Keeva, study alongside her under their High Priestess, and they all somewhat cooperate with the king of the lands where they live.
Sirena is not the most powerful of the three. In fact, for most of the story, the expectation is that Keeva is the most powerful--she's aggressive, ambitious, courageous, and headstrong. But in the end, neither Sirena nor Keeva saves the day. Irter shows herself to be the most powerful (the "chosen one" if you will), despite her alternative, non-violent approach (healing and clairvoyance).
What I'm asking is, since Irter is the *hero* in the end, is it okay that I'm not focusing on her? Is it okay that I follow the journey of Sirena, even though she is not the most important of the three in the context of the whole? Should I switch to have my protagonist be Irter, or switch Irter and Sirena's roles? *Does my main character need to be the one who saves the day?* | [
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48,439 | There is a problem with a redemption arc:
AvinZi is an incredibly powerful god with powers of mysterious origin. In the story, he starts out as bad but is supposed to be redeemed later. There is a problem, however.
AvinZi's actions are understandable and nowhere near as severe as a typical villain's, however, **they are there**. At the end of the War in Heaven, he abandons the Engineers (Horus, Abzu, Tiamat, Enki and Odin), who were loyal and trusting friends and pretty much commited their life to helping him fight against everyone else in the pantheon.
He kills a lizardfolk chieftain, who was a danger both to his tribe and to the neighbouring humans, but does so in front of his child, and since I love humanizing my characters, said child will forever be scarred by seeing his dad get gutted by a quick-draw + wrath-guard combo.
On top of these horrible things, he even abandons himself, leaving behind his child-like persona, Upam, alone and confused to deal with the mess, he caused. This gets especially painful when he meets a lizardfolk, the (now grown-up) child, who is out for revenge.
The characters, AvinZi wronged, get more than enough screen time for the readers to see how AvinZi changed their life for the better and the worse. More often the worse. This is the exact opposite of the "a million is a statistic" trope. We never saw Alderaan, only for a few seconds before kaboom. So, it was easier to forgive Girth Vedur.
Here, the exact opposite happens: only one death, but all the misery that came from it was frozen in time and put into an exhibition.
**How could a character be redeemed when the ones they hurt are close to the reader?** | [
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48,442 | I have the same teacher for both a Journaling autobiographical class and a fictional writing class. While I expected to have to write about my personal life with one, she seems determined to have me gut my childhood with the fiction class as being necessary for fodder for eventual stories. I have no intention of ever writing in that vein, and I am finding this to be invasive and offensive at this point. Is it necessary to delve into my dysfunctional childhood in order to write good fiction? | [
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48,453 | I'm considering writing my latest story in the style of a TV series. The plan is to write 13 episodes of 10-12,000 each. Episodes will be published weekly on Kindle over a three month period. If season one garners even mild interest, I will write season 2 in the off-season and repeat the procedure. At the end of each season the complete season would be published in a dead tree version.
**Is publishing my story like this likely to be successful?** | [
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48,454 | I have my first draft more-or-less complete, and I've been working on editing it now. There is one big problem: I hate editing
I find editing to be so draining. I'll open up a chapter to edit and it'll turn into a endless spiral of finding problems with my writing. Badly worded sentences, sentences that are out of place, continuity errors etc.
It would be great if I could find a way to improve the editing experience | [
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48,455 | It would be nice to be a member of an online community of people who are knowledgeable about writing, willing to directly help eachother in a format such as Q&A (like here on SE), but also engage in activities out of scope for SE (which could range from general discussion about writing to arranging IRL writing groups), while not depending on a specific technology provider too much (if a community has intrinsic value beyond certain content that it has produced, it should be able to get up and leave from, random example, stack exchange, and move to some other forum; furthermore, it should be able to take its content with it). Are there such places?
This question is obviously motivated by the current misbehaviour of Stack Exchange, the company (as is being discussed on writing.meta.stackexchange.com and meta.stackexchange.com), but it is more general than that, since the Q&A format itself is somewhat limiting. | [
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48,461 | In my current project my goal is to go for the following narrative style within scenes:
* Show only what the POV-Char can see, hear,... sense.
* Show their emotional reaction (through body-feelings, reflex movements and thoughts)
This means that there is absolutly no explanation for some things alien to the reader in my very first scenes. Example (not my mother tongue):
>
> Next to the path winding between small bushes and trees stood a great old tree. A white hole was shining in its dark bark.
>
> Pedez skulked into the direction of the tree.
>
> The hole in the bark was bigger than his head. Great talons had almost split the trunk in two.
> Pedezs muscles tensed and he clutched his spear, his hands suddenly sweaty and slick. What does a boneslicer do here in the North? Was it not supposed to stalk the waste far to the south?
>
> He pried into the silent woods and kept walking into the shadows.
>
>
>
After this short 'teaser' the story continues with other events within the scene, and the creature that gets hinted at here will reappear two scenes later. I do not want any obvious narrator, commenting on events or explaining things to the reader.
My gut tells to keep trying (to write without infodumps or bits of information, which would not be experienced within the scene by the POV-Char) but there could be a problem with orienting the readers.
If all the scene does is creating questions within the reader, especially within the first part (~15%) of my project, will they just close the book, or try to find the answers? | [
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48,489 | Subverting expectations and suddenly aborting plotlines was a no-go zone for me for a while. The only time I could successfully abort a plotline was in a thought train.
>
> After watching *How To Train Your Dragon 3*, I wondered what would
> have happened if the antagonist *Grimmel* was replaced midway. I came
> up with the outline of a story where he gets shanked by another
> antagonist, I codenamed Diavolo (yes, it's a JoJo reference).
>
>
> Diavolo is a completely different problem. He saved night furies as a
> species (thought to be near-extinct in the movies, I pulled in the thread to actually have something new to work with) by carving his own path, using his own tools, not letting
> the law get in the way and if a few thousand people have to die,
> then so be it. A ruthless, cunning and pragmatic villain.
>
>
> However, this wasn't an arc abortion, this was a great arc
> replacement. Compared to Grimmel, Diavolo is a much more interesting
> foil as he has a similar mindset to Hiccup (the protagonist of the movies), the only difference is
> that he casually marmelizes anyone who gets in his way and is more
> successful by doing so. As a good foil, he makes the protagonist
> question himself.
>
>
>
However, this was only possible thanks to Diavolo being forked from Anon (one of my OCs), who conveniently happened to be a good foil for Hiccup. Such a great substitute arc isn't always available.
>
> I once created a standard D&D setting. In this setting there was an
> elf. This elf lived happily in the forest village until a green dragon
> came and killed everyone but the elf.
>
>
> Following several misadventures the elf finally gets to take
> revenge on the green dragon.
>
>
> New chapter.
>
>
> Suddenly, the elf finds herself in a garden in her destroyed village,
> except it's perfectly fine, as if nothing has happened. Soon she spots
> the gardener, the green dragon, "Good morning [elf's name comes
> here]!" she (the dragon) smiles and waves at the elf with her wings,
> her eyes barely visible under the shade of the oversized straw hat
> she's wearing.
>
>
> What happened? This is the power of [Lain Requiem], Demiurge's (another OC)
> invincible ability that grants him unlimited power over
> information, allowing him to create a new world by selectively
> imprinting and modifying already-existing information on the material
> plane. Don't rack your brain over it, it's complicated.
>
>
>
This aborts a main character arc forever, quite literally destroys the atmosphere and the world the reader spents some time familliarizing themselves with. That sounds similar to something.
Yes, the Long Night from GoT season 8, the one where Arya kills the NK. That moment nicely ticks all the points above. The reception can best be equated to an online lynching.
I wanted to do an arc abortion to set another plot in motion. Basically, the main characters are trying to stop the the dark lord. In one chapter they prepare for the final battle, in the next, they are woken up by their parents (who are supposed to be dead) because they have to go to school.
Turns out the chemistry teacher is the dark lord but is now humble and polite and has no recollection of the past world. Before @Amadeus bursts an artery, no, the previous world wasn't a dream, but it was wiped from the collective consciousness by Requiem.
The rest of that plot is dedicated to the characters trying to find out who turned their world upside down and try to turn it back. It's not that this storyline can't be interesting, but its tone and atmosphere does a 180° compared to the previous arc.
I don't want to drop every element of an arc (That takes away from the dramatic power of Requiem), of course, only its catharsis.
**I'm trying to wrap my head around how can one effectively ruin an arc for dramatic effect (Pretty much what ASOIAF is doing) and to subvert expectations but not end up being hated by the reader for doing so.** | [
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48,494 | I've been working on a paranormal/romance/mystery kind of novel for over 4 years now and still haven't finished it. It all started out as a fanfiction but I decided that it had too much potential (at least in my opinion) to stay a simple fanfiction.
As I kept on working on my story I eventually started plotting. I know now every major detail/plot point of my story that has to happen in order for my characters to end up where they are supposed to end up.
My biggest problem isn't the plotting itself but rather the setting (and sometimes worldbuilding) of my story in the context of the plot which derives from me constantly suffering from creative overflow and therefore not knowing what suits my story best. Although my ideas wouldn't influence the plot itself that much it would definitely influence the tone and atmosphere of the story.
A big part of my story now is my character having supernatural powers she doesn't understand, visions of a spirit and not knowing what it is. Also she works in a newspaper office trying to make a name as she tries to investigate mysterious murders in her college town. And bit by bit she uncovers what she is, what those visions are and who is responsible for the murders.
...but between that there's so much to put into. It pains me so much.
Do any of you understand where I'm coming from? How do you deal with that overflow? | [
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48,501 | My experience tells me that a disproportionate number of wannabe writers are prudes. I recently wrote a scene where a female character is watching TV. The build up is complicated so I'll have to explain: a traumatic event has eviscerated character's libido. After 'dirty dancing' with a girlfriend in a night-club, that 'loving feeling' is coming back.
She finds herself home alone watching TV. The scene shows her reaction and thoughts as to what she's seeing on the screen.
>
> Finally home, after an awkward, perplexing day. Windr won't be home for a while yet. She said she had a *thing*. *Me time* is something that's been missing in my life. I take advantage of the opportunity of being home alone. I'm relaxing on the sofa, tucked under my duvet, watching a movie. Normally I skip the sex scenes but today my interest is super-piqued. *OMG!* These two aren't even going to make to the bedroom. "Hell yeah!" I pump a fist. My girl's ripped his shirt off, buttons flying everywhere. "Woah!" He's hoisted her up onto the kitchen counter. Oh my. She's gone straight for the belt buckle. *You go, Girlfriend, you goin' git it now! C'mon hit that bitch hard - give her some what for!* My appetite has returned - with interest. I know my body. I'm certain Aunt Flo will be here by the morning, and a little Piggly Wiggly before she gets here will tide me over until the coast is clear. It's been a while. Just when I've slipped my hand into my panties and I'm thinking about slamming my cl\*t raw, I hear a key in the door.
>
> *Dammit. She's early.* I quickly reach for the remote with my free hand and turn off the TV.
>
>
> "Hi," Windr says, stepping into the lounge.
>
>
> "Hi," I squeak, stilling my middle finger. "You're home early. I thought you had a thing?"
>
>
> "I did, and it was to say the least – enlightening."
>
>
> "Is that so?"
>
>
> "Are you okay?" she asks, removing her coat. "You look kinda flushed."
>
>
> *Two minutes. I just needed two minutes!* With her back turned to me I reluctantly pull my finger out of my pussy. "I'm fine."
>
>
> "Did you feed the fish?" she asks, hovering by the tank.
>
>
> "I was just about to," I reply.
>
>
>
So that's what I wrote . . . People lost their minds! In my defence, the scene she's watching can be seen in any RomCom and her thoughts and actions are not out of place on any popular TV show.
Why the outrage? | [
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48,512 | I'll start with a clear example. You are writing an essay about the film *The Wizard of Oz*. Following the rules of titles, you put the film title in italics whenever you use it.
But then you use the words in the context of explaining the story, such as, "They tell her to seek help from the Wizard of Oz."
This is not a reference to the title. In the context of sharing the plot or quoting dialog, there is no reason to put the phrase "Wizard of Oz" in italics.
So, why is my instinct telling me to do so? Not asking you to evaluate my mental state, just saying that I know this is kind of a 'dumb question'. I can't see any standardized formatting reason why you should put the phrase in the title in italics, when it's not referencing the title directly. And yet, I feel like there is an applicable rule I'm forgetting, that is making me lean toward the italics button.
Regarding medium - this is for a weekly free-writing "journal" assignment in a college English class, which the instructor, syllabus and instructions specifically say does not have to meet any formal rules on formatting, punctuation, grammar, citations etc. But it really got me to wondering, because I'm that pedantic, how I should be handling that situation in formal writing situation? And a search of SE and the wider internet yielded no obvious answers.
And while I tried to use a fairly universal example for clarity, the actual subject of the paper I'm writing is *The Good Place*. Which does add the wrinkle of; if I always put *Good Place* in italics, should I also put *Bad Place* in italics? And people thought the philosophy in this show was stomach-ache-inducing. :) Thanks, in advance, for any input. | [
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48,516 | I along with my guide wrote a research publication, which had to be sent to a journal for the purpose of review. My professor wrote the cover letter of the paper as follows:
>
> Dear Editor in Chief
>
>
> You are requested to review the paper "Title of the paper"....
>
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
This cover letter is from the authors of the research paper (me and my supervisor) to the Editor-in-chief of the journal, requesting that our paper be reviewed.
To me, this seems a very impolite way of beginning a cover letter addressed to an Editor-in-chief who is much higher in rank and position than us. On the other hand, we are mere authors of the paper. I believe that a phrase like "You are requested" is used by a top authority to those below it, or when both the writer and reader are at the same rank. Does the phrase "You are requested" seem impolite, when it is written to an authority much higher than you (i.e. by a mere author to an editor-in-chief of a journal), or is it fine? | [
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48,517 | I've been having an issue for the past few months where I'm writing along merrily and then my pen stops up and refuses to put ink down onto the paper, and the only thing that will get it working is a few seconds of intense scribbling. I'm using rather expensive paper and a highly-regarded pen (Uni-Ball SXN-210 Jetstream) which is brand-new, so I don't think that's the problem. I waste about 10 seconds every minute (so a sixth of the time I spend writing) just on this problem and my margins are a mess. Does anyone have any solutions?
I have tried three pens of increasing quality (and, might I add, expense) and the problem has followed me through all of them | [
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48,529 | A significant antagonist in my trilogy is an omnicidal alien by the name of Lomo, whose characterisation borrows from [Griffith](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/BerserkGriffithFemto), [Kuezem Ghidorah](https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Kuezem_Ghidorah), [Rensavl Flagg](https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Rensavl_Flagg), [Saruman](https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Saruman) and [Hastur](https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Hastur). Throughout the series, Lomo takes forms called *“Tosks”* to interact with disciples or masquerade as various species, per his epithet *“the Billion-Faced Beast”*. One *“Tosk”* he uses is that of an [priest](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BadHabits) named Father Ngodun to provide false emotional and spiritual support to the deuteragonist implied to be Jeanne d’Arc. Lomo later tells the deuteragonist that he killed the real Ngodun to destroy her sanity (who suffers from Major Depressive Disorder, thanks to struggling to conform to modern society, everyone she knows being dead and having no human contact for over six centuries).
Another Tosk used by Lomo is a person who leads an anarcho-communist and anti-fascist group. Lomo uses this Tosk to have his sociopathic, authority-hating followers commit political violence against and kidnap innocent civilians to give the Degenerates (humans parasitised by prehistoric pentastomids styling themselves after nomadic Indo-Iranian cultures and [resembling a certain endoparasitic extraterrestrial](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XenomorphXerox)) with hosts.
I have scattered several hints throughout the series about Lomo’s identity by having him only assume Tosks between 10 (his true form’s height) or 5 feet tall and makes heavy footfalls when walking. Another major clue is that he always retains his scarred lips, venom burns, falconic eyes and high body temperature in every Tosk. However, I still don’t think this enough, and it all comes across as very heavy-handed.
**How, then, can I hint Lomo’s identity without being unsubtle?** | [
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48,537 | I'm writing my thesis, and I use some acronyms in it.
For example "MDBs" = "Multilateral Development Banks".
Usually, I write "Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs)" the first time I cite it and then use "MDBs".
Now I have the case where the first time I use this acronym is in a table. In the ordinary text following the table I wrote "Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs)", but should I put a footnote also in the table? | [
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48,546 | Something I talk about with friends when planning and sharing our projects & media we like is titles - and specifically my disdain for one-word titles. They seem to be more than dominant in multiple entertainment industries. *Twilight*, *Injustice*, *Negation*, *Absolver*, *Bastion*, *Braid*, *Dishonored*, *Destiny*, *Anthem*, *Fallout*, *Inside*, *Crawl*, *Us*, *Psycho*, *Memento*, *Inception*, *Jaws*, and a thousand others I can't remember.
Those are all good or notable ones, though, but i meet a lot of students writing stories and games who seem very excited to share that their new jumping game will be called "Jump" and their new climbing game will be called "Climb" and their new coming-of-age-novella will be called "Park".
This is obviously not an objective truth and I wouldn't assert as such, but in my opinion, one word titles are incredibly non-expressive. With the exception of made-up or very unusual words, like SUPERHOT or Westworld.
A one-word title with a vague word that encompasses your stories themes, like "Want" or "Stream" or "Condemned" might be *apt*, but isn't expressive. The people to whom the front cover of your book matters don't know why "Want" is relevant or interesting, and they're unlikely to feel anything at all out of the ordinary when they see the title. Sure, a title can just be a handle. It doesn't have to be interesting.. but why wouldn't you make it interesting, if you can?
Especially when writing games, choosing a title that doesn't stand out can make all the difference in whether or you game gets noticed or doesn't. Names I love and that people readily click on sound more like:
*What We Lost In The Flood,
o\_AbyssalSomewhere,
There Will Be Blood,
Things Fall Apart,
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being,
Please, Don't Touch Anything,
Telling Lies,
Hypnospace Outlaw,*
etc.
A good enough title can be interesting enough to express the whole or the essential parts of a work's tone and setting, and encapsulate its themes far more than a single, vague word can.
Having said all that, I appear to be at least partially wrong - high budget projects keep choosing one-word titles over and over again, and I'd be shocked if those decisions were not well-researched. One explanation might be that a project with a great deal of marketing can gain more from the ease of saying one word, or how well the one word fits in headlines, how catchy or punchy that one word might be, without suffering the consequences of choosing a name that doesn't stand out on its own. Or maybe a large project whose goal is having the largest audience possible is better off with a vague title that excludes as few people as possible.
So, what is the reasoning? Are there known studies about the appeal of one-word titles compared to longer ones? Is there a pattern you can see among successful works with and without one-word names?
P.S. I know I have a strong bias towards/interest in games in this post, but I think this trend applies to all kinds of media. I hope you find game writing to be relevant to Writing Stack Exchange and that you find this question interesting. Thanks! ^ ^ | [
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48,552 | A personal point of view on the necessity of a new culture in fiction
---------------------------------------------------------------------
*"A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away"*, *"Pandora"*, *"Dune"*, *"Middle Earth"*. All quite different worlds compared to ours, but every single character (Alien or not) have the common factor of human conflict (which is one of the fundamental cogs of a story). But why we need new worlds? You may say that is the will of the writer, or just a cool feature because the story of a character is what really matters. That's true. But why create, for example, an indigenous culture of 2 meter high blue aliens living in a moon far away from Earth since you have a plethora of these cultures here on Earth (Na'vi people - Avatar)?
Well, maybe one fruitful way to an author decide if he/she needs a new world is to verify if there are "Exotic Culture scenes" on his/her story. The Na'vi people are exotic, the Watto of Tatooine or Yoda are quite fascinating, Hobbits are unusual and so on... But again, there are many "Exotic Cultures" here on Earth.
The thing is, are they considered exotic cultures of Earth really exotic? I mean, they are exotic compared to what?
An African Tribe is exotic compared to an every-day life of an average city X of Occidental World? Most people would say aloud: "yes." But if you apply a reference change, a person from African tribe Y would probably say the same about the people of city X. So which culture is really exotic X or Y? If you say that is the city X, you are pre-establishing a "true" culture, which of course do not exist; if you insist without any solid arguments, you may reach the edges of things like racism.
Now, the problem is then to say what is exotic or not. Maybe the creation of a new world and culture (based on Earth but without saying anything related to a particular culture) solves the problem of an "Exotic Culture." Now, in this new world, you can compare all our Terrestrial experience (culture) with something truly different (because it isn't a human feature), truly "exotic."
Question
--------
My question is based on my ignorance about the necessity of a new world. **So, beyond genre, why sometimes (mostly in sci-fi and fantasy) we need new worlds to tell about human conflict?** | [
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48,557 | So I made a name for a character and his name is quite fancy so I have no idea what I should do with him. I named him, ready? Sir Nathaniel Charles III.
Without asking for specific suggestions on "what to write", I'd like to know how other authors proceed from an initial idea about a character to developing a plot and story. What are your techniques or tools you use to come up with a plot around the main character you wish to write about? | [
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48,573 | I put work into making up my own names for spells. However, I feel like they come across as childish when I read over my writing
This was also my impression when re-reading Hijrp Potfeq. It really took me out of it when adult characters were shouting these childish, made-up words. But then again, some of the spells used do work and are actually quite iconic (exp. Avada Kedavra) | [
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48,583 | I'm having trouble with a particular sentence in my book. I had originally written:
*Zonewa’s group of friends was a diverse mixture of race, gender, and background. Having once been described as looking like a United Colours of Benetton commercial, the group embraced the attempted insult and called themselves the CUBs.*
The second sentence is the issue. It's a bit wordy and some people seem to have an issue with the fact that United Colours of Benetton is UCB, not CUB.
I can simplify the sentence to:
*Zonewa’s group of friends was a diverse mixture of race, gender, and background. They had named themselves the Cubs, after once being described as looking like a United Colours of Benetton advertisement.*
I'm left with the issue of still not lining up the letters. Many acronyms and abbreviations shuffle the letters around to look better, so should I worry about adding more text to describe that, or should I just leave it and hope most readers don't care about the order? | [
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48,586 | About 1/3 of the way through my story the main antagonist "wins" and is able to completely remake the world of the story into *his* notion of an ideal world.
The "new" world shares some elements with the previous incarnation but all are altered to some extent. Even character's recollections of previous events is limited and/or significantly altered. I wanted to do this to give the villain a way to show how he is right and to force the characters into a situation that while is impossible, would forcibly shed a light on their other side.
Is there any way to do this **without** alienating the reader, who may well have invested significant time in the previous part of the story and feel cheated as a result? | [
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48,593 | Suppose we sing or rap about dark themes (similar to modern American music from 1970-present day) in Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, or Malayalam over Indian classical music fused with Rock, Pop or Hip Hop. Could the lyrics sound similar in sound/delivery, flow/melody, and meaning compared to English lyrics; yet preserve its cultural values, (referring to Indian Texts, People, History, etc.)? Could it be as common (used in everyday conversation UNLIKE poetry in literature), yet complex (lyrical), explicit (uses swearing, slang), or controversial like English lyrics?
I say this because I'm an American from Indian Origin. Dark themes hardly exist in Indian music and if it does it's extremely poetic (closely related to literature) with references to nature (sun, flower, moon), dresses (veils, saris, fabric), organs (heart, liver) and gods. Their music remains very ancient and hardly modernized to this day.
Some songs with dark themes (I read English translations) exist in India:
[keh ke lunga (Hindi)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0ffqzat4Tk) (Uses slang, Refers to Intimidation and Violence, Still Poetic)
[Ganda hai (Hindi)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JzH50wPDLo) (Intimidation, Conversational)
[Beware (Punjabi)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TcD_IeMdG4) (Intimidation, Poetic)
[Emotional Attyachar (Hindi)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vng5mg0iY0Q) (Depression, Conversational)
[Hikknaal (Punjabi)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ToxkJ2KBtk) (Comical reference to violence, Poetic)
In Independent music there is a rise in darker themes rock (apocalyptic themes, depression) and rap (struggle, representing neighborhood, alcohol, sexual references to women):
[Bandeh (Hindi)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqFy-SgYQho) (Apocalyptic, Poetic)
[Jimikki Kamal (Malayalam)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXiaIH49oAU) (College Slang, Alchoholism, Poetic)
[Iraiva (Tamil)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5PD4_Uy-00) (Suicide, Violence, Conversational)
[Char Bottle Vodka (Punjabi)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8F5dz8kv1w) (Alcoholism, Sexual References to Women, Conversational)
[Represent (Indus Vally Remix) (Urdu)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWxubl8xvAs) (Representing Neighborhood, Violence, Swearing, Intimidation, Conversational). This is the closest resemblance to modern Indian music. There are no songs like this.
[Mere Gully mein](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bK5dzwhu-I) (Initimidation, Representing Neighborhood, Violence, Conversational)
Most of these songs use poetic lyricism but we see some songs (Represent, Mere Gully Mein) use more common everyday language. However, the most well-known rap songs (char bottle vodka) refer to alcohol and women but are not as lyrically sophisticated (dull compared to English). In fact, it seems more Indians are preferring English over Indian music.
Currently, the most popular Indian songs (songs with millions of followers) are about parties and romance which I don't mind but...
Could Indian Classical music modernize into new genres as successfully as American music? | [
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48,602 | This question is strongly related to this one: [Balance between character's point of views](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/31822/balance-between-characters-point-of-views/31828#31828)
However, that question is asking about balancing POVs in general, whereas this one is about **potentially subverting reader expectations by introducing a new viewpoint late into the story**.
I'm currently plotting a Romance story. Given the events I'm planning to take place I can already see which character perspective would be best suited for each chapter. It looks like for purposes of character development, the majority of the story (basically, the first 75%) will be told through character A's perspective. However, in the last quarter of the story an event takes place that's only experienced by character B, so there's no way (other than completely changing the entire premise) to get around adding their POV near the end. (I guess I could have character B *tell* character A about it, but that doesn't sound particularly appealing, either.) This is not a problem in itself. In fact, I rather like that this gives me an opportunity to show the romance from the other perspective.
However, **since the first 75% of the story are told from one character's POV, I wonder if the sudden introduction of a different viewpoint would be jarring to the reader.**
FWIW, **the story is going to be told entirely in 3rd person limited**. Both characters appear in all chapters, so this is not about introducing a new character, simply about switching to their viewpoint.
I had been planning to have each chapter dedicated entirely to follow one POV, but now **I'm wondering whether it might be worthwhile to add the occasional POV switch early on** (on scene changes within a single chapter) to get the reader used to this taking place. I've already identified a few points in the story that would lend themselves to a POV switch, but from a story perspective it's not strictly necessary and I'd prefer to avoid doing so unless there's a strong reason to do so.
And of course, all of this might change completely once I actually start writing this story. | [
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48,612 | Suppose then you have an story in your mind. Then, to write down this finite series of events, you have to translate your imagination into the paper. This process isn't trivial, of course and *plot* are just one of the "underlying structures" you may want (or, in most of the cases, should have) to use.
Now, again, suppose then you have an story in your mind; is the story of a hero(ine). You, then, write your story with the aid of, for instance, Blake Snyder beat sheet [1] and nothing more.
Now, by definition, you have a particular *plot structure* on your story. But, as a some sort of "definition" of a hero(ine) story, you can in fact point out a hero's journey plot structure as well (I think). So, the writer used [1] but the story also have, "canonically", the hero's journey structure.
My question is: suppose that you have a story which you wrote with the aid of a plot structure A. But you realize that and another plot structure B could be used as well. The story must be independent of plot structure (Just like a physical phenomena must be independent of reference frame)?
---
[1] <https://chsenglishap4.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/5/7/2257880/blakesnyderbeatsheet-explained.pdf> | [
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48,614 | How to learn the powerful words, that usually gets the attention of readers first? | [
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48,618 | I need to know how to make my writing more brief without maring its original meaning and message. I have been struggling with that for a while, and still cannot do that. It simply seems to me that you cannot cast out any of the words without changing the meaning.
What can be the techniques of reducing the number of words in a text to make it more concise but keep the essence?
Thank you in advance. | [
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48,635 | I wrote a piece of flash fiction as a mental exercise. I happened to listen to Clek Yilneg’s “Moonlight Serenade,” and happened to watch an episode of “Semurui Recz.” “Moonlight Serenade” is a song without words, though sometime later decided to add words, I believe, because they missed the point. “Seck” is a cartoon that is almost silent. So I wrote a sensual piece of flash fiction of a young guy and girl dancing. The story begins after the music had started and ends before the piece has played out.
Three-quarters of the way through the story, the couple begin the process of dying in a mass shooting. She dies instantly. He isn’t really ever aware he is dying so much as he is trying to process the sudden changes such as her starting to fall to the ground and him trying to prevent it. His end is more one in confusion. Overall, it’s a sensual, physical piece of the last two minutes of this couple.
I sat it down for a while and picked it up a few days later. I realized it wasn’t bad and started thinking about the family, the killer, and the family of the killer. I have thought about writing companion pieces, also as flash fiction.
Our society does a lot to suppress aggression. Once upon a time, someone could say, “I am big. I am strong. I have a rock (knife or sword),” and it would resolve a conflict. It was a functional conflict system from our early primate days until the recent past. Now we do two types of behavior that render that dysfunctional. The first is that you likely have to phone in your complaint. Being big, strong and possibly having a weapon is an impotent strategy. The second is that threats to prevent violence are being suppressed as not being PC. Inappropriate language is like the rattle of a rattlesnake. It is a warning. Killers are not high functioning, emotionally balanced people.
What are the dangers of painting a sympathetic view of the killer through the family of the killer’s perspective and in seeing the obvious interior dysfunction of the killer by seeing inside his mind? | [
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48,643 | It is generally taken that if I tell you a joke, then have it explain why it's funny - it's not probably not funny.
I continually return to one of my own short pieces. If I submit it I believe it will be viewed as a 'nice' , 'pretty' piece of literary fiction. But I also believe it is extremely clever. But if I have to explain it . . . maybe not so much?
I've had to edit this because I sent you guys way off base. I'm only talking about flash fiction. It's rooted into the culture of story-telling (verbal vs written). A deal of comedy is rooted in misunderstandings, particularly the audio aspect of dialogue. Ergo, it doesn't matter how it's spelt the recipient hears the same word.
e.g. A woman goes for a job interview.
"Wait," says the receptionist, busy filling a form.
"You can't ask me that!" objects the woman. "Okay . . . so I put on a few pounds over Christmas but . . ."
Expanding this theme, I wrote a short piece in which the true meaning only becomes apparent when it is read aloud. | [
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48,645 | For example, the man eats greedily, gradually, with no hesitation | [
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48,650 | I’m trying to improve my writing skills, doing both original works and facfiction, but there is a peculiar limitation to what I achieve. Despite being male, I fail to write from a male perspective and shift to female protagonists as fast as possible.
Being concerned about the believability of my characters and situations, I’m constantly worried about not handling my protagonists true to life enough, as I do not share the female perspective.
Should I treat it as a bug or a feature? Namely: what has more point, forcing myself into more and more attempts with male protagonists until I start managing them well, or embracing my limitation and turn it into my strength by strengthening my ability to pull off a convincing female protagonist? | [
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48,661 | How free are we to write a story that is set inside another universe, that doesn’t necessarily mention anyone or anything specifically about said universe?
For example, let’s say that I want to write a story set inside the Hijrp Potfeq universe where I won’t actually mention anyone or anything, just simply allude to things:
“Oh, yeah,” Stopek replied. “I remember that guy. Weird dude. Black hair, glasses. Didn’t he—?” Stopek gestured to his forehead.
“Yup,” Nabby said nodding. “Big scar on his forehead. Pretty sure it was a lightning bolt.”
“That’s right!” Stopek exclaimed.
OR
For a story set in the Star Wars universe (again, without any actual reference to characters or names). Instead of the “Imperials”, using nouns like “Rulers” or “Overlords.”
“Don’t do that, Stopek,” Nabby said, furrowing his brow. “Them damn, dirty Overlords will be on our ass in no time.”
Stopek looked down at the strange blueish milk, and decided Nabby was right.
Would anything like this simply be considered a “parody” or a “derivative” and publishers would be okay pursuing? Or is alluding to characters, things or places to help drive a story, the copyright/trademark territory we must steer clear of?
Ps. Obviously it is hard for completely official legal advice for every situation, but I’d still like to know what your thoughts are | [
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48,662 | I'm in the process of writing a mystery novel/novella and it conforms to the traditional/classic mystery novel, emulating that of Agatha Christie or A.C. Doyle. I'm having doubts as to the proper way to structure the mystery plot. I know the general principles regarding the incorporation of common plot structures such as Freytag's Pyramid, plot twists, subplots, etc. to mystery novels. But, my question involves the use of scenes, sequels, and MRUs (motivation reaction units).
It is intuitive to use generalized plot elements in a mystery novel such as exposition, rising, middle, climax, and resolution as outlined by Freytag's Pyramid. But, on a microscopic level, it does not make much sense to structure a mystery novel with alternating sequences of scenes and sequels which is composed of MRUs. I bring this up because the sequence of events in a scene is Goal, Conflict, and Disaster. And a sequel consists of Reaction, Dilemma, Decision. This structure is, in my opinion, not compatible with a traditional mystery novel. I don't know if contemporary authors use repeating scenes and sequels in non-traditional mystery novels written today, but in the traditional style mystery novels written today, I don't see this type of plot structure as being conducive to writing an effective mystery or deriving a pleasurable reading experience.
The issue I see is that mysteries and traditional/classic style whodunit mysteries in particular cannot have disasters at every turn. And I don't see how MRUs apply conveniently to mystery stories. How can you have motivation and reaction driving every minute action of the detective? The MRU structure, in my opinion, just doesn't play well with a typical mystery novel, especially traditional style mysteries. I also don't see how sequels fit in nicely with the plot structure of a mystery novel. Moreover, A mystery is like an intellectual game between the reader/detective and the villain/detective. It is race to see who will solve the puzzle first and a game of cat and mouse before the detective brings the antagonist or villain to justice. It is purely an intellectual exercise, and disasters at every turn dilute the main effect of a mystery novel. So are scenes, sequels and MRUs actually incorporated into mystery novels, especially traditional mysteries? If so, how is this done effectively. I haven't been able to find anything online on this topic. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks. | [
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48,690 | For example:
"Move!" I immediately side stepped him.
OR
"Move!"
I immediately side stepped him.
I know a new line of paragraph is needed for each speaker, but does the same rule apply in this instance? | [
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"text": "It depends on who said \"Move!\". If it is the person sidestepping, then no. But then you should have written \"Mov... | 2019/10/23 | [
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48,696 | The device or technique I'm looking for is used to describe something mundane or ordinary in order to make it seem alien or special.
For example, the following quote from *Slaughterhouse Five*:
>
> In a tiny cavity in her great body she was assembling the materials for a Graon Bateb
>
>
>
In that instance, a woman becoming pregnant is described, but it is written in such a way as to make it seem completely foreign. I think Hemingway was also known to use the technique, but no examples come to mind.
I've read briefly about the term before. I remember it being called something close to "dissociation." I'd like to read more writers that use the technique and practice it myself, so I'd like to know what the precise term is.
Thanks! | [
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48,700 | I wish to write an intercut scene for a novel, where two very contrasting things are happening at the same time. The technique works really well on the screen, but I think we can use the same technique in a novel - especially for a built-up moment.
Any examples of this in novels or suggestions to best write it?
Thank you! | [
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48,711 | So, I understand that ancient mythologies and their characters such as Zuub etc are part of the public domain. However, what happens to individual interpretations of ancient texts?
For example, a sacred tablet that has been translated from another language and interpreted in many different ways. Would these characters still be public domain and fair use? More importantly, would there be any copyright infringement issues on the plot itself if I were to write a book, screenplay etc?
Non-fiction writers have published and copyrighted books with their translations and interpretations of these texts (in recent years) and I'd like to avoid drama. Having said that, many books by various authors each discuss the exact same thing, so I don't see why I can't?
In short, if I were to write fiction with the same characters, same names, similar plot, but with my own twist, sub-plots, descriptions and in my own words would I have a problem? Could I have a bibliography at the end of a fiction book citing these established materials and would that help? | [
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"text": "> \n> if I were to write fiction with the same characters, same names,\n> \n> \n> \n\nSame as the mythology, or the... | 2019/10/25 | [
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48,714 | I am interested in how to write compelling schemes, large-scale strategies and tactics etc.
There are lots of fictional stories where the characters are amazing strategists, or incredibly intelligent. I doubt that authors, put into the same situations as these characters, would have the same incredible level of insight and be able to create such effective, comprehensive plans.
I don't mean only military strategy, I am also interested in how to portray a convincing "battle-of-wits" between two very intelligent characters (for example Death Note).
Often characters come up with meticulous, mind-bendingly brilliant plans which predict actions and reactions of other entities, or which somehow circumvent possible problems etc., and then they follow them through to the end to triumph or accomplish something unbelievable. I am unsure of how to write this kind of plot in a way that seems believable.
How can I write about characters scheming masterful strategies that are extremely convincing and surprise the reader? | [
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48,725 | I am planning to start writing material online. I need a single platform to host the following
1. A regular running blog
1. It should be easy to write and publish. Would prefer a simple near-vanilla layout and formatting.
2. As I will be writing technical material, I would like to be able to put in code snippets
3. Tagging and being able to search using tags is a *must*
2. I intend to author couple of books. I would like to be able to use the same platform to organize the content in a book like layout
3. I am contemplating a separate tips section. Each of the tip will be a short read. This section can be considered a special case of blogs, with some additional features which makes it more appealing (I am figuring this part out and would welcome any advice on how to make this section appealing)
4. Small section dedicated to provide information such as "about me" (what people commonly refer to as pages or static pages).
Is there a single platform that can help me organize this?
Currently, I don't have budget for anything fancy. I am looking for something cheap. If the concept takes off, I will work something out to move to paid services (if it offers advantages) | [
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48,731 | I have a piece of dialogue which sounds great in my head, and the way the character says it is important, but it never looks right when I type it out. At first I tried this:
>
> “Looking and looking... in all the wrong places.” He dragged out his words in a sing-song sort of way.
>
>
>
It didn’t sound like I wanted it to when I read it over. I changed it to this:
>
> “Looking and looking... in allll the wrong places.”
>
>
>
That doesn’t look quite right, either, but it gets it across better in my opinion. Would this be acceptable? Is there perhaps a better way to describe it? | [
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48,733 | I have been doing some research on citations and haven't been able to get a clear answer on this.
**When writing a project report, in which sections is it appropriate to include citations?**
In this context sections refers to; abstract, introduction, literature review, problem statement, etc... Can I include citations in any of them? Or only specific sections? Are there sections where citations should be avoided?
If answers can include sources for me to continue researching on my own that is appreciated. | [
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48,737 | I'm writing a thesis about the Accords by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS).
If I put a table exactly from the Accords, I write in the table note "Source: BCBS (year)".
If I start from a table of the source but add something mine, I write in the table note that I started from BCBS (year) and I added something.
But if I take a table from the source and only change the order of the rows, to group the elements in a different way, or if I merge two tables from the source into one, without modifying the elements, should I write "Source: based on BCBS (year)" or is "Source: BCBS (year)" enough? | [
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48,740 | I would love to have essays reviewed both in terms of quality writing and in terms of its content. I have researched a few sites but this service does not seem to exist. | [
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48,753 | I'm struggling trying to write a scene (fiction novel). I want to know if it would be confusing to write it this way:
>
> Zeul shook his head, yanked away. “Sure it is, Ciwe. You left me there,” he looked out of the window, “with her.”
>
>
> He heard Ciwe sigh. “I’m sorry. Things between your mother and me weren’t good, and quite honestly, I wasn’t ready to be a father yet. We were still kids ourselves." Zeul felt Ciwe's hand on his shoulder. "I can't take back the things I've done."
>
>
>
I'm writing from Zeul's POV, what he hears/feels as Ciwe is talking to him. Is it clear that Ciwe is the one speaking? Or is it confusing? | [
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48,754 | I'm working on a scene in a high-fantasy setting where the main characters greet each other for the first time. Part of the greeting is also a definition of what each of the characters mean to each other. In this case, a flourish of titles establishes expectations:
>
> Wordlessly, he presented his beautiful, shimmering wife to Parr; who said, “And you, my Horah: soother of the seas, queen of the oceans, sweet nurturer, and mother of music; I greet you.”
>
>
>
The simplified sentence is trying to say:
>
> He presented his wife to Parr who said, "Hello."
>
>
>
[Initial question]
What is the proper punctuation for **Parr who said** and for the "Horah: [list of titles]"?
EDIT:
Semicolons are not necessary for separating the speaker from what she said. There is also no need for a semicolon before the list of titles. Rules would also state that there is no need for a semicolon to separate the long, introductory subordinate clause from the actual subject/verb within the quotes.
I think the answer is:
>
> Wordlessly, he presented his beautiful, shimmering wife to Parr, who said, “And you, my Horah, soother of the seas, queen of the oceans, sweet nurturer, and mother of music, I greet you.”
>
>
>
Still unclear on the use of the comma after *Parr, who said* since the quote has to clearly belong to Parr and not the wife. | [
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