qid int64 1 2.78M | question stringlengths 2 66.6k | answers list | date stringlengths 10 10 | metadata list |
|---|---|---|---|---|
53,958 | When a character does something suddenly, how can I show this instead of just telling the reader they did it "without thinking"?
Like: "Without thinking, I jumped."
Or: “Without thinking, I unbuckled my seatbelt.” | [
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"text": "Here's some options;\n\nInstinctively 'Before I even registered the spear headed my way, I instinctively jump... | 2020/12/07 | [
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53,973 | Ok, so I'm writing a book set around 10 years in the future. Obviously, them being in the future, there are more high-tech gadgets that we don't have here. Normal things that they use in their every day life is far more high-tech and sophisticated than things we use here in 2020.
Now the thing I need to know is how I can describe one of these things when I can't smoothly fit it in. I'm at a part in the story where the main character and his friends and breaking a friend out of jail, and one of my characters, whose name is Hhastar, is making a plan to get her out. The plan includes going to the control room and using an advanced EMP to hack and activate the prison's lockdown anonymously.
Now while explaining the plan, Hhastar pulls out a Digi-Map, which is a digital map which is shown in 3-D, and can be bought either full, or empty. But I can't find a place to explain this to the reader without destroying the flow and kind of taking away from the genius plan that Hhastar has. Here's what I'm talking about.
"...easily accessible for the guards but hidden away and hard to get to for the threat, be it a bomb or a one-man army,” Hhastar stopped talking and took something out of his pocket, it looked like a Digi-Map, but this one was empty.**(insert text here)** “Now the most likely place something like that would be placed would be either underground,” he marked the Digi-Map..."
That's what I'm having trouble with. At the end the full sentence is "He marked the Digi-Map towards the underground middle of The Facility. That was our target." But I'm not sure where to explain to the reader that the map is 3-D making this possible. I was thinking about putting it where it says "insert text here," but I felt like that would interrupt his flow if you see what I mean, so I thought about putting it in parenthesis at that place instead, but I'm not sure if I'd be allowed to do that either. Can someone please help me? | [
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"text": "You can use parentheses, but it’s still going to interrupt the flow of the scene. And without an explanation it seem... | 2020/12/09 | [
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53,979 | Any tips on how to write a likable character that doesn’t talk much?
He eventually starts talking more, but that’s later in the story...
**How can I make the character's development more natural?**
(He is the male lead) | [
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"text": "Making him likable; There are a lot of ways to make a character likable. You can make them a joker, somebody ... | 2020/12/09 | [
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53,985 | An obvious answer might be "because people like variety", but this doesn't feel right. If this was the case, why doesn't using a different font family (or color) for each word feel engaging? What is it about us humans that makes us attracted to this particular type of variety? | [
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"answer_id": 53986,
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"text": "Because the more variety in sentence structure and words makes it come off less repetitive. When you’re repetit... | 2020/12/09 | [
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53,990 | I am on the last edit before I send my book to beta readers for the first time, and I'm not sold on two of my characters names since they sound similar. One is Zeidric, with the "ei" sounding like "ee", not "ay," and the other is Xandria. They both have the same sound at the beginning of their names, so I was thinking of shortening "Xandria" to "Ria" or "Ri" so that they don't sound the same.
Is it too late to change "Xandria?" I have obviously grown attached to the name since "Xandria" is the name of one of my most prominent characters, so I don't know if I should change it. | [
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"text": "Once it's been through copyediting before publication you shouldn't change character names. Until then, you can... | 2020/12/10 | [
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53,992 | In my novel, twenty years from now, a physicist/computer scientist has created a machine version of himself, an artificial general intelligence that integrates the physicist's personality, memory and consciousness. This concept doesn't sit well with computer scientists. One objection is that an AGI is almost a blank slate, a learning machine (perhaps an artificial neural network) that doesn't have lines of programming. I'm not writing hard science-fiction, but I want the concept to approach scientific possibility. | [
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"text": "**Do What Feels Right:**\n------------------------\n\nIt's the future. Scientists haven't made real AI, so they can... | 2020/12/10 | [
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54,016 | I am currently writing the second book in my fantasy series that I plan on publishing, and I have asked a similar question like this before concerning a different character. I couldn’t take answers from the question I asked earlier though, because even though the questions are similar the situation is very different.
I have an MC named Xillam, who is a forest elf and the only MC who isn’t human. Just by being an elf and living in my fantasy world would be enough for a backstory, but I decided she should have more than that. In the third chapter of the first book, her and the main MC are having a conversation. Since Xillam is an elf my MC wants to know if she has a last name. Xillam asked what a last name was; and my MC told her it was a family name. Xillam said plainly:
>
> ”My family is dead.”
>
>
>
And doesn’t talk about it for the rest of the first book. Even though tragic, in my fantasy world this is considered normal. Most people are killed before they reach thirty, or in elves cases, two hundred and seventy because elves age nine times slower than humans and other creatures, about the rate of Yoda’s species in Star Wars.
So yes, this makes Xillam one hundred and seventy, about a hundred and fifty years older than all my other MCs. Her age is important because it affects her reaction to her family’s death, which happened about a hundred and thirty years earlier, when she was only four years old in looks and intelligence.
Since she has had so much time to deal with it, it doesn’t really play a big part in the rest of the book. In the second book, however, the antagonist, Renadalm, knows my characters greatest fears, regrets, secrets, ect. He re-shows Xillam the day her entire family (an older brother, two baby sisters, father, and mother.) were murdered. This causes Xillam to step out of her strong confident character for a few minutes and break down in tears. This was not shown in the first book, but it was known.
Should I have added this scene, or at least have Xillam talk about it, in the first book? Or is it good where it is? I have not published the first book yet so I decided to ask before it was too late to change. | [
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"text": "I don't think you need the family death scene in the first book, but if you think you need it then you can add... | 2020/12/12 | [
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54,022 | So I'm currently writing a story and I have two questions about it.
Is it possible to emotionally connect with your audience when your writing in third person point of view?
Secondly, I want to write the main character's (an eight-year-old girl) point of view in 1st person but I want to write her mother and other important characters in third person. Does that work? | [
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"text": "I don't think you need the family death scene in the first book, but if you think you need it then you can add... | 2020/12/14 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/54022",
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54,025 | My character is looking around for someone, a bit scared. What can I say instead of, “My eyes darted around, expecting him to jump out from somewhere.” | [
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"text": "You could say, My eyes...\n\n> \n> Swept the surrounds/surroundings\n> \n> \n> scanned on every side/all over\n> \n> ... | 2020/12/14 | [
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54,032 | I'm writing this YA Fantasy novel and I've already summarized the whole story and ending, but I really want to add more characters to it. I Have two main characters dealing with two main events in the story, and both of the characters have friends/companions. None of them need another friend to join their group, but I want to add an extra character. I want to add one because so far there are only a few characters in my fantasy world (only 6)!
The first main character is a young witch trying to find the hidden Island that the villain has been trapped in for centuries, "to fulfill the prophecy," with help from a young talented wizard like her.
The second main character is also a witch trying to gather the army of the two kingdoms to fight against the third kingdom, accompanied by a poet, a warrior-princess, and her brother.
I can't add more characters to these groups, maybe a side character or an anti-hero will help?
**What do you think?**
**What should I do?** | [
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"text": "You can have all the characters you want, but how they interact and stuff is up to you. If you think you need... | 2020/12/14 | [
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54,036 | I'm currently writing from 1st point of view, and I understand that since the character's viewpoint is limited, I can't talk about other characters' actions and reactions unless she sees it. My question is, am I able to do something like:
>
> I sat in the front row directly in front of Ms.Lee's desk.
>
>
>
>
> When we're all sat in our chairs, Ms.Lee starts the class.
>
>
>
>
> "Does everyone know what's going on this weekend?" Ms.Lee asks.
>
>
>
>
> "We have a test on Friday," Lia answers point at the board.
>
>
>
---
Can I do that, or is it too 3rd person? | [
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"text": "Yes\n\nI'm not going to do critique of your writing, but the general idea is, as long as you stick to 1st person ... | 2020/12/14 | [
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54,044 | I think that we all know what archetypes and character tropes are. They're mostly just a carbon-cutout for a character. Oftentimes, as authors, we use these to make our characters distinct. But at the end of the day, many of these characters turn out the same. For example, there's this trope where a character is a bully, but they secretly pet puppies or something like that and wants nobody to know. There's the typical hero on a hero's journey.
Oftentimes, they fall flat. And in my situation, I believe I'm falling flat as well. I was inspired by the unfortunate stories of children making horrible decisions that result in the accidental deaths of fellow children. For my character, the same thing happened to him. When he was about 10, he accidentally hit his sister with a baseball bat, giving her wounds that were fatal in the end. The story itself is set 9 years later. He's 19 and has to still cope with what he caused.
But he's turning into a character I don't want to reflect on: he's becoming a "I did something wrong and now I regret it" character, which is a big part of him, but I kind of want him to be more than that.
How do I make him not a "type" of character and just a human being? | [
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"text": "Archetypes and Tropes exist for various reasons and nothing you can do can mitigate the fact that your characters will... | 2020/12/15 | [
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54,050 | I am putting together a 'playbook' which contains resources related to a key growth driver for the operations team of my company.
It is a series of playbooks designed to provide resources / guidelines / standards. So the first release had foundational stuff, the second has the latest priorities, the next one will have info on capital investments and so on.
In the accompanying email, I was planning to say:
>
> We present to you the latest edition of our very own xxx Playbook - #2 in a series of planned Playbooks designed to support you in your market’s priorities with xxx and yyy
>
>
>
**My question is:** Is the word "Edition" suitable in this context? The content is different from the first issue however it revolves around the same main item (the business growth driver). Or is "Issue" a more suitable word please?
I am not looking for words like trilogy, tetralogy etc. FYI, this playbook is released quarterly. Thanks very much in advance! | [
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"text": "I would say 'omnibus', but that only qualifies if you publish all 'playbooks' into a single compilation. If it... | 2020/12/15 | [
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54,054 | My character is named Buteo, he is one of my story's protagonists. He is very neat and organized. He really does not like change. He keeps to a schedule. Buteo is a perfectionist when it comes to himself, but gives a lot of leeway when it comes to others. He gets upset and embarrassed if he feels that he has let someone down. He sacrifices everything for others. Buteo believes that the world is deeply flawed and that everyone should try to make it better. He believes that his self-sacrifice will inspire people to be better.
The only flaw I can think of is making him controlling, but I feel as if it would make him too unlikeable and I'm thinking of making that a flaw of Buteo's foil. What flaws could I give him instead? | [
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"text": "Yes, your correct, every character needs a flaw.\n\nYou have given us a list of traits that your character ... | 2020/12/16 | [
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54,066 | I have a character with two names. Well not two distinct names, but rather two forms of the same name. My story is set in the later Roman Empire, but the characters are Romanized easterners living on the desert frontier. They have both native Aramaic names and Latinized names.
For example, the main character's husband is the Roman governor of Syria. He speaks Aramaic in private and lives in a mostly-Aramaic speaking area where he is called "Odainat" by most including his wife, but on official Roman business he uses the name "Odaenathus." I have other Roman POVs that also call him this.
The way I planned it, the two forms of the name would appear with equal frequency. I wanted to use both to be historically accurate, but I'm wondering whether or not this will be annoying or confusing to the reader. Any advice? | [
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"text": "Given that most characters in the *Lord of the Rings* books have at least two names, and that it is successful, I... | 2020/12/16 | [
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54,073 | I am a young author writing a fantasy series. I am re-writing a chapter that I wrote a few months ago because it’s an earlier one, and I didn’t really know what I was doing, so it sounded bad. Anyway, one of the characters breaks his leg, and the first person narrator is describing it, but I’ve never broken anything before. Neither has anyone I know of. I can’t really tell my reader how it feels.
For anyone who *has* broken a leg, how did it feel so I can use it for reference?
I’ve looked at similar questions. Most say record how pain felt when you yourself felt it, but I’m not going to go break my leg for a better book.
To be more clear on the severity of it, the character should kind of sort of... be dead. He fell off a cliff. Now, I know I’m supposed to stick with the most realistic stuff, but I simply can’t do that or my MCs would never be able to get out of bed. He did slow his fall twenty feet from the ground by grabbing a tree root that pulled free from the wall, however. And I know he should technically still be dead, but I’ve read three bestseller series by the author Rick Riordan, and his characters should have never been able to survive a few things that they did. They were all still bestsellers, so I figured I could get away with this, especially since I have the same target audience.
And even though in my fantasy world people only die if it’s REALLY bad, literally half of the characters died anyway. I can’t have a story if everyone’s dead. It’s also one of those rare instances where the character simply CANT die, or it would destroy the entire plot. Normally I would just have someone not as important die, and then kill this character once he’s served his purpose but all the characters present are also characters that can’t die. | [
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"text": "It all depends on the level of fracture, the place of the wound, and the number of fragments you've got. Bones get br... | 2020/12/16 | [
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54,090 | Today I have a question about writing a long period of elapsed time.
I have three main characters who each get their own chapters from their POV. Two of those three characters do not need much attention in my book for some time. I'm talking about 4-6 months here. The two characters have settled into a routine, and it is only important for me to show only a couple of their scenes during the 4-6 month period for update purposes only.
The obvious thing to do would be to say "20 days later this and this happened," at the beginning of each update, but I want readers to remember that while the two characters are out of the spotlight - they are still contributing to the story.
For example, one of my characters is healing from wounds. By saying "20 days later", I fear the readers will assume that the healing has made no progress. I want to remind the readers that the characters are still alive and doing stuff even if they are not in a particular chapter.
It would also get redundant just to say, "Character 1 has healed some more," every time we pop back into Character 1's life for an update.
So I guess my question is: **How to write a long period of elapsed time while also reminding the reader that while characters are out of the spotlight - they are still contributing to the story?**
---
Just in case someone says that [this question](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/12568/how-do-i-cover-a-lengthy-time-period-with-only-a-few-interesting-details) and [this question](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/21171/how-do-i-show-a-long-amount-of-time-has-passed) are similar to mine, I already have my case:
The first link is to a question that is asking about a much smaller time period where the character does nothing significant, with irreverent to my question answers. Also, my question will appeal to a much larger group of people. The second link is about showing characters aging throughout a time period. | [
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"text": "It's done all the time:\n-----------------------\n\nI wouldn't worry too much about this. Characters leave the main ... | 2020/12/18 | [
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54,097 | I'm a young writer who has been writing a story centring around a teenager's life and how it's changed via the coronavirus. She was skeptical about the legitimacy of the Pandemic until an important family member is hospitalized. It talks about her and her struggles towards the media, family, and people as a whole.
I represented the whole page-worth of my story and how I'll go about it to family members, and none of them were impressed. They told me this novel was capitalizing on an important issue, and that I treated teenagers as idiots (I'm a teenager). They told me it's wrong for an author to capitalize on something so scary and real.
I don't think I'm in the wrong for wanting to make this novel. There have been many novels on touchy topics and historical tragedies.
But considering this is happening recently, I can see why this may not be an appropriate novel to make. Is it bad to make a novel based on the Pandemic? If so, why? If it's fine, then what precautions should I take to appease the masses? | [
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"text": "Every writer has to take inspiration from somewhere, and if this topic interests you and makes you want to write, the... | 2020/12/18 | [
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54,100 | This may seem a bit confusing but basically, my character has these magic powers that come out when she’s angry or scared. She can do quite a few things such as explosions (more like invisible blasts), telekinesis, hydrokinesis (controlling water), making blood inside people explode out of them, etc. She can only do these things when she’s angry or scared though and can’t physically control what she does when this happens.
This character needs a few scenarios where she uses these powers, and what she does when the scenario happens. Every time I try to come up with something that makes her angry or scared that causes her powers to come out, I can’t think of what to do.
How do you showcase the hidden abilities of a character you are writing? | [
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"text": "This should be easy.\n\nStart by asking yourself; What makes ME scared? Spiders? Creaky doors in the dark? Ge... | 2020/12/18 | [
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54,106 | I'm sure that somebody is going to point me to [this](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/36604/how-much-indirection-is-too-much) question, but my case is different.
So I and my best friend are currently writing a science fiction novel that has many plot twists and "objects" that appear frequently throughout the book. We are still in the drafting stage, while I'm working on another individual writing project.
So we had this brilliant idea of using the characters from my individual writing project and slip it into a single scene in the sci-fi novel. It doesn't provide any meaning to the plot, I just thought it was an interesting easter egg to add in.
So the scene is the MC and her friend are biking, walking, something like that, and all of the sudden, a group runs into their way(the group is the characters from my individual project, btw). The group consists of a strange-looking girl along with 5 dogs. Two of the dogs are disguised and are capable of human speech. The two disguised dogs talk, which is weird.
Overall, I like the concept of the idea. It's really interesting and surprising, however, I want the readers to focus on the plot, the objects that keep popping up, and the patterns. But I do not want them to think that this one scene has any meaning to the story. I don't really want the readers to think that this is a really important part of the story, and let them crack their heads trying to figure what two talking dogs can possibly mean.
Is this too much of a plot distraction? | [
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"text": "Short answer; probably should be okay\n\nSlightly longer answer; ask betas if unsure\n\nLong answer; If you a... | 2020/12/18 | [
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54,108 | I am a young author writing a fantasy series. I’m re-reading the manuscript of my first book and noticed something about sun elves. I know this question is a little long but bear with me.
Sun elves are one of the eight kinds of elves in my fantasy world. Since they’re sun elves, and the sun is fire, I decided to make them black.
To make a long story short, I’m basically portraying the only black characters in my story as evil demons.
I think you can see why I was so concerned about this. Would this be considered racist? The sun elves as a race were very honorable, but the ones that are still alive are not. | [
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54,112 | I am writing a story that involves a creature that is specifically not humanoid. Instead of appearing as a human, it is more of ageless energy that exists in the core of a planet, can communicate with the protagonist and other humans of the world, and is able to manifest in various ways, such as a smoky mist or jagged rocks in the landscape. It is closer to a God-like entity if anything, but is still very physical in the world.
I am trying to write interactions with this character and other humans in the story. I think I will ultimately have to use some dialogue, but I want this character to appear completely foreign when it comes to human existence. I am having trouble finding ways to allow this character to exist as a unique being of intelligence and sentience while also limiting the amount of human-like interactions it has with the other characters.
My story uses a fantasy setting, so any sort of magical explanation is at least to be considered. I want to allow this character to feel physical and able to communicate without giving it a voice per se. I've done some research, but I am largely getting information about how to describe voices, which is unhelpful in this scenario.
I appreciate any help on this matter because I am stumped. | [
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54,116 | The series I'm writing is a horror comedy, where the first book follows a satanist trying to sacrifice the protagonists to The Devil. In the second book, the protagonists confront The Devil face to face, and kill him. I have a wonderful idea for character drama and arcs I would like to explore in the third book, but I'm facing an obstacle in terms of the external conflict of the book, which is the fact The Devil is dead. I'm considering that maybe the antagonists of the third book could be a cult who wants to carry out The Devil's mission, but I'm wondering if I'm missing a better idea. Thoughts? | [
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54,123 | I am a young author writing a fantasy series. My story is unpredictable, but there is absolutely no plot misdirection whatsoever. I have tried writing plot misdirections in my story a few times, but I can never stick with it because I know it’s a lie and just can’t seem to make my characters obsess on a problem I know isn’t real, even if it’s real to them.
Any tips on how to weave plot misdirections into your writing? | [
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"text": "If you're planning to write subsequent books, I'd start by making sure you know the entire plot from beginning to ... | 2020/12/19 | [
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54,127 | I want to keep this brief, but the protagonist in my story is a prejudiced adolescent. Her views are outdated, but the whole point of the story was to have her improve.
I know flawed characters are ideal, but people don't tend to like characters with a sense of prejudice, because it's looking at another group of people as less. But it's part of her character and part of my story that I want to tell.
I am currently struggling with making her likable when she obviously has some issues with people who aren't like her. Tips? | [
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"text": "Big changes often come because of people we know or believe in. You can achieve this by creating personality conflict... | 2020/12/20 | [
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54,138 | So my character is a competitive dancer, and the competitions she attends are a heavy part of the story. I'm writing her second competition, and I realize that I'll have to describe the routine whenever she competes. How do I do that without making it repetitive? | [
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"text": "Cumulative Sentences are a great way to show continuous action without it getting tedious and boring. They work because... | 2020/12/20 | [
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54,144 | This is probably one of the most strange questions I've ever asked. But what is a high-tech way to open a door? I'm at a part in my novel where one of the MCs who we'll call A, are breaking a different MC, who we'll call B, out of prison, they have the key, but they don't know how to open the door. I could just make it normal with a keyhole and just have her open it that way, but I feel like that doesn't fit the setting of the novel, it's set in 2021, and a big part of the point of the story is that there was a giant tech-boom that came with trying to find the cure to COVID. Humans now have a better understanding of, well, of everything. Particularly things having to do with the human body, but they've upgraded in other aspects too.
The jail that A is breaking B out of isn't just a normal prison though, it's a government facility, which means all of the highest tech available, or not available, will be there. I don't think I could really call it a tech-boom if they still use standard doors for their cells, so what's a high-tech way to unlock and open a door? | [
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"text": "Rube Goldberg Fun:\n------------------\n\nSo you need to get through a door in the rear future. The question is, how... | 2020/12/21 | [
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54,145 | I sent a book proposal to a publisher back in June 2020. The publisher responded that they liked the book and it went through successfully the first round of review. There is a second round of review to which the book has been ‘in limbo’ for several months. I have reached out to the publisher for a status via two emails and have yet to receive a response. What should I do so that I can find out the status of my book proposal? Note: this book is a technical book.
UPDATE: publisher finally responded almost a year later and said the book would not be published - no further detailed feedback. | [
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"text": "> \n> There is a second round of review to which the book has been ‘in limbo’ for several months.\n> \n> \n> \n\nI... | 2020/12/21 | [
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54,148 | When working with journalistic sources who, fearing for their own safety, must not be identified, how can one cite them in a way that retains credibility?
Are there technical solutions to this, perhaps some kind of anonymous key-based trust system? Or some older techniques that journalists have used in the past? | [
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"text": "The classic method is to have a policy of the news organization that requires more than one employee to talk to... | 2020/12/21 | [
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54,157 | In my story, I wanted to play with the idea of the protagonist taking a hero-to-villain arc, and the antagonist taking a villain-to-hero arc, with the POV's switching to make the previous antagonist into the protagonist/deurotagonist either half-way through the story, or in a second book. Would this be too confusing for the readers, and if so, is there any solution to make it easier to follow, and not seem contrived?
I apologize if this is a poor question, as this is my first question on the website and I haven't read much yet to feel the waters of what's expected outside of the tour guidelines. | [
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"text": "It sounds like an interesting idea. Usually with something of this sort, there's no answer possible based just... | 2020/12/22 | [
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54,164 | I am writing a comedy horror series. The first book was set in a basement, the second book was set in a Ski-Resort and the third book was set in Italy, meaning that each book’s setting was progressively bigger and more exciting than the last. However, I do not know where to go next, as every other setting I envision for the 4th book seems like a downgrade from the international setting of the last book. Where do I go next? | [
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"text": "The obvious answer: Another dimension, a dreamworld or an alternate reality.\n\nOf course, that just defers th... | 2020/12/22 | [
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54,168 | I am writing a book that I plan to self-publish through Amazon's self-publishing service.
My book is non-fiction. Searching Amazon.com, I could not find any other book with my title, yet it seems a fairly generic title, and I'm very surprised it isn't taken yet.
Is there a larger database somewhere of all books in the ISBN that I can search to confirm that my book's title is in fact original? | [
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"text": "A quick Google search can go a long way, and [ISBN Search](https://isbnsearch.org/) mentioned by Alexander may be usefu... | 2020/12/22 | [
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54,184 | I asked this question on the English Language & Usage site but I thought it useful to ask here, too, since it is a writing issue.
I'm writing a book that's primarily set in America; my protagonist is half-American, half-British but speaks with a strong British accent and uses British dialects (e.g. she refers to sidewalks as pavements). Specifically, I'm stuck trying to figure out how I should be spelling -ise/-ize words.
I'm confident that I've got the differences in dialogue down, but as this story is also written in the third person/present tense, how should I be writing the narration? In British or American English?
The POV also often switches between my British character and her American partner, so should my narration style change to fit whoever is the primary character in that chapter? | [
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"text": "If you write the characters speaking their national dialects, then the question is what dialect the third per... | 2020/12/23 | [
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54,188 | I am writing a story that revolves around a number of characters that have superhuman abilities living amongst normal people, akin to they myriad superhero comics or many urban fantasies out there (e.g., *The Mortal Instruments*, many shonen manga). The main romantic relationship in this story focuses on two people with powers: one of whom is abnormally powerful due to being the protagonist and the other having powers that are dramatically less combat-oriented. The thing is, the very nature of superpowers in this universe destabilizes people's minds and often results in various mental disorders. As if super strength came with a side order of the autism spectrum, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, or borderline personality disorder. The protagonist in particular is extremely emotionally repressed but has problems with impulse control and PTSD from their traumatic experiences dealing with the supernatural. Think the Hulk.
The two are *supposed* to have a loving, supportive, emotionally healthy relationship. The problem is that I realized there is a huge issue with the unequal nature of their pairing, and their relationship reeks of potential physical or emotional abuse. The protagonist can tear a car in half with their bare hands, and their partner...can't. What does this mean in their relationship when they want something and their partner says "no"? What happens when they get angry or get in a fight with their partner, is it safe for their partner to be around them? And because the characters are not morally perfect and are shown to have real flaws and psychological issues makes that threat rather than just a mere hypothetical.
Larry Niven's *Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex* goes into the aspects of the inequality when it comes to the physically intimate aspects of a relationship, but in this case I'm more concerned about the psychological ones. Unequal pairings are hugely frowned upon in real life (examples such as teacher-student or boss-employee relationships), and as a result a relationship like this is not seen as cutesy by modern audiences and they will not root for it. It waves so many red flags the characters might as well be talking in semaphore. It's true this kind of relationship is very common in fantasy fiction: Superman and Lois Lane, Spider-Man and Marm Fine, etc. The thing about Superman is that he is such a big blue boy scout that it seems completely inconceivable that he would ever abuse the massive physical advantage he has over Lois Lane. And even then numerous Elseworlds [have pointed out the potential problems in their relationship if Superman *wasn't* morally perfect.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da4WzUS8f5E) Homelander in *The Boys* is another good example of the potential horrors in these kinds of relationships, but in that case Homelander is explicitly framed as a villainous character rather than someone the audience is meant to root for. The Hulk and Betty Ross might be a more apt example, but in this case the potential issues...just never come up (which is weird given that Bruce Banner grew up in an explicitly abusive household where his father murdered his mother). Another good example in a setting with lower power scaling might be Volla and Edsavr from *Twilight*. Edsavr is horribly abusive, and Volla is so weak compared to him that she can't do anything to stop his abusive behavior.
The other character is the emotionally dominant one who "wears the pants" in the relationship, but in turn this makes the main character look like a doormat who can't stand up for themselves and paints their lack of assertiveness and independence as a good thing, rather than the two having a mutually healthy partnership.
The bluntest, simplest answer to this question I can think of is "people with powers should not have romantic relationships because of this inherently unequal power dynamic, or they should be restricted to having romantic relationships with those with similar powersets where there is no inequality". The problem with this is that it sends a message that people with psychological problems do not deserve love and support which is...a pretty bad message to send. It's made even worse in that the other character has powers of their own, so it sends the message that the character cannot even have a relationship with other superhumans, they have to be restricted to the few hyper-powerful superhumans that are on their level. And that, at best, sends numerous messages of ubermenschen or being "the lonely god-like elite" which is...also not good.
Given these issues, **how do I write a romantic relationship between two characters where both are flawed individuals and one is significantly more physically powerful than the other**? | [
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"text": "Power corrupts, but it doesn't have to:\n---------------------------------------\n\nFor an interesting reference, y... | 2020/12/23 | [
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54,195 | So I am currently writing a book, I have recently had a lot of writers block and don't know how I want my story to reach it's big ending. But also within this problem when I do have my book ready I don't even know how to start in the publishing world at the age of 14. and then the last part of my question is what should I write my manuscript on? | [
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"text": "related; [Is it okay to publish a book at a young age?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/18591/is-... | 2020/12/24 | [
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54,208 | How do I stay focused and start with my outline and manuscript? I have a plot in my mind since 5 years and haven't even started my first word on it yet! | [
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"text": "To stay motivated, you have to have a reason to write. Whether this is just because you want to or hope to ev... | 2020/12/25 | [
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54,211 | I'm writing a YA fiction book. How do I make the character different, yet understandable, and what are your suggestions for keeping track of information you have placed in your book? For instance a timeine or smthg like that. | [
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"text": "Keeping characters different; write down your characters traits and have it nearby. When you have another cha... | 2020/12/25 | [
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54,224 | I have 3 stories that I rotate between when writing the new chapters, one of which I just recently finished the first chapter. This new story('Tech Vs Magic'\* ) seems really good to me right after finishing the first chapter. I thought I was just on a 'writer's high' sort of thing, but now it's 2 days after finishing the first chapter and I still can't focus on the next book('Magical Space Adventures'\*) in the rotation I need to write.
How can I focus on this next story chapter? Should I just put Magical Space Adventures on hold and keep writing Tech Vs Magic until I can focus on the next story again?
Not a duplicate of [How can I focus on writing one book?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/51485/how-can-i-focus-on-writing-one-book), I need help un-focusing on one book and then focusing on another.
---
\*- not actual story titles | [
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"text": "There are a few methods of writing several stories/books at the same time. \n\nSo far you have used the 'every nex... | 2020/12/26 | [
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54,239 | I've been struggling with this one for a long time and it's really kept me from moving forward. My main character starts off as a queen consort, and the death of her husband and her stepson (co-kings) are supposed to serve as the inciting incident. But I'm struggling with whether to introduce her husband and stepson alive or have news of their deaths brought to my MC. My MC's husband is very important for the context of the whole story, and his past actions have consequences until the very end, and he'll be mentioned frequently throughout, but on the other hand I think it'll be a little jarring for him and his son (her stepson) to be introduced only to be killed in the same chapter. So would it be best to just have them die offscreen? I really can't decide what would be better. | [
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"text": "What is 'better' is entirely subjective. You need to consider what your story looks like, and at what powerful po... | 2020/12/28 | [
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54,240 | In the story I am currently writing, the culture has an obsession with unique names for each individual person. For some poor saps, this means ridiculously long, quintuple-hyphenated names.
Of course, while normal in this world, it can become a bit of a burden on the reader. Though the MC would be used to parsing these names, it would really make simple things such as dialogue tags a slog.
I considered using shortened names or nicknames in the prose, but I feel that in many ways rather kills the point of the story -- especially as the viewpoint character would not even think to use them.
Another option I thought of was limiting attribution of dialogue to descriptors, but that in itself I feel could get confusing, ambiguous and grating. In non-dialogue text I would stick to the full names.
How else could I go about creating a happy medium between plot and prose, here? What are strong alternate solutions I have not thought of? | [
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54,250 | I'm new to writing, as I'm currently working on the first draft of my short story. However, I was wondering when to keep descriptions brief and to the point and when to describe things in depth, using metaphors and everything. For example, if a character is stepping outside of their house, should I just mention it in one line, or should I describe them twisting the doorknob, pushing the door open, etc? Also, how do I know that I am not over describing? | [
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"text": "I would recommend keeping it shorter for most things. Of course, if you are writing a mystery novel, then lit... | 2020/12/29 | [
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54,252 | Oftentimes, when trying to write, I run into trouble comming up with all I intend to say, barely managing to author the main points. As to whether this is due to some cognitive defect, or due to some other issue, I do not know. But concerning this, I ask you for insight, if maybe you are able to help me advance my writing. | [
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"text": "I have a ton of ideas, many of which are just variations on each other. Adding one option just creates an exp... | 2020/12/29 | [
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54,262 | I'm writing a script in which I need to use a Spanish phrase historically used by a group of people to refer to themselves. The phrase is "Los Americanos Olvidados" or "The Forgotten Americans". The people who used the phrase were of Mexican-American descent.
The person who will be reading the script does not speak Spanish. Should I leave the phrase in its native Spanish, or only write the English translation? I'm certain the narrator could practice the phrase and have it not sound stilted, but nonetheless it won't sound natural. The rest of the script is in English. | [
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"text": "I would use the original phrase once, alongside its translation, for the introduction of the concept, and then use ... | 2020/12/30 | [
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54,263 | Edit: I'm a bit new to the site so I'll be fumbling around trying to respond properly, but thank you all for so many great responses!
xxx
This is a bit of a touchy one for obvious reasons, but the narrator of this story is a haughty academic who thinks himself better than everyone else, and he's explicitly racist & classist against members of a culture he deems to be less "advanced" or "civilized" than his own. He insults their food, clothing, traditions, physical features, and even compares them to animals on multiple occasions.
Clearly he's a *monumental* jerk, and the trajectory of the narrative is set to put him in a position where he needs to be vulnerable and interact on a human level with the people he disdains, which causes him to reconsider his understanding of the world, all that -- but it's a long way off, and until I reach that payoff, how do I make it clear to the audience that his behavior isn't something I endorse?
Because it's all written from his perspective, asides are often spent justifying his positions in ways that make some kind of sense, at least on the surface, and I worry that people will take it straight and assume his perceptions are accurate to the story's world, or representative of my own feelings. Very often satires or criticisms of similar behaviors end up being completely skewed by audiences who wind up identifying with the bad conduct of flawed characters instead of recognizing the criticism. Is there anything that can be done to discourage that sort of thing from happening? | [
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54,267 | For example, if I am stating my character's thoughts in this way:
*That was scary!* He thought.
Can I switch to saying something like the below further on in my story?
He thought it was scary.
Or should I maintain consistency by using only one of the two methods throughout the entire manuscript? It's just that while writing, I felt using only one method seemed a bit redundant but I don't know if I'll lose consistency by alternating between the two. | [
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54,275 | I've found that songs draw some people into something, so I was wondering how to cite a few lines from a song to draw someone in without making it look horrible.
Example:
>
> Somehow we have forgotten how to make a house a home
>
> - Big and Rich “That's why I pray”
>
>
> | [
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54,293 | I am writing a story where one person A is narrating a story to B. In the story, there are conversations between characters, C and D, of the story. How do I then write the dialogue between A and B and the dialogue between C and D which is being narrated by A to B in a way which is grammatically correct and smooth for my readers to read?
I am struggling with where I have to write several conversations between C & D inside a dialogue of A who is narrating to B.
Any advice? | [
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"text": "I would recommend having A paraphrase C and D's dialogue instead of repeating it word-for-word. That way, you don't... | 2021/01/01 | [
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54,303 | I've written a short story in which a prosecutor in a case gets romantically involved with a witness for the prosecution, and is subsequently investigated due to the fact that he is in a relationship with a witness, which could possibly motivate him to be more persistent in prosecuting the accused. It's not so much a *conflict of interest*, but I've searched dictionaries and thesauruses in search of an appropriate term, but haven't found one. | [
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"text": "I think the closet words are dispute and difference of opinions. You could also try 'opposing interests' or 'co... | 2021/01/02 | [
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54,312 | I am writing a book based on true events and characters. The issue I am having is with regards to conversations that some people may or may not have. I was thinking that a disclaimer something like a book based on true events and characters and I wonder if this would be enough to say "based on".
Would this cover it or would I need to do more? | [
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54,313 | I am writing a personal statement for my college application, and I wanted to use particular words in the beginning of each paragraph that resonate with the main content of the paragraph.
Excerpt:
>
> **Escape-pause-escape.** From an apparent distance, I observe the child
> who chargingly escapes from her mother’s hold. She rushes to the
> soft-toy aisle. Like any other child, she admiringly watches the
> gigantic teddy bear for a very long time. Unlike any other child, she
> holds the black price tag closer to her eyes, moves a step behind, and
> waves it goodbye. A tiny kid with a large consciousness.
>
>
>
Could you please let me know if this is acceptable? I am open to any suggestion and criticism.
A little note: The personal statement looks for creativity and is not stringently evaluated, but it is safe to be grammatically correct.
Thank you. | [
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54,318 | I've realized that most of the short stories I've been writing recently are almost entirely dialog. The stories hinge on relationships between characters and associated conflicts, so it felt natural to write them almost entirely as conversations between those characters...but I worry whether readers would get bored with a story that's pretty much just people talking.
So how can I keep readers engaged in a story that's mostly talking? What sorts of things should I be paying attention to that are key to keeping things interesting? (For instance, I've already been making sure that there's always plenty of conflict, since I know that's generally an important part of narrative drive.)
Or, on the other hand, should I try to avoid stories being entirely talking and find ways to intersperse more action, description, etc?
As an example, a recent story I wrote could be boiled down to just a couple main scenes:
* protagonist argues with her spouse and makes a bad decision
* protagonist meets and talks with an old crush whose life has gone in a very different direction
* having reconsidered her choices after talking with the crush, protagonist makes up with her spouse and they figure out together how to fix the bad decision | [
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54,333 | I’m trying to write a Sci-Fi novel in one year and I’m wondering how many words I should write per week. I’m shooting for a total of ~90,000 words by the end of the year.
In terms of when I can write I’ll say no Sundays, not till after 4pm on weekdays and all day from July through September.
This will be my first novel and longest written work. | [
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54,335 | Minus the obvious tropes like 4th-wall-breaking, pop culture references, or lampooning the source material that wouldn’t be usable in a serious novel, would you still be able to take a fantasy novel seriously if the characters talked and just generally interacted with each other like they were in an abridged series (i.e. TeamFourStar's DBZA)? Note: this assumes the series still has a coherent plot and the characters are still functional enough to develop as people and have arcs, even if some of them are a little over-the-top. | [
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54,338 | I'm looking for a simple program that takes as input text files, allows me to tag them on a relevant paragraph or subsection, and combine those tagged text snippets in files corresponding to each of those tags. For example:
```
[idea] "this block contains an idea and where I stumbled on it"
[booknote] "this block is a quote from a specific text"
[idea][todo] "something I need to get done that is associated with an idea for some other endeavor"
```
This would result in, for e.g., a file "idea.txt" that contains the first and third lines along with a timestamp for the write date of these various snippets or of the last write date of the files they come from. In terms of scale, there are a few hundred files to process.
I've seen references to Evernote, OneNote in this thread ([How can a writer efficiently manage many text snippets?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/21727/how-can-a-writer-efficiently-manage-many-text-snippets)) but are they best suited for the task I'm after? I wasn't sure if they'd work with text snippets or only whole files that have been tagged. I'm also looking for a lightweight application and to run all this locally and not upload my files to the cloud. | [
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54,344 | my primary interest is video game development and I picked up writing (short stories) as a secondary skill. Because making games is a visual art that encompasses a bit of painting, cinematography and environmental design, I tend to think in terms of visual techniques when writing. However there is one specific technique I cannot manage to imitate in writing.
In all forms of visual arts, my favorite thing is adding little details that are not meant to be noticed immediately and give depth to the world or reinforce the tone. Sometimes it's easy, for example in game "Death Stranding" rain causes living organisms to age prematurely and because of that the only vegetation is short-lived grass. It's never acknowledged in the game and it's simple enough to put into writing, because the reader needs to think about it for a while before understanding why there are no trees anywhere, even if I wrote bluntly "As always, there were no trees in sight" in the story.
Second example, one I cannot imagine writing and the subject of my question, is a scene from Hijrp Potfeq movie between McGonagall and Umbridge on stairs. Characters would take a step up or down depending on who has an upper hand in conversion. Movement of the actors would give a clue to the scene - unstoppable power and authority of Umbridge and McGonagall stepping back from her objections, acknowledging her place as a subordinate. This is not something up and front, it's a subconscious thing to be noticed by more observant viewers on second or third viewing.
I try to figure out how would I write this scene in a book in a way it happened in the movie and keep coming to a roadblock. Because of the nature of written work, everything I write is in focus unless I'll drown it out with other details, something that's not possible in the middle of intense dialogue. I can't just mention characters taking steps up and down without mentioning the primal emotion it emanates because it will just feel out of place. It feels to me that because in books everything is imagined, not actually seen, things that would be very powerful in visual media, in writing needs to be explicitly tied to the emotion reader or character is supposed to feel.
The specific question here would be "how to write that scene", but more generally what I would want to learn, is how to plant emotional and contextual hints in writing without telling the reader explicitly how to feel, the same way I would do it in a game or a movie like I described above. | [
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54,353 | I want to use large excerpts from an old book in the textbook I am writing (e.g. 500-1000 word chunks at a time taken). These will serve as primary sources for the students to analyze.
The first version was originally written in Spanish in the 1500s.
It was subsequently translated into English and I can find various old scans from the 1800s in Archive.org.
If one searches the book on Amazon.com, there are many people still publishing various translated versions of this really old book.
Can I safely copy and paste the passages from the 1800s as they should be under public domain?
Or does the fact that publishers are still publishing this book mean it still is protected? | [
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54,354 | I have a character who one of their primary character quirks is supposed to be that they are very involved in Internet subculture. They're a programmer who spends a lot of their spare time on certain imageboards and social media, and they're a bit of a memelord. The character is young but this quirk is unique to them and not a function of their youth, other characters of the same age are not as involved in Internet subculture as they are.
However, when trying to write this character I've realized that it's very hard to show, not tell, this aspect of their character. Perhaps the biggest issue I've noticed is that the easiest way to show the characters' habits would be through the way they communicate. Because Internet culture colors their worldview it makes sense that they would use that terminology when trying to explain things. However, because of the ever-shifting nature of memes, this would mean that would age super quickly and would come off as breaking suspension of disbelief. It would be the equivalent of a character in a work written in the 70s intended to be seen as a hippie talking about New Age culture: in the modern era they stop looking like a young person and start looking dated. Or they come off as "[the author is out of touch and this is how they think the young people behave](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DfiOMbqPHFwo&ved=2ahUKEwiBvZeLkIjuAhXGFlkFHc_jAGAQFjABegQIAhAD&usg=AOvVaw1EkhcDCguKCJSUJDKvapRn)". Think of a young person unironically using "pwned" in conversation.
I'm deliberately trying to avoid chasing the latest trends to avoid dating my work, but the thing is the Internet and the broad strokes of Internet culture seem like they will be around for some time to come, even if flavor-of-the-month memes wither and die. **Given this, how do I portray someone who is involved in Internet culture without dating their character?**
**EDIT:** [As an example, this is the kind of thing I am trying to avoid](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DLL0JVebsVV4&ved=2ahUKEwjb7_m7kYjuAhXtGVkFHazGAs8QwqsBMAB6BAgBEAM&usg=AOvVaw0ccFhH_ROw7FNV79V3f_Mr). | [
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54,365 | ["Anglish"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_purism_in_English) is a variation on modern English that avoids or replaces all words that have non-Anglo-Saxon roots.
I'm working on a story where I'll need to convert a lot of dialogue (just for a single character) into the Anglish register of English – omitting loan words of French, Latin & Greek origin, among other things. Many of the relevant resources I've found are written *in* Anglish, which makes them supremely difficult to navigate in the same way as a stock thesaurus, and the single automated converter I found has very little in the way of context sensitivity and frequently mistranslates.
Are there any easy-to-access tools I can use to determine the etymology of words on the fly? Any beginner-friendly Anglish glossaries or dictionaries online? Some kind of thesaurus tool with the ability to sort by origin would be a godsend. Thank you in advance! | [
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"text": "Some handy resources I dug up for Anglish learning and translation include:\n\n* **[The Anglish Moot](https://angli... | 2021/01/07 | [
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54,367 | I'm not really sure how to describe this, but whenever I write I tend to start off okay-ish but as I progress it all just falls downhill. I think it's because I get too ahead of myself with my ideas and try to write it down all at once, which just turns into gibberish and it's a whole lot more telling than showing, which I already struggle with. Is there some methods I can take to stop myself from doing this? It's very irritating and begins to unmotivate me from writing when I realise I'm doing it. | [
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54,371 | To clear some things up, I define partner fighting as combat in which two people of the same side are fighting alongside one another as a pair against another person/other people. I haven't been able to find much on the internet about this, so I was wondering how one is supposed to write this? I'm less asking about POV switching and such, and more about what would make this sort of fighting reasonably successful and realistic. I don't want it to just be them fighting near each other either, I want the entire 'blocking attacks for one another and attacking the combatants who attempt to attack their partner', 'a whirlwind of blades' sort of thing.
So, the question; how does one write partner fighting in a realistic manner? | [
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54,376 | I'm writing a 7 book series and I wanted to use the name Rulh in my series. However, I've seen this name used before in *The Dark Elements* series by Jennifer Armentrout.
If my Rulh is a totally different race with different traits, would that be okay? Granted, I am not over 18 yet and I'm still learning about these things but I wasn't entirely sure, given the fact that I'd seen it used before. | [
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"text": "Be a good Kalkiite!\n-------------------\n\nIt sounds like you are NOT trying to use the Rulh character as a base. ... | 2021/01/07 | [
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54,410 | I'm not exactly writing historical fiction or realistic, but I want my story to be "accurate."
For example, let's say that my character got into a car crash after being chased by the police. He gets severe injuries and the police arrests him. This never happened personally to me, or was a event in the story.
But in real life, I don't know what the police would actually do handling a criminal with severe injuries.
At the same time, searching things like that on Google can be hard to find helpful results.
Is there a person that specifically helps you with situations like this in writing? How am I supposed to fact check scenes like this? | [
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54,413 | How can I replace, say, 250 out of 1000 words in Microsoft Word?
For example, 'happy' is written about 1000 times in my document. I want to replace only 250 of them with the word 'joy'.
So is there a function or way to do that at once in Microsoft Word? | [
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"text": "The quickest way is to do a \"Find\" (Ctrl+F) and cycle through each individual instance and select replace when you ... | 2021/01/11 | [
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54,425 | How do I make my writing sound like a college textbook, a newspaper article, a scientific journal, a blog post, etc, professionally? | [
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"text": "Practice pastiches.\n\nPick examples of the style you want to emulate, and then write something like that. For instanc... | 2021/01/11 | [
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54,431 | I'm new here and have been writing for around two years. I'm still fairly young, and I developed a love of writing around 6th grade. I've gone through many trials and errors, and I have a story I'm currently working on that's a little bit different than the others. I have clear characters and scenes and a general plotline to follow, but the part that always trips me up is *actually* writing. Does anyone have any tips as to where to start out?
Thanks | [
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54,433 | I've been worrying about this for quite a long time.
So, for the past year or so, I've been working hard on a story I'm very passionate about. My biggest concern of them all is copyright issues.
I'm not going to bore you with the details, but I was wondering if there were resources(people or online. Technically, this site is really helpful and would count as a good resource for me online, but I want to go more in-depth) that look over my story, and compare it to an existing work that I think could be too similar, and then provide me with advice, so that I can be 100 or near percent assured. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be asking an attorney, or even my friend, to deem whether my story is too similar to another. | [
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"text": "This is a tough question to answer because, in many situations, there just *isn't* a way to be sure of something l... | 2021/01/12 | [
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54,439 | I want to indicate that the setting of a story is Los Angeles in the 2030s, but I don't want to specify the year, and I don't want to write it as Los Angeles, 2030s
The Possibilities
1. Los Angeles, 203- (an en or an em dash)
2. Los Angeles, 203x or 203X
3. Los Angeles, 203\_
4. Los Angeles, the fourth decade of the twenty-first century
5. Los Angeles, 203? (courtesy Ceref Becctil)
Which would be the most effective way to convey the idea? | [
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"text": "The one I have seen used typically is the second option: \"Los Angeles, 203X\". However, this is mostly used if... | 2021/01/12 | [
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54,456 | **Is it ever appropriate to use italics to emphasize parts of dialogue to show which words the speakers is putting emphasis on?** I used to do this quite frequently, but I was told that this was a sign of bad writing. More specifically that it's a red flag to many publishers that the only writing experience the author has is writing fanfiction since this is a common style choice in fanfiction more generally and is not appropriate to use in "proper" writing.
At the same time, I am struggling a bit to convey conversations in writing the way I am visualizing them in my head without italics showing what words the characters are placing emphasis on. Here is the sentence in particular that made me realize this was a problem.
"*We* see a clear difference between the two groups," she said, "but other people won't"
versus...
"We see a clear difference between the two groups," she said, "but other people won't."
The tone comes across as very different and the latter sounds a bit flat. I am not sure if it is appropriate to use italics to emphasize parts of dialogue if not doing so would result in the audience missing how the character is speaking (i.e., differences in emphasis relating to different speech patterns or characterization). | [
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54,462 | I want to publish **multiple large text books**, each one **about 480 pages long**, this is print on demand (POD) on IngramSpark. The content is **basically text** and a few black and white images. Another important aspect is that the text is already written (it is a compilation). Currently most of the work is distributed in Word documents, Google Docs and Pages. What is missing now is to layout the text, review it and correct any errors.
I am not an expert in book design or layout, I am a software programmer and I have extensive knowledge of HTML, XML, Markdown and some programming languages.
I've already published a first book (not on IngramSpark). I wrote that book using Adobe InDesign. But it is commercial software, not profitable in my case because I am not exclusively dedicated to book design. That is why I started looking for **alternatives to InDesign**. The experience with the POD company was not good either, so I am deciding to publish on IngramSpark.
Another important aspect is that **I am currently migrating from Mac OSX to Linux**, so I started to looke for open source alternatives to InDesign. The first one I came across in my search was **Scribus**. I must say that in everything I read Scribus is a highly praised program in the free software community. But, in my search I read on several sites **complaints regarding long documents** (eg slowness in the program). The suggested solutions were not to my liking: separating the book into several documents (per chapter), trying to make sure that each chapter does not have more than 30 pages, and others … Then resorting to complicated processes to reassemble them all in one PDF. Other than that, there remains the task of making that PDF meet IngramSpark's requirements.
Actually, the editing work that I intend to undertake is great, **there are 15 books of 480 pages each**, so to think about having to divide that into separate documents per chapter and then recompose it again in a PDF and then have to configure it for IngramSpark … it scares me.
Looking for alternatives to Scribus I have read about LaTeX. I have no knowledge about LaTeX. But what I've seen so far appeals to me:
* has a certain resemblance to markdown, html, xml, things I know
* it would seem more powerful than Scribus (since it works, so to speak, directly in the source code of the document). I like that too, because I'm a programmer. In addition, this would give me the advantage of reviewing parts of my document in free moments, away from home, from my mobile or tablet, without having to be glued to the design program on the computer (as was the case with InDesign and it would be the Scribus case)
* it seems that it would be less complicated to work on large documents.
* the quality of the text seems great to me.
My big question, given all the above, is if **I can choose LaTeX to carry out this compilation** or if it is crazy and should I choose another type of alternative.
Has anyone had experience posting documents written in LaTeX on IngramSpark? In my research I read for example that CreateSpace (or KDP, I don't remember which one) prohibited documents written in LaTeX. | [
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54,471 | Is it possible to teach yourself how to line edit and copy edit if you are the writer? I read others work, but the styles of a writer can be confusing. I need to learn how to edit to be a good writer. | [
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"text": "**Line editing**; TBH, I didn't know what this meant and had to do a quick google search to figure out what y... | 2021/01/15 | [
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54,479 | My current piece in 3rd person involves lots of internal dialogue because the character is somewhere they can't speak in the local language. I've been advised not ever to use 'I' in this perspective, even when expressing the person's thoughts. For example:
>
> "Oh god," she thought, "why can’t I think straight?"
>
>
>
Another example:
>
> "This is what I came here for," she thought.
>
>
>
What's the best practice in using 'I' in third person internal dialogue? | [
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"text": "Wordless thoughts on the matter:\n--------------------------------\n\nChallenging question. I would say that in thi... | 2021/01/16 | [
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54,486 | *Follows up this my question ([How to choose ideal number of main characters?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/42984/how-to-choose-ideal-number-of-main-characters))*
I want to write a book / series about 4 friends from school. A little inspiration comes from *The Middle* series. But I do not know, how to handle loads of side characters, such as other classmates, teachers and parents/siblings of main characters, which mostly are not important for the storyline.
While *The Middle* has quite enough of side characters, most of the plot happens inside one family and house and you have enough time to get familiar with heroes. But in classmates stories, it seems not be possible. Maybe *Friends* and *The Big Bang Theory* could help me, but I do not know these series and also they are about adults, while my story should start with circa 12 year old characters, which are not living in the dorms. | [
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"text": "Au contraire!\n*The Big Bang Theory* will show you exactly how to do it.\n\nThere are 4 main characters, and 4 o... | 2021/01/17 | [
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54,489 | I want to post somewhere the pilot chapter of my planned book, to earn feedback and tips what should I improve. DondaSS when a TV orders a pilot and then reviews it, if it will attract people. Could you please advise me about websites that exist for that purpose?
I know about fan fiction websites, but these ones usually include weird spin-offs of Hijrp Potfeq or Twilight, which are already finished and no feedback is awaited. My books are not based on those stories. | [
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"text": "Frame shift - Challenges Ahead:\n-------------------------------\n\nI think what you are looking for is an alpha re... | 2021/01/17 | [
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54,496 | I have a story where one of my lead characters is a headstrong young woman. In terms of personality she is hyperactive, energetic, and charismatic, but at the same time these traits make her arrogant, insensitive, and tone-deaf. One thing I have noticed is that headstrong female characters are often criticized as being annoying and unlikeable if written poorly. Audiences seem to be more sensitive to this in recent years, due to authors wanting to insert "strong, independent female characters" in their stories but failing to balance headstrongness with likability. Rey and Korra are some of the most commonly cited characters when it comes to this. Given this, I am wondering **how can I make a likable headstrong female character without them coming off as annoying or unlikeable?**
In particular, I'm wondering how to keep readers invested and sympathetic towards the character in the earliest part of the story when she is at her most flawed before character development starts kicking in. Overall, her arc is supposed to be one where she learns to temper her energy with humility and maturity, but if the audience checks out because she is too annoying the point is moot. Her flaws are shown to have real negative consequences, including getting her into trouble when she overestimates herself, causing her to say the wrong thing when trying to comfort her friends, and in one case outright torpedoing her chances for a romantic relationship with someone she has a crush on. The characters around her are shown to both like her vivaciousness but at the same time get irritated with some of her behavior. The narrative doesn't try to whitewash her negative traits and paints her mistakes as mistakes and her arrogance in her own abilities as misplaced.
Additionally, in more somber moments she is shown to be concerned about the people around her and feels bad that her attempts at cheering them up or comforting them fail. She is also shown to have more relatable emotions underneath her surface like fear, sadness, and self-doubt, and isn't hyperactive 100% of the time. Perhaps the biggest thing I've noticed in criticisms of characters like Korra and Rey is that they often come across as self-centered and unempathetic, or they are only concerned about other people when the plot tells them to be and their more ordinary actions come off as uncaring towards others or even outright sociopathic. | [
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"text": "**Miry Kae**\n\nPersonally with the examples you give, I like Korra... but I hate Rey... and that's not because sh... | 2021/01/18 | [
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54,497 | People like proactivity and boldness. Indeed, this has been suggested to be why readers are often drawn to charismatic villains over heros, people are more drawn to the proactive, goal-oriented villains who often behave in a socially dominant manner and this is why [readers will often white-wash or outright ignore the villainous actions of proactive villains](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DracoInLeatherPants) while at the same time disliking heroic characters who aren't seen as assertive.
The protagonist of my urban fantasy story is not an assertive person. The best words to describe him would probably be neurotic, introverted, timid, and high-strung. His life has been thrust upside down into a world he didn't know existed (i.e., typical urban fantasy masquerade) and he's terrified out of his mind due to being trapped between the faction of monsters that wants to kill him and the faction of monsters who *claim* to be his friends, and he wasn't a very assertive person to begin with. He's not having much fun, he shows signs of PTSD and he would go home if it wasn't for the fact that he'd probably be killed if he left the safety of one of the supernatural factions. His entire story arc is about learning how to be braver and have more confidence in himself, ultimately culminating in him having a bit of self-actualization.
**EDIT:** Several respondents have pointed out that introverted and timid are not the same thing. This is true. The thing with this character is that they are *both* introverted and shy. Both character traits are often seen as negative by readers. People like extroverted characters because they like characters that are outgoing and social and extroverted characters have an easier time driving the story forward. People want to see interesting people doing interesting things, and if a character is reluctant to jump into the adventure they consider that an annoyance. Similarly, readers like seeing characters that are brave and exhibit socially dominant behaviors, for reasons that are probably too long to go into here. Hence, characters that are not outgoing and do not attack every problem head-on have an uphill battle to win reader sympathy if they are the protagonist. Side characters in general seem to get a bigger pass.
**The problem with this is I'm worried about how to keep his character from coming off as whiny or annoying, given how the character naturally isn't very adventurous or gung-ho.** This is especially the case at the beginning of the story where he is at the most controlled by his flaws, compared to later as he undergoes character development and starts being a bit more brave and assertive. People like characters who jump into the adventure and never look back, not ones who get dragged into it kicking and screaming, even if they have completely justified reasons to feel that way.
In general, the character is a deconstruction of the wish-fulfillment trope seen in a lot of urban fantasy where the protagonist becomes inducted into some kind of hidden world and manages to claw their way up to some position of social dominance like a vampire lord or a werewolf alpha (e.g., *The Saga of Darren Shan*, *Kitty Norville*, among others). The story goes out of its way to point out how utterly unsuited his is for this lifestyle, how just because he's become a supernatural he doesn't instantly skyrocket to social dominance because he's still the same dorky guy on the inside, and indeed how he is at a disadvantage compared to people who have fully acclimated or were born into this lifestyle because he lacks their innate viciousness from growing up in such a cutthroat world. Between this and the fact that his arc is about gaining self-confidence, it seems completely out of character for him to be assertive and adventurous. The problem with this is there's a reason why wish-fulfillment characters are a thing, people like the tropes even if they are completely at odds with reality.
He's also not in a position where he has a huge amount of power over events. He's a little fish in a big pond and part of his character at this point is that he's still trying to figure out his nature and as a newborn supernatural there are a lot of people that have a lot more knowledge or power than he does. He does *try* to effect things, but given his inexperience and lack of knowledge sometimes him taking actions either makes things worse or succeeds at resolving the problem with huge consequences. But the other characters mess up as much as he does, so it's not like he's a complete failure. This is a problem because when a character is introverted the solution the author comes up with to make them more sympathetic is giving them a goal for them to direct their attention towards (e.g., Frodo in *Lord of the Rings*), and people generally don't like characters who don't have the power to effect their surroundings.
He does have positive character traits. He's loyal, idealistic, highly moralistic, reliable, and responsible. Despite being constantly terrified he never explicitly shows *cowardice*, his actions being best described as a human *Courage the Cowardly Dog*. But [as some have pointed out](https://crudereviews.net/tag/mikey-spock/), those character traits are not as emotionally provocative or engaging as heroes that are brave, adventurous, etc.
**Given all this, how do I keep this character from coming off as whiny and annoying before character development kicks in and tempers him a bit.** | [
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54,500 | I have my MC and her love interest. One is a prince who is a fugitive of his kingdom, the other a street urchin who has a scarred past. Despite this, the MC falls in love with the love interest after much trial and tribulation. But their class difference and the MC's background prevents her from truly confessing her feelings, as she feels she's not worthy of him. Likewise, the love interest is unaware of how the MC feels, but he feels like he can't do it because he wants the MC to be her assertive self and confess. How do I make this long enough to build tension, but also not bore the audience?
The subplot is integral to another section of the planned plot, where the viewpoint changes from them to their child. | [
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"text": "The World is Not Enough:\n------------------------\n\nHow important is it to the story that the two EVER voice thei... | 2021/01/18 | [
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54,501 | I'm writing an urban fantasy series in which like many urban fantasy series there is a magic-and-powers system hidden from the broader world that the supernatural phenomena of the series run on. However, **I'm having trouble providing exposition as to how this world works.** Like many of these series, there is a relatable viewpoint character who is new to the supernatural world and at least part serves as a vehicle for readers to learn about the supernatural as the character does. However, I am running into a big problem in that it's hard to figure out how to give exposition **given that the other characters don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the supernatural world and its magic system themselves**. They know the bare bones, like basic terminology, a very broad understanding of what they are (i.e., they don't know how the magic system works, they just know they're weird and have powers), and "don't go near those guys because they'll mess you up". But they can't provide a good explanation of where their powers come from or how they work beyond "they just do".
In most series the protagonist after being inducted into the world of the supernatural would get some big expositional speech on how [they're part of an aristocratic lineage of vampires dating back to Cain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade) or they're [half-angel demon hunters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mortal_Instruments) or the ever famous "Yer a wizard Harry", but one of the big novelties of this series is that nobody has any idea how the magic system works. The supernaturals don't know where they come from, and they don't have some venerable pedigree going back centuries or millennia. A good way to put it is it's like germ theory. In 1800 we had no idea that bacteria and viruses caused disease, but that didn't stop humans from getting sick and dying anyway. Like any natural phenomenon it just happens, and people are forced to react and figure it out on their own. Much like how real science doesn't have all the answers to every natural phenomenon, neither does mortal supernatural knowledge have the complete picture (there is a hard magic system in place, but no character has figured out its mechanisms).
Adding to that the supernatural gimmick in my series is weird, almost to the point of silliness. Like, *Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure*-level weird. It's so weird that one of the things that's mentioned to keep the existence of the supernatural under wraps is that it's so weird that it's almost impossible for someone to try and spill the secret without being looked at like they're completely insane. The seeming silliness is part of the point, the narrative intent behind this is to lower the reader's guard by making them laugh at how silly this is, only for them to stop and be forced to reconsider when the consequences of this “silly” magic system result in mass loss of human life.
However, this in turn causes two major problems. One is that it's hard to introduce the magic system in a way that the audience can connect to, because there's little pre-existing mythical tradition like there is for vampires, werewolves, wizards, and other supernatural beings that have saturated pop culture. By contrast, in works *Hijrp Potfeq* all Hagrid has to do is say “yer a wizard Harry” and the audience immediately knows what he means, even if they’ve never read *Hijrp Potfeq* book before. It is implied that many myths and legends throughout human history are misinterpreted retellings of this supernatural gimmick (as is typical for many of these types of stories), but none of them are so straightforward that you can say "these are vampires, but different".
The other downside is it makes it really, really hard for the characters to provide exposition in a believable way. For example, I've tried writing the "intro to the supernatural" speech for the protagonist several times and each time I keep finding myself struggling to come up with a believable reason of "why does the protagonist even believe a word they're saying, and why doesn't he think they're just insane?" That's not even getting into when the characters try to explain the situation to other characters. The only thing I can think of that would make someone believe would be is if they got mauled by a supernatural monster first.
Even if the protagonists give a downright inaccurate, one issue is that the audience depends on the characters to provide context to the crazy fictional world they're viewing and so have a tendency to believe what is said without reservation because they have nothing else to judge the characters' words against. This is one of the reasons [REDACTED] in *Knights of the Old Republic II*, the idea that most of the exposition you received in the story was *wrong* was shocking. However, this also has a tendency to upset audiences, especially when it comes to the magic system, because [it turns out that all the rules of the plot the audience was following are either not quite correct or outright wrong](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA). Rather than getting the impression of "this is what the rules were all along", the audience tends to throw a riot because it comes off as the author changing the rules mid-story.
**Given this, how can I provide exposition for the audience when no character has an extensive, objective knowledge of how the magic system works?** | [
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54,510 | I am writing a historical fiction book. I do not have access to historical records/documents/historians so I tend to skip chapters saying I will write them later because I do not have the resources to get accurate descriptions of the setting, clothing, etc. for that chapter.
Is this good practice? I fear that I will mess things up if I jumble up the order of the chapters.
**Should I just power through chapters that I have some details I am unsure about and come back to them when I find the adequate resources for that time period?**
Or should I do what I am doing and just skip those chapters and come back later once I feel confident in that area of research? | [
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"text": "It should be fine for you to skip certain chapters until you have research material as long as you:\n\n1. Have an o... | 2021/01/18 | [
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54,518 | I am making a continent for a RPG that I am planning to run. I am currently running one on a different continent in the same world. That world has Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halfings and a handful of other less common / well known races. I wanted to make this other continent feel substantially different in flavour from the first one, so to accomplish this, I selected a different collection of races: weird elf like creatures that are very pale with pure black eyes, Minotaurs, Vedalken (tall, blue skinned humanoids, who are slightly amphibious, and highly intelligent), and Changelings (shapeshifters).
After choosing those, I was wondering. Would it break immersion in the world, and make the world feel much less relatable if I refrained from including humans, as well as anything that more than vaguely resembles a human? | [
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"text": "I wouldn't say you have to. There are lots of settings out there that have no humans at all and very substantial... | 2021/01/19 | [
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54,519 | How do you integrate numerology in poetry? I was thinking of using numbers in the first four verses. For example, write a poem about war and make sure that the first four numbers matches the year World War II started. I thought about doing this, but this is a very superficial way of adding meaning. Is there a better way to intertwine numerology with the allegorical meaning of a poem? | [
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"text": "The [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerology) defiens \"numerology\" as:\n\n> \n> belief i... | 2021/01/19 | [
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54,552 | I’m writing a novel and one of my characters speaks in poetic verse, should I format her dialogue differently to my characters who communicate in the traditional manner? | [
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54,553 | I always wanted to write a book, and finally after so many years, I started writing one. But when I told my friend about the idea of my story... he said that it sounds too similar to Hijrp Potfeq. I don't know what similarities he found.
My protagonist belongs to one of the three last magical kingdoms of world and is the descendant of a hero who once saved the world from the creatures of darkness. But the hero couldn't kill all the creatures and their leader. They somehow managed to escape.
I am trying to write that my protagonist is going to learn magic at an imaginary place where the most powerful wizards live. But the journey to that place isn't easy. And he will face a lot of difficulties on that journey.
I never even read Hijrp Potfeq. I don't know what to do. Should I drop the idea and start thinking from the beginning? | [
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"text": "*Contains Hijrp Potfeq spoilers*\n\nBased on what you've given us, I can see why your friend may confuse it w... | 2021/01/20 | [
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54,555 | I have to write essays in two examinations which will be conducted soon. Those exams need essays to be written in 250 words. The topics are given on the time of the exams and are usually anything based on government schemes, matters of national and international importance, or anything that is often in news, etc. Last year (I think), they asked essays on Ethical banking, Influence of social media, Contribution of unorganised Sector in Indian economy, etc.
**Question:**
Essentially, this is a test of writing rather than that of knowledge. However, I think it's best if the essay essentially is somehow "complete" covering as many important aspect as possible even if in layman's terms. So, what structure may I follow to write good yet comprehensive essays in the word limits of 250 words? | [
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"text": "Here is one such format that you could use when constructing your essays:\n\n1. Have a good opening statement and ... | 2021/01/20 | [
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54,556 | I'm using the [writer's workbench](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writer%27s_Workbench), which is a collection of tools that helps identifying errors in my writing.
One tool, 'Diction', tells me that the word "implement" shouldn't be used, and marks every use of this word ("implementation", "implementing", ...). The 'Suggest' tool tells me that I should probably use "carry out" for "implement", which doesn't make sense in most cases.
**Is there a good reason why 'diction' discourages the use of "implement" in writing? What are good alternatives?**
I should note that these tools are pretty old and language can change over time. Also English is my second language. | [
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"text": "When \"Implement\" is used in sentences such as\n\n> \n> We need to implement our policy as soon as feasible.\... | 2021/01/20 | [
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54,564 | I'm currently writing a book that goes much, much more than the average word count. (My children's novel is at least 80k words). My targeted audience would be 8-13 years old.
Will an agent reject a well-written story with a unique concept just because it's too long? | [
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"text": "**They shouldn't.**\n\nIf your story is high-quality, entertaining and unique, it won't matter how long it is beca... | 2021/01/20 | [
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54,586 | I am writing a textbook serving a very niche field.
There was one textbook for the subject area, but its fallen out of print 10 years ago, and I think the info is 30 years out-of-date. I found the author was heavily biased, hasn't kept up with the recent research, and the design no longer appeals to the audience of young students aged 10-12. They leave out tons of material I feel is important for the audience to know, and contain entire chapters of details now proven to be false.
I'm writing what I feel could be a solid replacement for that book. It is a completely different, original textbook, but also workbook, lesson plans, activities for teachers, a whole kit basically.
This publisher seems the best one for the field. They are the #1 publisher for the subject area, in fact, 50% of my sources are academic books published by them, and based on the past releases of the competing textbook, they know how to get it out and into every school that teaches the subject as well as deal with the state governments to make the book the official textbook in public schools.
My concern is, is there some problem approaching a publisher with my manuscript, when it essentially is competes with something they stopped publishing? Is it better to instead find some competing publisher? | [
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"text": "NO!\nNew editions or competing books are necessary to keep sales going.\nBut only if there is still a market. K1... | 2021/01/21 | [
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54,590 | In my novel, I have two main protagonists, a father and son, who each have related but separate arcs developing in tandem. Each learns from the other over the course of their stories, culminating in the father’s demise which in turn leads to the son’s triumph. My question is; is it a good idea to have one Aristotelian comedy and another Aristotelian tragedy unfolding simultaneously in the one book or can that lead to a confusing experience for the reader? | [
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"text": "If that is the story, then that is the story.\n\nHaving said that, revealing the rise and fall of each charact... | 2021/01/21 | [
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54,593 | The scarlet king is an ancient deity intent on crossing into our reality from a second dimension. This demon will be born to a human bride, hiding itself within the soul of the human child until it is ready to take the body for itself. An organization known as the SCP foundation has contained this child and uses it to battle paranormal activity. They place a seal on the child to keep the demon locked away permanently. However, through the secret actions of a cult, the child escapes the facility and sets out to live a normal life.
The seal placed on the individual can only be broken through acts causing extreme physical, physiological and emotional stress, ie, suffering. However, this seal is a complex lock that requires multiple steps to be broken. This character was born specifically for the purpose of suffering, which must be spread out over long time periods, occuring cyclically. The person must feel the ebb and flow of happiness followed by pain, experiencing the highest points of happiness and satisfaction, followed by devastating loss. The cult takes an active role in his life behind the scenes, influencing events around him. Ex. Settles down with a wife and children, but ends with them being brutally murdered in front of him, only for it to happen again years later with a new family. The devastation from multiple tragedies would ultimately break him, allowing the demon to break it's seal and take control.
Tragedy is meant as a form of self development, in which the character has a bad occurrence , goes through changes and grows because of the experience. However, having things happen one after another would seem like the actions of a malicious author simply trying to provoke sympathy by creating edgyness. This devolves into torture porn and gets tiresome and unrealistic. How can you use multiple tragedies without overusing it? | [
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54,603 | I really like how CreateSpace can print on-demand books, even just one copy, at an affordable price, in a form factor that is readable. Simply printing on copy paper produces a book that's hard to turn the pages, because of paper cuts, etc.
But I need a set of books printed for family use only, the material would only interest relatives, doesn't need to be published for random strangers to buy. Is there a way to use CreateSpace as a 1-time printing service for a book that will only be distributed among family? | [
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"text": "First off, Create Space is not the epitome of quality if you believe all the complaints.\n\nSecondly, there are ... | 2021/01/22 | [
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54,612 | I'm writing a story about these detectives that are mythical creatures and go on a journey to save the five (or is it six I can't remember) realms. Some of the things I'm concerned about are:
"The Magic Stones" - Is that too close to Infinity Stones from Avengers?
One of my characters is an adventurer/archeologist - Is that too close to Indiana Jones?
There are dark mythical creatures - Is that too close to the dark unicorn from Fablehaven?
There's a troll, goblin, giant, and ogre forest - Is that too close to the troll and goblin territories from Land Of Stories?
There's a magical book that predicts the future - Is that too close to any artifact?
The tesseract is mentioned - Is that something that multiple writers can mention?
That's all my concerns about plagiarism for now...
Any clarification that this stuff is okay to have in my story would be great :) | [
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54,622 | Character design in visually oriented works (comic books, film, television) is often a useful shorthand for making characters stand out and be memorable in terms of their appearance. For example, Girth Vedur in *Star Wars* is often cited as one of the most memorable villains out there in terms of his character design. Vader is large, imposing, dressed in very dark colors with a red weapon, covered by an inexpressive facemask that makes him look inhuman, has a distinct auditory tic that the viewer quickly learns to associate with his appearance (his breathing), and speaks in a very deep yet artificial voice. It is these physical characteristics that immediately tell the reader Vader is a scary guy and not to be messed with, and his inexpressive fact and robotic voice and breathing add to his apparent coldness and inhumanity towards others. Everything about him just screams "villain".
However, my question is **does character design and visual or auditory signifiers of characterization work as well as establishing characterization in non-visual media**? I ask this because I am not sure, but my first instinct is that it wouldn't. A mental image the reader constructs of a character is not going to be as vivid as an image that they physically see, and it's very easy for the reader to miss adjectives or lines of dialogue that describe a character and construct an inaccurate image of the character based on what description they do remember. But this is mostly a singular individual experience and I do not know if it can be applied more broadly. And if this is the case does physical character design even matter at all if you are working in a non-visual medium?
Here's an example from my own writing. I have a female character in my story that is basically "the muscle" of the team. Because women are generally shorter than men, I decided to emphasize her imposingness in her physical design by making her *wider* instead of *taller*, not necessarily obese but merely stout, heavy-set, and curvy , as well [as tying into other commonly used visual signifiers of greater physical strength in female characters](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BoobsOfSteel). In visual media this usually works because the character takes up more physical space than other characters, making them look larger and more imposing. However when my beta readers saw this character they thought I was fat-shaming the character. It comes across to me like visual hints of character design on characterization just don't work in a medium in which the audience is not physically viewing the story. | [
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"text": "Thank You Beta Reader:\n----------------------\n\nWriting is about what you see in the mind. You can paint not just... | 2021/01/22 | [
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54,627 | How do you credit someone for coming up with a general design of a vehicle without designing every little aspect about it? Let's say you make a video and you want to credit the person who came up with the general design of a vehicle while also crediting the artist for putting in his own little touches.
I want to credit the artist for their effort to add details, how do you do that in the credit portion of the video? What particular terms should you use and do you need to add some additional information or not? | [
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"text": "What did they actually DO?\nYou can credit that.\n\nWere they a manager? Credit them for that aspect.\n\nWas thi... | 2021/01/23 | [
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54,637 | I have been working on worldbuilding, plotting out, and writing characters for a science-fantasy series for over 4 years now, and I feel the time has come to take another stab at writing the actual thing after my first draft. The problem is I have expanded the world, plot, and character cast so much since that first draft that I had brought the planned book count over twenty! As there is no way I am realistically writing that many books, I decided to combine as many books as possible, and the number I was left with after fully compressing the planned book count for my series was seven.
However, although I am reducing the book count, I still want to keep my original plans as intact as possible by simply lengthening the 7 books to compensate. I have no problem with just the idea of having to write longer books, but the issue I have come here about is about the narrative structure.
Since my Book 1 is an amalgamation of the plans for my previous first four books, my plans for it don't really follow the thee-act structure, as each of these four books was conceived to be able to follow the three act structure and stand on its own, especially the first of the four.
NOTE: My books will be narrated as journal entries, written by the main protagonist and supporting protagonists. To avoid POV confusion, each journal entry is its own chapter, with the character authoring it clearly named in the chapter title (I got this idea from Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus Series). The main protagonist and supporting protagonists get the vast majority of these chapters, but every now and again, a side protagonist or even an antagonist will get a chapter.
How would I go about making my first book more of a single, coherent novel instead of reading like four different books joined at the seams? | [
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"text": "There is no good way to do that.\nDid you have a long arc on the series?\nIt may still be too long to put it int... | 2021/01/24 | [
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54,649 | If I have one quote but I broke it up into two separate sections in my essay, how would I cite it? Even though they're the same quote would I need to cite it twice? I know an ibid would work but I'm using MLA. | [
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"text": "I would use:\n\nThe first time you use the quote, put \"\\_\\_ \" said \\_\\_ source \\_\\_ (insert footnote w/ref... | 2021/01/25 | [
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54,650 | I'm writing a series that has to do with vampires. My middle name is AhurakB, and I personally find that name really, really pretty. I wanted to add it to my book as the name of the main character but I remembered that one of the dopplegangers in The Vampire Diaries is named AhurakB. I don't want to get into trouble or anything. Would it be okay to use that name since it's still a name that belongs to me personally, even if it was used in another book series/show? | [
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54,653 | In my novel, while the main characters are building the plot and driving it forward, there is a subplot with a gay couple. One of the gay partners is best friends with the female protagonist.
At the end of the story, I plan to make the antagonist and male protagonist get into a situation where the antagonist is going to kill the main character in front of the female mc, but from the shadows, her best friend kills the antagonist and resolves the issue but ends up dying.
I plan to make it heartfelt and the novel ends from the perspective of the best friend's once partner talking about how he feels and what's to come and leaves the reader with a cliffhanger.
I suddenly thought about how many movies do the "kill the LGBTQ+" to not show representations and I wondered if people would take offense? Please note that my story includes the couple from beginning to the very end, as well that even if he were not gay, I would have killed them off to end the novel with sadness from this death, instead of the typical all things end nicely. | [
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54,661 | About 10,000 words written in the book, I'm out of creativity to write the rest.
If I were to write the last chapters, I would write without concern, but the medium is "cloudy"
What to do?
what I find strange, is that for another book I have ideas, I have the characters all described, but for the current one I don't know how to write the medium | [
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54,662 | The elements of style provide rules for writing succinct prose, saying that rhythm is important "all things being equal". I want to write succinct, flowing prose. So, how do I achieve these two goals at the same time? Do I just focus on clarity, hoping that rhythm will result? Or do I polish for rhythm once I have made my writing succinct?
Anyway, I do not follow "The Elements of Style" because I found "Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace" a superior style guide.
What style guide do you think I should use if I want to write succinct, flowing prose? I need one that speaks not only of clarity, but of rhythm as well.
In the past, I did not follow the rules in those style guides because I thought that if I followed them, I would not be able to make my writing flow. Also, I was obsessed with emulating the prose rhythm of the King James Bible because I found its language poetic and beautiful. Since this effort did not bear the fruit of pleasing anyone, I now prefer to write in plain, succinct, and flowing prose. | [
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"text": "To have rhythm and to be succinct together imply poetry, at least in my opinion. I recommend reading not poetry per... | 2021/01/26 | [
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54,680 | I've seen many people say I should know what my character's goals and desires are. But I've also seen people say I should know what their needs and wants are. I looked at the definitions, and they are somewhat similar, but also a bit different, but I'm struggling to understand what that difference might be.
Are these things the same? Are wants goals and are needs desires? Or are they different? In that case, what is the difference?
And a follow-up question, how does motivation factor into these? Are wants/goals the motivation?
Thanks! | [
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54,685 | What are the best rules for **scientific papers** to decide whether to put a sentence in **simple past** or **present perfect** tense?
**Example**
[Shapiro et al. (2012)](https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1742) use present perfect in the following sentence:
>
> In this study, we **have uncovered** an important and unexpected mechanism [...]
>
>
>
Versus:
>
> In this study, we **uncovered** an important and unexpected mechanism [...]
>
>
> | [
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"text": "This bleeds into a question of personal taste — there's no editorial stanard dictating one form or another — bu... | 2021/01/27 | [
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