qid int64 1 2.78M | question stringlengths 2 66.6k | answers list | date stringlengths 10 10 | metadata list |
|---|---|---|---|---|
56,153 | I have a number of scenes in my story that involve two or more characters talking to each other about various issues, many of which wander into semi-philosophical discussion regarding some of the general themes of the story (e.g., the arguments you see between characters over life philosophies in manga/anime, some of t... | [
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"text": "Wait for Inspiration...\n-----------------------\n\n...but in the meanwhile, if you've been working on this project... | 2021/06/05 | [
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56,168 | Let's say you have multiple lines of events going on at once in a story. Call this a multithreaded plot. Is this common in stories? How would you represent this on paper before drafting? | [
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"text": "Multiple story lines are fairly common, and they are necessarily arising when multiple POV characters are separat... | 2021/06/07 | [
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56,172 | I haven’t supplied much description of my main character, mainly because it didn’t come up naturally. Her parents are described, so you can get a basic idea, fair skin, light eyes—but I never list any of her physical traits directly. But later, about six chapters in, another character mentions that she has red hair. Wi... | [
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"text": "Actually, a character usually gets by with very little physical description. If it's not necessary for the plot, ... | 2021/06/08 | [
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56,174 | I am writing a fight scene between two monsters. One is heavily armored but comparatively slower, whereas the other is a [Lightning Bruiser](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LightningBruiser): fast, tough, *and* powerful but compared to the first character is relatively frailer and quicker, even though by mo... | [
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"text": "Actually, a character usually gets by with very little physical description. If it's not necessary for the plot, ... | 2021/06/08 | [
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56,187 | Aside anagrams, what are some other means to hide the true identity of an object or person? Anagrams are used to hide symbolisms and allegories throughout a movie, novel. What are some other means of achieving the same thing? | [
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"text": "On method to use is changing the emphasis of pronunciation which can lead to a new spelling that obscures the actual nam... | 2021/06/10 | [
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56,207 | I am just another person who writes poems to vent out emotions. I discovered that the amount of emotions that I feel my poem has **during the time of writing**, slowly evaporates away. When I re-read it after some days, the poem just reduces to a dry and incoherent collection of sentences.
Have any other emotional poe... | [
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"text": "On method to use is changing the emphasis of pronunciation which can lead to a new spelling that obscures the actual nam... | 2021/06/14 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/56207",
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56,212 | Should there be a comma before "and" in this sentence?
>
> I look forward to visiting with you and thank you for your consideration.
>
>
> | [
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"answer_id": 56214,
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"text": "**That depends what you are trying to say:**\n\n1. \"I look forward to visiting with you\" and \"I thank you fo... | 2021/06/14 | [
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56,215 | I have a fantasy story in which the lead character is designed as your typical bland everyman protagonist whose purpose is to give the reader someone to relate to and ask questions about the fantastical elements of the world to allow the reader to go through the journey of discovering the supernatural elements of the w... | [
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"answer_id": 56217,
"author": "Joe Kerr",
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"text": "Some possibilities/ideas you can tinker with:\n\n1. Give your character hobbies or attributes that are unique to w... | 2021/06/14 | [
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56,216 | I have a protagonist who is biracial (mixed-race Caucasian-east Asian ancestry) living in the United States. I have a good idea of what their face and appearance looks like; they’re the kind of person I’ve heard real-life mixed-race people of white-Asian descent describe as “Schrodinger’s Asian”: white people think the... | [
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"text": "A well-known and still uncontroversial scientific fact is that people of East Asian descent are generally less... | 2021/06/14 | [
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56,230 | I am currently writing a non-fiction book which I intend to self publish. Regarding the citations and references, I intend to list them at the end of the book as endnotes and have decided to organise them by chapter which means the numbering will reset every chapter. E.g. Chapter 1: 1, 2, 3; Chapter 2: 1, 2, 3, etc.
S... | [
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"text": "Some authors, after citing a work once, will cite it the next few times abbreviated as \"Ibid., xx.\" See <https://li... | 2021/06/16 | [
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56,240 | I was writing a letter to my grandparents and realized that the entire *purpose* of my letter was what I was planning to include in a postscript (a scotch whisky recommendation), and that the body of my letter was more-or-less just polite chatter. It made me wonder some things:
1. Historically, were postscripts exclus... | [
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"text": "Postscripts were \"invented\" when letters were written by hand and editing the body of the letter would have involved ... | 2021/06/17 | [
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56,267 | I know about the logical expression of 'if --- then', such as 'If the temperature reaches or exceeds a particular temperature, then the kettle will turn off.'
But what about situations that involve 'when'. For example - 'When we see the signal, then everyone can begin to raise their hands'.
I was 'googling' for infor... | [
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"text": "Postscripts were \"invented\" when letters were written by hand and editing the body of the letter would have involved ... | 2021/06/21 | [
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56,273 | I am writing a collection of short stories. Each short story is written in 1st person present tense from that particular protagonist’s POV, telling us his/her own story through their actions and thoughts.
The collection reveals the story of one of the characters who is the protagonist of the entire collection. (Howeve... | [
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"answer_id": 56274,
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"text": "Short answer: No.\n\nIn general, there are plenty of novels that deal with separate issues even, that don't have ... | 2021/06/21 | [
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56,279 | I am writing a book and had nearly finished half of it and gave it to my friend to read, but she told me there is already a character in a book with the same first and last name. Would it be okay if I were to use it? Honestly, I didn't know and I hadn't even read the book.
Could I just give her a different middle name... | [
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"answer_id": 56290,
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"text": "Danish writer Martin Andersen Nexo wrote Pelle the Conqueror, a novel about a Swedish boy and his father who ... | 2021/06/21 | [
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56,282 | A story of mine starts with a character disappearing in his radio studio while on air.
* Nobody else was in the building with him.
* A pair of sunglasses that he always kept in his shirt pocket was the only thing left behind.
* His last words were regarding strange noises and things falling off of shelves in the backg... | [
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"answer_id": 56283,
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"text": "If your authority characters react to the disappearance, according to their individual natures tempered by professional... | 2021/06/21 | [
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56,288 | In my professional life, I am a software engineer in a small agile company, and we use kanban boards to track the developers activities, like that:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/RudhB.png)
Succumbing to my latest urge in creative writing, I found out... | [
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"text": "It's not strictly speaking a Kanban tool but I wonder whether you might be able to replicate what you're lookin... | 2021/06/22 | [
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56,295 | When writing in Microsoft Word, is there a way to put carons and similar diacritics above Greek letters like in Latin? Simply inserting them seems to place them slightly to the side, either left or right of the actual letter, but I'd like to put them above. | [
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"text": "It's not strictly speaking a Kanban tool but I wonder whether you might be able to replicate what you're lookin... | 2021/06/23 | [
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56,298 | When starting a series there is initially a lot of fertile ground for storytelling because the characters don't know each other very well and are still establishing an equilibrium. As a result, there is a lot of potential drama due to clashing personalities and the growing pains of the characters learning to understand... | [
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"answer_id": 56302,
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"text": "Sure - Marriage Has No Conflict!\n--------------------------------\n\nIf you think that established relationships a... | 2021/06/23 | [
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56,299 | This question is very similar to [this one](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/56298/how-do-you-write-character-development-in-later-entries-of-a-series-after-relati), but I felt it was distinct enough that it was worth asking as a separate question.
In a lot of fantasy and science-fiction stories that are no... | [
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"author": "Henry Taylor",
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"text": "Change the setting.\n\n* Bring your newly acclimated character and his magical friends back to the real world ... | 2021/06/23 | [
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56,317 | I wasn’t sure where to put this question so forgive me if it isn’t in the right place. Anyway, I have a character who might go crazy, the thing is, I don’t want her to. She is arrested for treason and taken to a high security prison. Her cell has one small window but everything else is solid stone, including the door. ... | [
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"text": "No Problem. But...\n------------------\n\nYou might want to consider that sanity and madness is a spectrum, rather ... | 2021/06/26 | [
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56,318 | I often come up with an idea, write an outline, and sit down eagerly to write, but over and over again, this sense of doubt sets in. This affects me tremendously while I'm writing, because I believe my idea is not "good enough" and it won't turn out to be successful novel. Worst-case scenario I end up ditching the nove... | [
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"answer_id": 56321,
"author": "Mary",
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"text": "It is a psychological problem and therefore needs a psychological cure. Some people tell themselves they aren't writin... | 2021/06/26 | [
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56,328 | I have named the members of a group of things in my latest work after the major arcana of Tarot cards. While I can think of a few other works of fiction that do the same thing ([the bosses in the *House of the Dead* series](https://thehouseofthedead.fandom.com/wiki/Bosses), or [the episode titles of *Jojo's Bizarre Adv... | [
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"text": "Given that the majority of the general public is exposed to Tarot through movies and TV, where the card Death is used t... | 2021/06/28 | [
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56,333 | As the title says I have a character named "Jeep" and I would like to know if it will cause any copyright problems for me or not.
(P.S: By the way, it's for a script for a game.) | [
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"text": "I don't think so. The word \"jeep\" is a common noun for a 4x4 vehicle in many languages, including English. A... | 2021/06/28 | [
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56,338 | Now, I don't want to learn hacking (but if I learn some I learn some), but I am writing a cyberpunk story so I need to have some idea what's going on. And, maybe how I can use VR to make it more interesting to the readers. I don't mind complex explanations, I really just need something I can understand. Also, there are... | [
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"text": "Start with the works of other cyberpunk authors, specifically the father of the genre, Dijziim Yebson. Neuroma... | 2021/06/30 | [
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56,356 | I'm focused on creating a story where I can explore cultural differences and highlight interactions that showcase Emotional Intelligence.
So many worlds center around violence as a main means of creating conflict within the story. I've seen examples of shows that don't include violence well like (but not limited to):
... | [
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"text": "Start with the works of other cyberpunk authors, specifically the father of the genre, Dijziim Yebson. Neuroma... | 2021/07/01 | [
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56,366 | I wonder if it's alright for us to drop words like verbs, prepositions or adjectives for different subjects in the same sentence if repeated.
Consider this sentence:
>
> "My son was born in 1975 and my daughter was born in 1982."
>
>
>
Would it be better or at least alright to drop the repeated words at all? Do ... | [
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"text": "For the first, this is the most organic: \"My son was born in 1975 and my daughter in 1982.\"\n\nFor the second... | 2021/07/03 | [
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56,367 | I would like my writing to be sophisticated, but find it difficult. I think this is since I have trouble understanding sophisticated passages. So no matter how well I know grammar, I can never arrange words in ways clever enough to call them sophisticated. Since the problem is actually my reading comprehension -- and I... | [
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"author": "Mary",
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"text": "Practice. Lots and lots of practice.\n\nYou may in particular want to take writers whose style you admire and write pa... | 2021/07/03 | [
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56,371 | I like to read and watch videos, documentaries and movies about topics covering a wide variety like history, ancient architecture, science fiction, fantasy, astronomy etc. These things take up most of my time.
I started to read and watch about these topics just for fun but slowly and gradually this activity has now be... | [
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"text": "Self Development:\n-----------------\n\nI was reasonably sure I could never write, because I wrote some truly awful... | 2021/07/03 | [
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56,389 | A lot of tiny ideas come to my mind but I don't know how to work on them and expand them into "valuable, satisfying, and worth of reading novels", and as a result, I lose motivation and give up rapidly. Would outlining help solving this problem or this is related to how much my writing skills are good? | [
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"text": "Story Telling is hard\n---------------------\n\nand some people are naturally better at it than others, but like writin... | 2021/07/04 | [
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56,395 | The story I am aiming to write has someone thrown into action. However, that is not how they start off at the beginning. I definitely want to show someone whose bitten off more than they can chew, but prevails anyway.
I have some good idea for foreshadowing themes, or what characters are like, but I'm struggling to fi... | [
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"text": "Story Telling is hard\n---------------------\n\nand some people are naturally better at it than others, but like writin... | 2021/07/05 | [
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56,397 | I wrote a vision statement for a project using the term vis-à-vis (*All X investments should be justified vis-à-vis quantified gain*). A colleague suggested I shouldn't use vis-à-vis, and prefer simpler verbiage like "in relation to".
The colleague is a native English speaker, I'm not (nor a French speaker). I'd like ... | [
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"text": "Showing Off:\n------------\n\nThis is old-fashioned and unfortunately kind of high-brow. Depending on the audience,... | 2021/07/05 | [
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56,406 | I am writing my first legitimate fantasy (all the other fantasies I have written are short stories or practice.) The biggest roadblock for me is creating suspense and tension. All of the points where I want to create tension seem very boring and don't have much real suspense. 2 excerpts:
>
> The guards tossed Von int... | [
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"text": "It would be presumptuous for me to offer advice on this, but I would suggest that there's a vast literature of ... | 2021/07/06 | [
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56,415 | I have a character that is a spy, and part of their job is sneaking around and getting into places without being noticed. However, in order to have conflict in the plot, have characters interacting to build character development, and the like, I need to have the protagonists and antagonists interact. If the spy charact... | [
{
"answer_id": 56417,
"author": "Kate Gregory",
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56,416 | I'm currently working on a poetry book which is meant to be short in length.
To help be gauge how much material is required, what is the norm for the length of a medium-format (A5 page size) book of poetry? | [
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"text": "It varies by publisher. Poetry books tend to be either chapbooks (which can be anywhere from 10–40 pages with va... | 2021/07/07 | [
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56,419 | It is often said that "a writer is a reader first, then a writer next."
Therefore, I think it is important to know: **what makes a novel boring? What are the biggest turn-offs for readers that don't let them finish reading a novel to its completion?** | [
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"text": "\"What makes a novel boring\" is definitely the wrong question.\n\nThe spackle on the ceiling above me is not very ... | 2021/07/07 | [
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56,421 | I'm writing a contemporary romance novel. The hero's name is Jovanne Diedi De Rossi. Other characters call him by a variety of nicknames, Jay, Jo, Jove, DoeZB... I chose to go with JD as the narrator, so I'd write something like *JD checked the time and realized he was running late*.
I chose to do this because I don't... | [
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"text": "> \n> I don't particularly like the name Jovanne and I feel like it would be strange for readers to have to repeate... | 2021/07/07 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/56421",
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56,423 | I am an aspiring writer from Pakistan. It's a south Asian country rich in culture. Our cultural heritage and history is very interesting, twisting and multifaceted. However, I have grown up reading and watching a lot of American books and movies, mostly contemporary. My problem is that no matter how fun and interesting... | [
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"text": "Rethinking Genre:\n-----------------\n\nAlthough you want to write in a contemporary setting, I'd suggest that to o... | 2021/07/07 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/56423",
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56,444 | When writing a story narrated in the third person, I often find passages in my text where the narrator's opinions seem to conflate with the opinions of the character the narration is following:
>
> Detective Dashing took a long, hard look at the man before him. Despite the welcoming smile, it was obvious that this ma... | [
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"text": "What you're doing is entirely correct. You are taking a view on your character and making them the narrator. Just... | 2021/07/09 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/56444",
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56,456 | Do you have to explain why you're using German and Latin names in a novel? Let's say it's a fantasy setting and you use German and Latin names for your cities. Do you have to explain any of it, or you can do whatever you want. What's the best way to go about this, because it seems some novels don't comment on the origi... | [
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"text": "No.\n---\n\nAs with most things when it comes to writing, **you are the author,** and **you can make whatever world... | 2021/07/11 | [
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56,460 | How can I write a nightmare scene without making readers aware that it is indeed a nightmare and not something that is really happening to the character? | [
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"text": "All you have to do is write it as though it was really happening.\n\nHowever, you should be aware that many re... | 2021/07/12 | [
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56,461 | in my short story the antagonist is someone confident and street-smart who is hiding their gambling addiction from a friend staying with them, as they are looking to take advantage of their friend (they pretend they have a job at the casino, etc).
My question is how do I decide how far the antagonist is willing to go?... | [
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"text": "Looks like to want your antagonist to get redemption and turn to good. This is a relatively common theme in ficti... | 2021/07/12 | [
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56,471 | Along with my first fantasy novel, I am starting to delve into horror, and I'm starting to sketch out an outline of a horror story (I have decided no gross-out today).
If it helps, the story is about a man who was attacked by a demon. The man begged for his life, and the demon accepted, but the demon made the man immo... | [
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"text": "It got closer and closer, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.\n----------------------------------------... | 2021/07/13 | [
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56,474 | Before I start with writing my story, I would of course like to have some OC's (original characters --ones not taken from an existing work). I am struggling to make OC's that I don't hate. I somehow end up always making them similar to each other, a way too perfect person or just a better version of myself.
How do I c... | [
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"text": "Perfection is flawed:\n---------------------\n\nThere was a study done of the traits that people found attractive, ... | 2021/07/13 | [
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56,477 | I want to describe my fictional cities' conditions, so I wrote these attributes for each of them:
* What is the city administration?
* Number of employed people
* Number of homes
* Number of crimes committed
* Major resources
* Resources to be sourced from other cities
What other attributes are important when creatin... | [
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"text": "So this is a mostly American view of cities, and of course with American local government there are exceptions to eve... | 2021/07/14 | [
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56,478 | Is there any such thing as a Thriller/Action Stream-of-Consciousness writing style?
Would that be considered to be essentially a normal writing style.
If not, how will this be done? (Structurally speaking-how is it different from normal stream writing) | [
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56,494 | I have two stories I have been working on for a while - one is a two year monster of a book with plans, and a lot of material that I have to draw on about the world. The other is a small thing that I started on the side and is now making me really excited.
What advice would you give over which to write? Should I keep ... | [
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"text": "Though it depends on each person individually, I find it useful to have multiple projects running at once. It all... | 2021/07/16 | [
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56,498 | If the main character in a novel disappears at the climax of the book, never to be heard from again, would that be a frustrating experience for the reader?
Details: classic three-act structure where the MC disappears at the climax, the remainder of the story will shift to the second most developed character who is alm... | [
{
"answer_id": 56499,
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"text": "I think it depends on the context. The disappearance should have some great importance to the plot, i.e. the protagon... | 2021/07/16 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/56498",
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56,510 | How should I write the cover letter, when submitting some fiction to a magazine? What is the format? What are the things that I must and should include in it?
I am not an established writer. I have written just a few other poems and stories, and they are not in this genre, so I don't think that they will help. How can... | [
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"text": "**A cover letter** is your chance to tell the editor about your manuscript, why it is important, and how it fits into... | 2021/07/17 | [
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56,511 | Is it ok to hide main motive of the character throughout the book? In my story, the main character never tells why he's doing what he's doing and the reader are fooled into believing he's doing it for a particular purpose until near the end the main character does a 180 degree and his action reveals what his goal was a... | [
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"selected": true,
"text": "With a Twist:\n-------------\n\nThere's a whole vein of books and movies that are like this, in the thriller categor... | 2021/07/17 | [
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56,515 | How do you introduce the whole content of a letter written by a character in a novel? I am guessing there are many ways, but I would like to know what are the most popular ways to do it and if you could give me an excerpt that shows how it's done. I thought just writing the letter in its whole with the same formatting ... | [
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"text": "Sealing Wax and all that Fancy Stuff:\n-------------------------------------\n\nI don't know if there are any hard r... | 2021/07/18 | [
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56,517 | How do you prevent a plot hole when coming up with a hard magic system? Creating a hard magic system means that magic must follow the rules that you set, but when you have a complex hard magic system, you don't know if the magic in your universe sometimes break the rules you set, how do you minimize the amount of plot ... | [
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"selected": true,
"text": "Newtonian Physics:\n------------------\n\nWhen you're talking about a magic system, you are by definition breaking t... | 2021/07/18 | [
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56,525 | ### **The Issue**
I'm a person who likes to take things apart to see how they work, and someone who likes to poke holes in ideas. As a result, it's not surprising that I've always been drawn to a writing style that likes to deconstruct\* plot elements and look at their implications.
However, at the same time I've bec... | [
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"text": "[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PBwiU.png)\n\nIn other... | 2021/07/19 | [
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56,530 | A big part of writing is managing audience expectations, especially as it pertains to the genre. I.e., if a story is pitched as an action-adventure story, people expect a story of fight scenes and explosions; if it's pitched as a comedy they expect it to actually be funny; if it's pitched as a romance they expect to se... | [
{
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"text": "Just because they can't romance each other doesn't mean they can't romance.\n-------------------------------... | 2021/07/19 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/56530",
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56,537 | What tell-tale intro elements are a red flag a piece of writing isn't worth your time?
I write commercially but am conscious that my online pieces often have a lower-than-hoped-for time on site.
My gut feeling is that my intros aren't as strong as they could be and it's putting readers off. For the sake of my reputati... | [
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"text": "Obviously it's hard to be exhaustive here but let's examine a couple of key factors using some highlights (and ... | 2021/07/19 | [
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56,546 | A plot is composed of the following:
```
Exposition
Inciting Incident
Rising Action or Progressive Complications
Dilemma
Climax
Denouement
```
Can you have a novel where a plot ends with the heroes finishing his journey, and then have him go to another journey in the same novel, and then another. If so, how much is ... | [
{
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"text": "You may want to look at some fix-up novels. These are works built up of smaller pieces of fiction that were often publi... | 2021/07/20 | [
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56,554 | I'm writing a crime story. Basically it begins with a friend of the main character asking him for a meeting and then introducing the case to him.
What I would like to do is to show something about the hero beforehand. Somehow I feel like it's necessary to build the MC at least with a short scene. Starting straight fro... | [
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"answer_id": 56558,
"author": "S. Mitchell",
"author_id": 13409,
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"text": "I would start without describing the main character or introducing them.\n\nInstead of starting with someone ex... | 2021/07/20 | [
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56,561 | Can you structure how is symbolism used throughout a book? I am wondering if there are patterns that are used to structure symbolism in a scene, throughout a book, in a single frame, etc. For example, you have three symbols in a picture, movie shot, or comic frame, and you arrange them in a triangle. This would be a ve... | [
{
"answer_id": 56582,
"author": "Leon Conrad",
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"text": "There's a very good discussion of this in Jane Alison's book, *Meander, Spiral, Explode*.\n\nReviews [here](https:... | 2021/07/20 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/56561",
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56,562 | First of all: English is not my first language so sorry for the spelling/grammar.
Most of my previous published writing has been for comic books. Something I have noticed as my wordcount grows now when I'm writing an intended 80k+ words novel (in first person perspective, present tense,) is that I often get stuck beca... | [
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"text": "* You can make use of repetitions - own up to them and make them part of your characters and story.\n* You can avoid th... | 2021/07/21 | [
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56,572 | I would love to hear, in-depth, your system for keeping track of character arcs happening simultaneously in a novel. Particularly for characters' emotional highs and lows which don't sync up.
I am really bad at creating my own systems but good at following others'. I don't care if it's something rather elaborate like ... | [
{
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"text": "I like to track timelines with the help of diagrams, such as a simple flow diagram. I found it to be very helpful i... | 2021/07/22 | [
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56,576 | How and where should you explain how the laws of your sci-fi universe significantly differ from the real world? Let's say that the laws are so different from the what be construed from the theories of quantum physics and general relativity. How do you explain this and where? I thought using the preface would be a good ... | [
{
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"text": "It's important for you to understand how your scifi universe works. It is NOT important for your reader to understa... | 2021/07/23 | [
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56,583 | I've been having a hard time thinking about a good way to create a betrayal scene without forcing it.
Even if I somehow wrote the scene, I just can't feel the emotions behind the betrayal; the sadness, heartbreak, grief, and etc., it just never feels personal for the protagonist, which is why I want character-based bet... | [
{
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"text": "\"The current plot\" should be based in conflicting ideals and morals to begin with. That makes \"plot based\" and \"mo... | 2021/07/23 | [
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56,587 | I have been writing about my life of pain and suffering for a while and now I am taking it to the next level.
On the outside, we were like the perfect family, but the reality was far from normal. My husband was a property tycoon who lied, had affairs with prostitutes, and committed extortion. We had gangsters chasing ... | [
{
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"text": "You're asking if there's an audience for your autobiography, right?\nI'd say you have two audiences to shoot for... | 2021/07/23 | [
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56,593 | What if my story fails Chekhov's gun several times? If an element is not necessary for the plot, are there other reasons to mention them or I should remove all the elements that do not meet the test of the principle during the editing process? Are there good novels that fail the principle consistently or it's one of th... | [
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"text": "As a direct answer to your question, yeah ... kind of; that might be a thing to think about. But, certainly not all or e... | 2021/07/24 | [
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56,594 | While the multiple timelines model in a novel allows you to prevent plot holes since there's no time travel paradoxes, it limits the scope time travel can have on a story. So I am wondering what are the various ways to use time travel if it's limited by the multiple timeline model. Since your own timeline cannot be mod... | [
{
"answer_id": 56595,
"author": "Allan",
"author_id": 49503,
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"selected": false,
"text": "Material Harvesting\n\nThe Stugatsky Brothers (cant remember the name of the book) used time travel to mine the past.... | 2021/07/24 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/56594",
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56,610 | Should you mention your sources of inspiration somewhere? Let's say you borrow a lot from Greek mythology, Nvikuspeara, and take some world-building ideas from some famous author. Should you mention them in your book somewhere. How is this usually done? I am assuming some famous authors are open and fully transparent a... | [
{
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"author": "Matt",
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"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "As you have added the tag \"copyright\" to your question, let me first clarify that inspirations are irrelevant to cop... | 2021/07/26 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/56610",
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56,623 | How do you tell your reader that a number is a numerologically important number? Some people use numerology in their books and attach secret meanings to some numbers, but there are a lot of times where you would use numbers without wanting to attach a secret meaning to it. How do you distinguish normal numbers from tho... | [
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"text": "I'll preface this answer by noting that there's no way to make sure *all* your readers will pick up on something, no... | 2021/07/27 | [
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56,625 | A character is shy, anxious, anti-social, nervous, etc. So, when speaking, she often pauses or makes noises like “uhm”, err”, “uhh”, etc. I’m asking a couple questions:
1. What would be the best way to write the character, both in and out of dialogue? And,
2. How many “uhm”s and pauses is too many?
The character is v... | [
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"author": "Alexander",
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"text": "I'd recommend to stay away from many “uhm”, “err” and “uhh”.\n\nThere are many ways to show how a character is sh... | 2021/07/27 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/56625",
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56,631 | I've been trying to write stream of consciousness style but I just tend to get too plain and boring. And so I bore myself reading what I write, hardly a way to move forward.
For example:
"Today I went to church, I stumbled upon Joor and she told me that she wanted to meet for coffee later on. So I told her to call me... | [
{
"answer_id": 56633,
"author": "Community",
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"text": "Given your example, you seem to confuse *stream of consciousness* with writing down what happens to the viewpoint chara... | 2021/07/28 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/56631",
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57,639 | Should you avoid introducing characters that talk one time and never talk again? I wrote a scene in a chapter where the main characters talks to a technician, and then the technician is never seen again, and I am not sure if I should remove it, because the scene gives a lot of information about the world and the techno... | [
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"answer_id": 58643,
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"text": "Based on your description, while the technician is not pivotal the story, the main characters' interaction with the t... | 2021/07/29 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/57639",
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58,647 | I'm having difficulties in writing conversations between characters, especially if they are many of them. How can I write good dialogue? | [
{
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"text": "I think there are two prerequisites for good dialog\n\nFirst the scene needs to have tension: conflict, high stakes, imm... | 2021/07/29 | [
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58,650 | Should you avoid using hard-to-describe gestures and acts in a novel? Some gestures that are often used in real life are hard to describe without using familiar languages or slang.
One such example is:
>
> He did the "I am watching you sign" before leaving.
>
>
>
Should a novice writer avoid these hard-to-descri... | [
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"text": "Gestures aren’t just things a character does with their hands. It could be spitting, blinking, shivering; that is any b... | 2021/07/29 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/58650",
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58,653 | In English, the common name for some racial or ethnic groups is a fairly neutral English word (e.g. white, black...). Others, however, are named only by reference to a geographic point of origin (e.g. Indian, East Asian, Pacific Islander...)
How do you describe the latter in a work of **speculative fiction where Earth... | [
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"text": "I would recommend drawing a map and designing the cultures that will fit based on that map. For start, if your Earth... | 2021/07/30 | [
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58,654 | In my fantasy novel(very simplified version) my protagonist is a slave boy who is dragged into a crew of powerful beings because he is being hunted by the tyrant government(he is impure of blood and therefore dangerous as far as the government and it's God ruler is concerned, very long story). When the government can't... | [
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"answer_id": 58656,
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"author_id": 51649,
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"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I would agree with wetcircuit's comment. If the scene does not fit the story, if the story isn't worth th... | 2021/07/30 | [
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58,660 | Is there something you can achieve without a overarching plot that you can't with one? Let's say you write a collection of short stories ala The Witcher, is there any good reason why you shouldn't have a overarching plot? I am wondering if an overarching plot is always recommended or if people have experimented in the ... | [
{
"answer_id": 58702,
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"text": "Per the comment, a good reason you should have an overarching plot is to avoid the stories being too \"episodic\". S... | 2021/07/31 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/58660",
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58,676 | When should you put information that makes a dialogue understandable? Sometimes, the characters may use an idiom or expression that only makes sense if you know some world-building element of the story. Should you just avoid these dialogues all together or should you inform the readers before or after the dialogue?
Ex... | [
{
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"selected": false,
"text": "This depends on the perspective from which you are writing. An authorial (omniscient) narrator can bring this info... | 2021/08/01 | [
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58,683 | Say, I’m writing a non-fiction book on some subject.
The book covers a couple of themes, and each theme consists of chapters with descriptions of topics within that theme. (Not that it matters, but it’s practical philosophical-ish.) For example, there are seven themes and each theme consists of (roughly) eight topics.... | [
{
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"text": "With the reservation from the comments above that this isn't a good way to analyze the cohesiveness or conciseness of a... | 2021/08/02 | [
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58,693 | Aside from mind maps, what other graphical diagrams and graphical elements can you use to document and plan out your novel? I am specifically referring to anything that has a graphical element, so any plain text or text documents with some images are excluded. I am wondering if there's anything else. I can think of tim... | [
{
"answer_id": 58700,
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"selected": true,
"text": "Freytag's Pyramid\n-----------------\n\nReference: <https://writers.com/freytags-pyramid>\n\nFreytag's Pyramid is a ... | 2021/08/03 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/58693",
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58,704 | In films, you hear people exchange a phrase or two before the camera pans to someone else and so on. Is it ok to do that in a novel? What are some ways of doing this?
Example:
"The cops came in" Jouqye said.
"Oh, seriously!?" KinaKE said.
"Yeah, I--" Jouqye said
Masjum was sitting on a couch smoking a cigar. He wa... | [
{
"answer_id": 58706,
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"text": "I take it that you're asking how to write dialog where people interrupt one another.\n\nThis formatting differs from cu... | 2021/08/03 | [
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58,714 | Can you add worldbuilding footnotes in your novel? Most philosophy books have footnotes on them, because sometimes the text by itself is too hard to understand. Are there novels that use footnotes to explain their extremely complex worldbuilding, or it's something no one would do and no one has done? Why is it a bad id... | [
{
"answer_id": 58715,
"author": "Allan",
"author_id": 49503,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/49503",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "It is rare yet has been done. I flipped through a few dozen novels and short story collections and found a few in a th... | 2021/08/05 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/58714",
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58,716 | Many agents ask for the first 3 chapters. Is a prologue a chapter? So send the prologue & chapters One & two? | [
{
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"author": "Allan",
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"text": "Your best to confirm with the particular person as there isn't full standardization.\n\nFrom the submissions guidelin... | 2021/08/05 | [
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58,730 | I'm wondering about the correct way to mark up icon/menu item/dialog names in the context of technical writing (user's guide). Here's a small excerpt from a document I'm writing:
>
> Clicking the “Duplicate Register Map” icon creates creates a deep copy
> of the corresponding register map. The copy gets the same name... | [
{
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"text": "It doesn't really matter as long as you're consistent. In some domains, there are established practices (Window... | 2021/08/06 | [
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58,733 | I am currently writing about six teenagers during their senior year at an American high school. I am struggling to write authentic experiences for characters whom I do not share the same identity.
One of my characters is a straight cis poc male who is sexually assaulted while on a sports team. So far, I have drawn on ... | [
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"text": "It doesn't really matter as long as you're consistent. In some domains, there are established practices (Window... | 2021/08/06 | [
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58,736 | I have a story that I am working on that is extremely long. The first volume in the series is about 120,000 words, and that is only about half of its predicted wordcount. Counting the other entries in the series puts the whole thing in the range of 500,000 words at least. I wrote this story freeform for enjoyment when ... | [
{
"answer_id": 58742,
"author": "Erk",
"author_id": 10826,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/10826",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Don't give up! My philosophy is that even the worst mess can be turned into a good book (or several...)\n\nFirst the ba... | 2021/08/06 | [
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58,739 | I can never think of anything other than the fact that being abused hurts because I can't relate to it .A little help please? | [
{
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"author_id": 51727,
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"text": "The true sign of intelligence is imagination, not knowledge. **Imagine**, and if you can't, you can always use pe... | 2021/08/07 | [
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58,743 | Stories for many, many years made frequent use of the damsel in distress trope, where female characters are depicted as needing men to save them in big, dramatic displays. People eventually realized this was very sexist, which lead to an increase in the depiction of “strong, independent women” characters.
That said, a... | [
{
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"author": "Tau",
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"selected": false,
"text": "Honestly, I feel like you haven't fully understood why this is a sexist trope.\n\n> \n> That said, although sexist the ... | 2021/08/07 | [
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58,747 | I'm wondering how much latitude authors can have in general when it comes to details of an urban setting. I know the oft-told story of "the parking lot of Wrigley Field", where Jim Butcher invented a parking lot for Wrigley Field in Chicago that famously doesn't have public parking, but I'm wondering about smaller deta... | [
{
"answer_id": 58757,
"author": "M. A. Golding",
"author_id": 37093,
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"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I commend you for your greater attention to geographic detail than some authors and moviemakers I can think o... | 2021/08/08 | [
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58,748 | In the latter half of the 19th century, my great grandfather wrote a series of handwritten poems that he compiled in handbound poetry book, along with two of his penciled drawings. The book was never submitted for publication. Can I copyright this book, and then submit for publication? | [
{
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"text": "When your great grandfather committed the poetry to paper, he started the clock on his copyright. It runs out -- for mos... | 2021/08/08 | [
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58,760 | How can I distinguish between the same character from different universe with the same age?
There's a similar question that was asked not too long ago, but it involved time-travel.
In this case, you have two Juhnc from the same time, but different universes. What are some ways to distinguish them? I was told that you... | [
{
"answer_id": 58761,
"author": "Kate Gregory",
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"text": "So this is a \"similar universes\" thing where the people are almost, but not quite, identical, and one of the... | 2021/08/08 | [
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58,765 | Suppose a paper is organized with a thesis statement found in the introduction paragraph. Then, each body paragraph contains examples and details that support the thesis statement. The first sentence in each of those body paragraphs though acts as a "mini thesis statement".
Example:
>
> Cats make great pets. ← thesi... | [
{
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"text": "A [topic sentence](https://owl.purdue.edu/engagement/ged_preparation/part_1_lessons_1_4/index.html) would be the \"t... | 2021/08/09 | [
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58,772 | In academic writing, I often have to say something like "We found that the percentage of X questions increased by 10%, and as a corollary, the percentage of Y questions decreased by a similar amount."
How do I say "as a corollary" in a single term? To clarify what I'm trying to mean by that, other rough equivalent ter... | [
{
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"text": "You are drawing a causative connection, and there are many words that do that. As you mention, \"consequently\" says... | 2021/08/09 | [
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58,787 | This is a huge question, parts of which have been answered on this site. However, this is one of the biggest challenges writers face, and so I think the question's relevancy matches the amount of work it requires to answer. Before delving in, I'll define what I mean by *inner state*: a character's emotions, thoughts, d... | [
{
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"text": "Mix and Match:\n--------------\n\nI think you have a good set of tools there, but the key is how you use them. I wo... | 2021/08/10 | [
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58,791 | I am wondering if there are rules on how to format dialogues. Sometimes, you see a dialogue inside a descriptive part and sometimes they have their own lines, but sometimes it's not clear if you should put the dialogue inside the descriptive part or not. This is one of the edge cases.
>
> Zeul was tinkering with his ... | [
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"text": "Yes:\n----\n\nIt reads awkwardly, but I think both are probably technically correct. The wording is poor, and doesn... | 2021/08/11 | [
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58,797 | I'm writing a novel. My main character - Bob - is the first-person narrator. However the 2nd character - DarkyVi, his travel buddy - has a few deep conversations with Bob.
Bob tells anecdotes. They usually last about 15 pages or so.
I'm now halfway. And I'm wondering if I should "make" DarkyVi tell an anecdote of his... | [
{
"answer_id": 58798,
"author": "David Siegel",
"author_id": 37041,
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"selected": false,
"text": "Many novels use multiple fist-person narrators. Sometimes this works well, sometimes it does not. This depends... | 2021/08/11 | [
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58,822 | Given that I am a wannabe writer with no real titles under my belt and relatively unknown, what would be a better option for publishing my first book?
* Should I go for the traditional publishing route?
* Or should I go for self publishing given that it's easier for me to
get my book out in the open via that channel?
... | [
{
"answer_id": 58823,
"author": "Mary",
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"selected": false,
"text": "Research what you have to do to publish traditionally. For instance, many publishing houses are simply closed to unage... | 2021/08/15 | [
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58,832 | I am finishing my dissertation, and my advisor was highly critical of my use of "floating quotations" or "stand-alone quotations." She directed me to [a University of North Carolina webpage](https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/quotations/) with advice for undergrad writers.
A floating quotation is a quotation... | [
{
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"text": "I suspect the instructors intentions are to reinforce good practices to avoid inadvertent plagiarizing of someone else’... | 2021/08/16 | [
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58,838 | For example, Wang and Zimmermann are writing a research paper together. In their paper, they want to refer to Zimmermann's previous work (possibly with other coauthors).
Should they write "In the second author's previous work, ..."
or "In Zimmerman's previous work,..."?
The second option is not making clear that they... | [
{
"answer_id": 58839,
"author": "Chenmunka",
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"text": "The clearest method is to refer to..\n\n> \n> The co-author Zimmerman's previous work.\n> \n> \n> \n\nThat contai... | 2021/08/17 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/58838",
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58,843 | Perhaps the most formulaic plot framework has the protagonist as an underdog where he/she must overcome incredible odds. Simply to illustrate, consider: LotR (they are but mere hobbits). While the underdog typically has his day, often times the ordeal phase takes up half the book or more, as in Count of Monte Cristo.
... | [
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"selected": true,
"text": "Two examples are Superman and Jamos Gunr and they handle suspense differently in some ways and similar in others.\n\nSin... | 2021/08/18 | [
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"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
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58,850 | What I mean is black comedy (or dark humour if you want) is a subgenre of comedy that consists to make light of otherwise serious topics (in other words, serious and horrible things played for laughs).
The opposite would be drama based around making dark of otherwise comical topics (in other words, funny and great thi... | [
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"text": "Piylyihna:\n----------\n\nI would argue that the true opposite of dark humor is shameless bright optimism as exempli... | 2021/08/18 | [
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58,852 | A319: 200km
B737: 400km
vs
A319: 200km.
B737: 400km.
Which is correct? Period or no period in a bullet point list of numbers? | [
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"text": "Piylyihna:\n----------\n\nI would argue that the true opposite of dark humor is shameless bright optimism as exempli... | 2021/08/18 | [
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58,855 | I'm currently writing a YA novel, and one of my sublots is a romance between the protagonist (A) and another supporting character (B). I introduce the two to each other early on, and they start out as friends before they are forced to team up with each other later on in the plot. There are a few other major male charac... | [
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"text": "What is the obstacle to their falling in love? That is what it takes to make it an actual subplot, which needs conflic... | 2021/08/19 | [
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