qid int64 1 2.78M | question stringlengths 2 66.6k | answers list | date stringlengths 10 10 | metadata list |
|---|---|---|---|---|
59,670 | The story I'm writing uses 'I' and 'I'm' way too much, and it's really obvious. The problem is that I cannot find words to replace the two, and when I do, it always changes and bends what I'm trying to portray, making it extremely difficult and confusing to understand.
Is there a way for me to stop using them so much? Is there a way to make them less noticeable and less obvious? | [
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"text": "The way to stop overusing 'I' and 'I'm' is to examine the words following those terms.\n--------------------------------... | 2021/12/01 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/59670",
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59,689 | My vocabulary size right now is ~10000 words and I want my vocabulary to be as big as a professional writer, I want to have the ability to manipulate words. I mean SUPERIOR vocabulary. | [
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"answer_id": 59690,
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"text": "Write a sentence...\n\nAdd an additive you know, and then search for 'Other words like'.\n\nI do it, when d... | 2021/12/04 | [
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59,697 | The way I understand it, the term *flat character* is used for a character that is **both** two-dimensional and has a flat character arc. Here, a *two-dimensional character* is character that shows a little, and not very complex, emotions and/or traits.
However, sometimes, I hear *two-dimensional character* explained *flat character*. Other times, I hear *flat character* explained as a character that has a flat arc, but one that's not necessarily two-dimensional.
From [this Britannica definition](https://www.britannica.com/art/flat-character), who defines the term in the first way, I suspect that maybe this is a case of these terms originally being well-defined, but after misuse, are now ambiguous?
**EDIT:**
I forgot to mention these further confuddling details. The Britannica definition cites E. M. Forster. That means that according to Britannica, E. M. Forster said a flat character is someone who is both two-dimensional and has a flat character arc. However, he also said that a flat character represents an idea, by being unchanging, almost like a force of nature. This feature however, only requires their arc being flat. In fact, in stories where the flat arc belongs the MC, they are often representative of an idea, yet whilst also being three-dimensional, naturally.
**EDIT 2:**
I think I have to be clearer. My question, and confusion, is caused by the contradictions of the multiple definitions. @Phillip's answer provides another definition, but doesn't explain why it is different from the two featured in my question: which definition, if any, is correct? What is the original definition? What definition is given by the most authoritative sources? | [
{
"answer_id": 59700,
"author": "Philipp",
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"text": "[The TVTropes article on Character Depth](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterDepth) describes the... | 2021/12/06 | [
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59,698 | From most of the stories I've read, the plot development tends to follow a smooth curve. This has obvious advantages given the reader can start to use his/her imagination more, anticipating/worrying about what could happen next. In many cases this is fun and a desirable outcome. However, in some applications might it not be better to throw the reader into the fray with a more jagged plot development curve. Take the "square" series below:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/10MQ2.png)
I would imagine this would accomplish my goal of making it harder to anticipate what happens next. Although, since the troughs would have substantial details -- many without substantial implications -- this would be transgressing against certain principles like [Chechov's Gun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun). However, in my opinion at least, this would create a more effective environment to create anxiety. That is to say, the corollary of Chechov's Gun is you have to show more of your hand than you may want to if you want not just to surprise the reader but totally *blindside* them.
Question
--------
Is it still considered professional to use a "square/jigsaw" plot development cycle? What prominent pieces stand out among this category in the literature? | [
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"text": "[The TVTropes article on Character Depth](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterDepth) describes the... | 2021/12/06 | [
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59,706 | When writing a verse for a song a lot of times I find it easier to sing if I leave out function words (demonstratives/conjunctions). Is this a bad habit? It seems to cause lack of clarity but I see it done a lot in poetry. I also get tired of using the word 'and' so often.
```
Example:
When I went outside my home I had a feeling,
something wasn't right. (that)
I guess I didn't have the time (but)
that is how I almost died (and)
``` | [
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"answer_id": 59707,
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"text": "When writing in general, you can omit words by punctuation:\n\n```\nWhen I went outside my home I had a feeling: ... | 2021/12/06 | [
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59,709 | My situation is this: in the dialogue I’m writing, the characters speak primarily English but occasionally use a German word for lack of a proper English equivalent. German capitalizes all nouns rather than just proper nouns like English does.
So, **would it be confusing for to a reader if I intersperse German nouns in otherwise English dialogue?** | [
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"text": "Unless your work has a good reason as to why one of the characters is using these words, of course it would be co... | 2021/12/07 | [
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59,710 | I think I have an ok good idea of what makes up a horror piece. But recently I've come across the term genre shift and wondered what exactly makes something not straight up horror but a piece that genre shifts into horror? Some movie examples:
**Sci-Fi shift to Horror/Thriller**
* Hollowman (2000): starts of as a scientist research project, then turns into a slasher leaving only two characters in the end
**Action shift to Horror**
* Predator (1987): starts of as a pretty typical action/arnie flick, then turns into a brutal cat and mouse game with again only two characters left alive in the end
What confuses me is exactly what draws the line between a straight up horror and a genre shift? For example the classic Psycho (1960) is usually considered a horror movie even though it really starts as a heist movie and shifts into horror later. With Babysitter (2017) and Texas Chainsaw (1974) there are quite a few horror like hints for a while but it takes some time for the actual horror to really kick-off, compared to the majority of straight horror movies which open with a horror scene eg. plane crash in Final Destination, Makey's death in Scream etc.
I would love some thoughts on this. | [
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"text": "Unless your work has a good reason as to why one of the characters is using these words, of course it would be co... | 2021/12/07 | [
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59,718 | I maintain and operate an online bookings platform for all kinds of events and activities. Some of these events can span multiple dates and so require that customers completing a booking must select the date they wish to attend the event.
As part of the booking platform, we enable event organisers to control not only the date range over which the event takes place, but also the dates within which customers are allowed to visit the webpage and submit bookings for the event. Naturally, these dates if set, would precede or overlap with the actual event dates, but never extend beyond them, for hopefully obvious reasons.
Now, a perennial problem I have experienced with this particular feature is helping event organisers setting up their events to understand the true nature of these extra date fields within our user interface, since I cannot find a good concise term for these that is unambiguous and absolutely cannot be misinterpreted as being the date range customers should choose within for their visit.
The heading over the date fields at present reads 'Dates to accept bookings' which is clearly somewhat ambiguous. We provide a significant explanation of the fields within the mouse hover tooltip for the fields, as shown below, but despite this, we invariably have event organisers setting the dates to match the actual dates of their event, which ultimately results in their customers not actually being able to make bookings until the event has started. D'oh!
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0bMF0.png)
Somewhat annoyingly, the user has already entered actual event dates quite a bit further up the form when they encounter these fields, so why they feel we are asking for the same dates again has always puzzled me, but that's another matter.
Hopefully my explanation of the problem is clear enough. In a nutshell, what is a good brief term (two or three words ideally) to express "the range of dates within which a customer can visit the event booking webpage and create a new booking for your event"? | [
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"answer_id": 59723,
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"text": "I think there is confusion over what you mean by \"booking\".\n\nIf I understand this correctly, I would call it \"... | 2021/12/08 | [
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59,719 | First, I'll explain what I mean when I say *core idea of a work of fiction*. It is the concept that the fictive work tries to be communicate (be it a poem or a piece of prose) through its metaphors, symbols, similes, plot, characters, etc. This idea can be a moral, or it could just be an interesting idea. I'm limiting this to fictive works, as these are the works in which one is traditionally told the ideas shouldn't be explicitly shoved down someone's throat, whereas in factual works, it should be made as clear as possible.
---
Sometimes I worry that the plot, characters and literary techniques in a work of mine don't paint a clear enough picture. Sometimes I don't. I think I've found out what kind of properties make a work susceptible to this kind of concern:
>
> 1. The idea it tries to convey is quite complex, and thus less likely to be understood.
> 2. The way I try to convey it happens to invoke other, unwanted ideas that may be mistaken as the core message.
>
>
>
As for (1), I'm not implying that the reader can't understand the concept (although with very complex ideas, that too is a concern). Thing is, just because the reader can understand the concept, doesn't mean they can infer it from a bunch of metaphors and whatnot. I feel like the simpler the concept, the easier it is to communicate clearly through literary techniques. However, the more complex concepts are also able to be communicated these ways, but it requires subtleties that I feel either go unnoticed, or are too ambiguous.
Now sometimes, I like making ambiguous art. I like leaving interpretation up for the reader. However, this is when I've interpreted my work in multiple ways, finding entertainment and meaning in those different interpretations, and suspecting that there's more interpretations to be had. Sometimes however, I have a very clear interpretation in mind, and although it's often fine that other interpretations are had, I don't want anyone to miss that *one* intended interpretation. Other times however, I recognize that the work is in a kind interpretative mine field, where a lot of the other interpretations are not just unintended, but unwanted: this is what I mean by (2).
So, here's my question: is it okay to create work that is dependent on a separate, explicit explanation? As in, it can be enjoyed without the explanation, but when enjoyed as such, it will likely be misunderstood, or be experienced as without deeper meaning. Then, the explicit explanation, available in some way or another, is read, and thus a new experience of the work is had. Basically, the work is acceptably enjoyable in isolation, but the work **isn't truly experienced without the extratextual element.**
Some of you may be tempted to say: if you don't have the ability to communicate the message, then you simply don't have the ability. You may say if a work that is split into two elements, one implicit (the story or poem), and one explicit (the explanation), that's a bad short-cut. However, that is dismissing the possibility that there are ideas out there that cannot be "safely" communicated through fiction, meaning no matter the author's ability, it would always require an explicit explanation to be truly understood. And what's so bad with a work that is first read by an uninformed reader, before being retroactively understood (and potentially reread) via the explanation, giving the reader aha moments and letting them appreciate the ways of communication that the work displays, despite those communications being insufficient in the absence of explicit explanation?
---
Here are some examples of where context was needed for the work to be experienced properly (a), and where an explicit explanation was needed for the work to be understood, and thus experienced properly (b).
(a) 13.43 to 15.39 of [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi4sJEE8wCs&ab_channel=LilyAlexandre)
(b) [This poem](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/pvko8f/sun/) and it's subsequent explanation in a comment (see the long one made by OP in response to a commenter's questions)
**EDIT:**
I want to say that I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone writing a smaller work. These issues are most relevant to smaller pieces, as one has less material to communicate the idea (with a long novel, a complex idea is easier to get across, as one can drive the point home more strongly with repetitions and looking at the idea/moral from many different angles). Furthermore, the proposed solution of using an extratextual element to explain a confusing piece, and try to motivate the reader to reread, isn't likely to work with a novel. I think most readers would stop reading, as existing in a long state of confusion and uncertainty, as would be created by a convoluted novel, isn't enjoyable. And then to expect the casual reader to actually reread it shortly after the explanation is also unrealistic in my opinion. A confusing short story or poem however, can actually be quite fun.
So, definitely respond to this question with general comments about fiction of any length, but I'd like to encourage responses focused on shorter fiction, as I think that's most relevant here. | [
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"text": "No. Well, almost always no:\n===========================\n\nFrom your explanation, I suspect you are looking for ju... | 2021/12/08 | [
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59,721 | How can I avoid that these two sentences end up with medical system? I do not want to use a synonym for medical system to avoid ambiguity. I further do not want to change the word order of sentence two in a great way because I think it hinders the "flow" of reading. Further, I do not want to use "their" in the second sentence because it may be not clear to what "their" refers to.
Any ideas? :-)
>
> First, Section 2.1 describes how bugs can impair the correct
> functioning of a medical system. Then, Section 2.2 illustrates how
> bugs can affect the evolution of a medical system.
>
>
>
Thank you. | [
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"text": "I would try to combine them in one sentence:\n\n\"First, Section 2.1 describes how bugs can impair the correct functio... | 2021/12/08 | [
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59,732 | A while back, I finished my first draft and decided to make huge changes in the protagonist. I went back to replanning the entire story I have been familiar with for two years.
How I plan the plot before I start writing a new draft is bullet points for each chapter, referencing back to the original draft. It worked well for the first few chapters until somehow everything just came to a halt. It has gotten more and more difficult to continue writing this idea I have been devoted to for so long. I have even tried just skipping the planning part altogether and just immediately drafting, but that hasn't worked either.
It's normal to have writer's block for maybe a week or so, but it has gotten chronic for me. I've had it for months, maybe even years. If anybody has any suggestions to let my creativity flow again, please provide an answer. | [
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"text": "Writer's block is always tricky to work around, and I think everyone has different methods of what works for them.\n\... | 2021/12/10 | [
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59,735 | I have a character in my novel who describes a creature's talon as "wicked sharp". My wife says this is something she would only hear in New England (and my character isn't from there). I'm from Colorado and have used this adjective all my life... But I also read a ton of Spepfuj Kunw growing up so maybe I picked it up from him.
To be clear though, I would never say someone was "wicked smart", or "wicked fast"... I would only use it as an adjective when referring to something that also seems... Well, sort of malevolent, or wicked--like a creature's talon.
But maybe I'm just overloading / misusing the word? | [
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"text": "You’re safe as long as you don’t start saying wicked shahhhp\n---------------------------------------------------------... | 2021/12/10 | [
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59,741 | I am writing a Hijrp Potfeq-like DnD fantasy story, but for readers of ages 18+.
I have a description in my mind of the MC having lost his mother and his magic:
>
> The feeling is like a hand being severed by a chainsaw.
>
>
> Like a Chainsaw, cutting through the hand, Slowly and methodical.
>
>
> First You see the Chainsaw.
>
>
> Then You hear it being pulled into motion, with the manual starter.
>
>
> The Chainsaw is raped a little.
>
>
> Then it move down to your arm.
>
>
> ..
>
>
> First the wind from the chainsaws blades, touches the hairs on your arm.
>
>
> Then the first blade touches Your skin, and start to cut into your arm.
>
>
> Pain from the heat and the blade on the chainsaw....
>
>
> Then the blood starts to spray all over the place.
>
>
> ..
>
>
> Somewhere in the background a phone start to ring.
>
>
> I wake up and finds, that I still have both my hands.
>
>
>
This is the start of the book, to capture the readers' attention, but I'm concerned that I might be being *too* graphic. Am I?
(The book is 99% finished, so I just need a little extra.) | [
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"text": "I am critiquing this, I am not trying to insult you.\n\nThis is not too graphic; it is just too long, without addin... | 2021/12/10 | [
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59,751 | One of the characters in my book, the narrator, is suddenly knocked unconscious. How would I describe what he sees/feels?
Do I just have a big timeskip, with him confused as to what happened when he wakes up? Or do I add something along the lines of "I hear ambulance sirens || Back to silence"?
For those who want to know, he got bit by a zombie, but it was pulled away quickly enough that he wasn't turned into one. | [
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"text": "In one of my stories (not first person, 3PL), the hero (a woman) is knocked unconscious in a car accident. She is s... | 2021/12/10 | [
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59,759 | I'm currently writing a sci-fi novel, where we've got some huge, solar system-spanning stuff going on, with huge stakes. I've got four POVs that are directly involved with this, whose decisions matter and are directly influenced by what happens.
Then I've got this guy on the side doing his own thing, and his decisions don't matter that much. His stakes are limited to the livelihood of himself and his child. I fear that I may bore the reader with this POV, as his decisions don't matter that much in relation to the bigger picture. However, there's been times when distant and inconsequential POVs have been written well. So, my question is this:
What to avoid when writing distant and inconsequential POVs?
**EDIT:**
A pretty important element I forgot to mention originally, which was made clear to me in the comments to Amadeus' answer:
A part of why this character is here, is to show a different perspective of the changing world. We've got the characters' that are actually changing the world, and then we've got the little guy that experiences that change from the ground. Of course, there's more to his story than that. It is not a constant display of the "ground view of the changing world", but also a journey of his, for the sake of telling his story. | [
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"text": "Emotional Connection:\n=====================\n\nMy normal advice for someone with a minor character POV would be to ... | 2021/12/11 | [
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59,763 | I'm struggling with figuring out a way to describe subtle movements in a scene that wouldn't normally be picked up on if not shown. For example:
>
> A character is being put in a prison cell and another
> character slips them a key or a small pin behind their back.
>
>
>
Or:
>
> Like in the movie Gladiator, when Maximus kneels before Commodus in
> the Colosseum, he picks up a broken arrowhead and conceals it behind his hand and forearm.
>
>
>
How does one describe a simple, subtle action/movement that would be unknown had it not been focused on or shown at all? Or would I just not describe that and then jump straight into what happens next? Would I just jump right into the character "fumbling to get the pin in the key hole while the guards are distracted"? | [
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"text": "Go Bold or Go Home or Be Chill Little Fonzies\n---------------------------------------------\n\nThe examples you cite f... | 2021/12/12 | [
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59,768 | I was wondering which of the two sentences are correct:
1. The homework was due today
2. The homework is due today
My story is written in past tense, but character X says this in narration during the morning of the due date, not after, thus giving me the feeling that it should be 'the homework is due today'. However, I've heard of the advise of sticking with a single tense throughout a story, so my mind is telling me to type 'The homework was due today'. | [
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"text": "Tenses in direct speech are different from the tense written otherwise. \"was\" suggests that the character has m... | 2021/12/12 | [
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59,782 | I want to add sections within my novel where multiple characters are sending text messages to each other, but don't how to format it or if there's a certain way of doing it. For example, would I do it like this:
>
> He decided to distract himself by sending Amy a message: How are things going on your end? He was looking out his window when his phone vibrated in his hand, the text was short: Uneventful. We’re falling asleep... Help.
>
>
>
Or, would it be better like this:
>
> How are things going on your end?
>
>
> He was looking out his window when his phone vibrated in his hand:
>
>
> Uneventful. We’re falling asleep… Help.
>
>
>
The latter would be indented and formatted into looking like text message bubbles, without the bubbles, of course. Or is there a better way of doing it? I want to avoid using italics as I'm already using them for inner dialogue, thoughts and memories. | [
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"text": "I don't think there is a standard yet, invent something easy to recognize and convert. I'd follow the pictorial appr... | 2021/12/13 | [
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59,787 | Chapter 1 takes place in 1953. A girl is kidnapped. She manages to write a note to her friend (they both go to school together but the boy has moved). The letter is destroyed. Her friend is the protagonist. I wanted a good 'hook', which it is, but the protagonist is only 9 years old at the time of the event.
It's quite a long chapter at >3,000 words. I don't like prologues.
Is this acceptable? Has anyone got examples of another author who writes like this?
---
No, she doesn't solve everything at the end. The protagonist thinks she's dead, but he meets up with the traffickers several times without relation the the original girl.
No one knows where the HQ of the villains is. The protagonist gets involved in several sub plots, but his goal is to dispose of the traffickers.
Finally, in the last few chapters, she manages to escape. It was her first chance and during her captivity. She pretended to be part of them and did all their office work.
Once she escapes, she makes a beeline for the protagonist and only now does he find out where the HQ is so he can take action.
The traffickers are the main antagonists but there are several sub plots all leading to a grand bloody finale.
All I'm asking is the question: Is this a possibility for a story? Assuming I mention the original girl from time to time. From current answers it would seem so. | [
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59,791 | I want the premise to be that throughout the 20th century, witches and wizards have faced a steep decline in numbers and due to the Cold War, secrecy has become more important, but with the fast development of technology, magic could cease to exist soon. I plan to have a school and the elite school be in the US with many nationalities. I also want to add "blood status" such as pure/half bloods and muggle borns without those names. Is this too similar to Hijrp Potfeq?
I know this might be hard to do,but I want part of their lives to be the same as Hogwarts years, but not the one book per year.
Thank you to everyone who has already responded. What if I try to put the story in an alternate universe like Man in the High Castle style. That why magicians and normal people can work together. | [
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59,798 | So let's say I have characters A and B who are chatting about a video that Character A recorded of themselves. In between their chatting, the dialogue of the video can also be heard, for example:
>
> "Hey look at this... why isn't it working?" said Character A.
>
>
> "You didn't press play," said Character B.
>
>
> The video started to play, "Hi everyone, my name is Character A and this is..." said Character A in the video, taking the audience through a tour of the house.
>
>
> "You sound really stupid Character A."
>
>
> "Yeah well maybe you should do it next time then," said Character A, getting touchy.
>
>
>
So essentially I have treated the video as another character, even though it's a recording of Character A. **Are there any format guidelines for this sort of thing?** In the case where there is something important in the video, I need the content to come through as well (both audio and visuals), if that makes sense. | [
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60,806 | I'm doing a writing circle with friends where I had to review a fan fiction. I was far from the ideal reviewer for it because I didn't play the game it was based on, only a few hours of a later one in the series. Plus, I've barely read any fan fiction before.
I left a lot of comments for the author (more than my co-reviewers). Some of what I said likely stemmed from my ignorance of the source material and may not have been helpful, since I expect much of the appeal of fan fiction is for fans to see familiar characters in a new adventure (or maybe the reverse, new characters in a familiar setting). I had no idea who any of the characters were, nor much about the setting.
But other comments I made I think were genuinely helpful. "Show not tell", for example, is fairly universal. I also like to think that I'm pretty good with grammar.
As a reviewer, how can I minimize ignorant, unhelpful comments about a fan fiction while maximizing helpful feedback? | [
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60,808 | I saw that ending somewhere once, and have been using it ever since. Just wanted to confirm if there's anything wrong with adding that in a request letter for a medical leave | [
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60,810 | Consider the following extract of text (content not important, only sentence structure):
>
> When the jump is made, from seeing a subject as vocational, to worthy
> of study for the sake of knowledge alone, that subject can be enjoyed
> as beautiful and intriguing. With for example the works of the
> masters, subjects are beautiful. **With the emergence of truly novel
> thinkers, intriguing in their scope.**
>
>
>
I have been led to understand that the bold sentence is not a sentence. Does this make the whole extract grammatically *wrong* and to be corrected? To me the extract reads absolutely fine.
**Question: Should the extract be corrected or is it OK as it is?**
I know there are various corrections and what these are is not the question.
For example, I understand I can correct to:
>
> With the emergence of truly novel thinkers, they are intriguing in their scope.
>
>
>
However, as a native speaker I don't think I would even have noticed this error.
---
I am now worrying slightly about all manner of non-sentences in my academic writing. A little googling suggests I am writing speech rather than writing writing.
[This question was closed on English SE](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/581318/is-using-non-sentences-bad-writing). | [
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60,825 | What's the solution for "language being subjective" affecting readability? To write more concisely or what?
To me it seems like knowing how to make a "well understood" text seems like lottery.
What techniques can be used to make them more universally appealing?
Something related:
Why are research papers hard to read?
<https://scienceandword.com/why-are-research-papers-hard-to-read/> | [
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60,826 | **TL;DR: How can I psychologically justify why relatively normal (i.e., non-sociopathic) human beings that have turned into monsters (like vampires or werewolves) devolve into feral beasts or vicious predators without relying on some innate supernatural biological drive compelling them to harm people or otherwise turn on humans?**
I have a story which revolves around a group of monsters in a modern setting, most of which were "turned" from humans in some way. The monsters are incredibly varied in terms of their morality and worldview. Some try their best to fit in and pass amongst humans despite their condition, others basically just devolve into feral beasts eating animals in the woods, whereas others start actively preying on humans and other monsters. The story mostly focuses on the "passing" monsters with the more malevolent ones serving as foils and antagonists. The main draw of the series is meant to be a psychological drama exploring the diverse psychology and worldviews of the characters and the different ways they perceive and deal with their monsterhood.
Some of the rules of the monsters in the setting and their plot reasoning are listed below, so as to make the rest of the question make more sense:
* **The monsters more-or-less live hidden among humanity**. I.e., typical genre trappings.
* **The monsters don't need to prey on humans to survive**, in order to allow the monsters much more moral latitude and explore different types of monster tropes. Eating people isn't as unthinkable as it is among humans, but how taboo eating people is varies massively from group to group. I.e., the more sympathetic monsters are horrified and disgusted, whereas the less human ones don't care.
* **Becoming a monster does give a person monstrous instincts and can warp their mind a bit, but the person mostly remains the same**. Personality shifts can occur but happen due to lived experience post-monster. This is partially due to story themes and partially because the whole point of a psychodrama is to explore someone's thought process.
* **The monsters aren't exceedingly long-lived or immortal.** Mostly to make them more relatable to the audience.
* **There isn't really a huge faction of monster hunters.** The monsters are afraid of persecution by humanity but it's not like there's a group dedicated to hunting them down. Mostly because the "monsters being persecuted by monster-hunters" trope has been used so many times it's become cliché and there isn't much one can do to make it fresh.
However, when writing the story I am running into an issue in trying to understand how a relatively normal person could devolve into a barely-human beast squatting in the woods or a monstrous predator. I've tried researching other "monster" stories like the *Old World of Darkness* and *Tokyo Ghoul* to see how those settings handled it, and mostly I have come across a few major explanations. However, these don't seem to work with the psychological drama angle of this story for a variety of reasons.
1. **The monsters become increasingly estranged from humanity due to the monsters being immortal and losing all of their human connections.** This is how the *Old World of Darkness* tended to handle it, and it does make the most sense psychologically. Lose all your connections to humanity and suddenly one's ability to empathize with them becomes difficult. **But the monsters aren't immortal here, so the "weight of ages" is hard to pull off.**
2. **The monsters have to eat humans in some way and those that do not sufficiently dehumanize human beings end up starving to death.** From what I've read supposedly the Sabbat in *Vampire the Masquerade* worked along these lines, but it never really got explored due to lore changes. **This doesn't work because the monsters here don't have to eat humans, and indeed the story points out on a logistic and biological level a species that must eat humans wouldn't be able to survive.**
3. **[There is some kind of biological compulsion involved that makes the former human instantly turn on humanity](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TranshumanTreachery).** However, when this shows up in fiction this is usually used as a justification as to why the audience shouldn't feel morally conflicted about the protagonists staking their former friends. It doesn't work in a setting where the monsters are more sympathetic. I *have* seen stories make good arguments as to why someone would choose to be a monster than a human. E.g., many monster stories set in the Victorian era point out that for young women becoming a vampire/werewolf/whatever gives them personal freedom and power not available to them as a human, but there's no reason that wouldn't translate to "I like being a monster but I like people too" instead of "I eat people".
4. **The former-humans decide to become the monsters everyone sees them as after being persecuted or ostracized by their former brethren** (see: *Carrie*). This kind of works but it's hard to see how widespread it could be without monsters being common knowledge, so it doesn't make sense to make it a universal phenomenon among every feral monster.
5. **The monsters were evil people before becoming monsters.** I.e., the "I reject my humanity, JosaXz" principle. **This seems the easiest to implement and seems fairly straightforward but kind of removes the personal horror aspect from the story.** I.e., it seems almost Calvinist (and a bit morally black-and-white) in that only the "bad" people become "bad" monsters. I know there are cases where regular people can be corrupted into enjoying atrocities (e.g., Nazi Germany, the Stanford Prison Experiment), but most of the time that seems to require mass movements and an external system coercing or encouraging people until they start enjoying or rationalizing it. Additionally, I know humans can be quick to dehumanize others, but that usually happens to those *outside* their in-group, not those within. Humans can clearly be awful but this seems to be the wrong kind of awful to justify what I need.
The problem with many of these explanations is that they rely on some sort of hardline biological compulsion to turn people into monsters, which is terrible for a psychological drama because it removes most of the elements of personal choice. Consider, in a psychodrama about a vampire the audience wants to know why the vampire thinks and acts the way they do (e.g., *Interview with a Vampire*). If the vampire only does so because they *must* prey on humans and because they are biologically compelled to hate humankind, that removes all sense of character agency and thus they become less interesting. So I'm trying to avoid that.
Granted, part of the point of the story is to explore the assumptions of monster tropes (and "there's less slavering beasts than you'd think" is a plot point), but the fact is I need the more antagonistic monsters to create conflict, and if I can't understand why my villains and antagonists behave and think the way they do (or more broadly, where they even come from) that creates a problem. Some of the more feral monsters *are* treated narratively more like dangerous wild animals or man-eating big cats than slasher villains, dangerous but with their own set of priorities and motivations that don't always involve violence, but even getting a human being psychologically to that point seems very difficult to achieve.
**So, more broadly, how can I psychologically justify why there would be a general phenomenon where more-or-less psychologically normal people can devolve into monsters after being turned?** | [
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60,829 | My first horror/fantasy novel has received some criticism from peers, many of them claiming that I introduce the antagonist too early. The introduction of the antagonist is nearly instant, but extremely ambiguous. It appears in 2 major forms, as a young boy, and a demon-like creature that vaguely resembles a very tall human. The criticizing peers have claimed that I had to exploit the fear of the unknown, and hide the antagonist for awhile. However, the antagonist is only shown relatively briefly in both of the main character's introductions, with no information on what it is, only that it (very messily) eats humans, and soon after, that it likes to torture its victims with horrifying illusions before killing them. There is no context on what it actually is, how intelligent it is, how powerful it really is, its true intentions, etc. I avoided revealing any significant information about it at all. Would this suffice to compensate for the missing "fear of the unknown"? And more importantly, what are the effects of either of them; when should you use one or the other? | [
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60,846 | I have a character idea where said character is a gadgeteer/artificer type, and they have these nanobots in their blood stream that they use to make the items they need. The nanobots also have an artificial intelligence that allows them to think on the fly, almost like a human. | [
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60,853 | Another writer was critiquing my story, and she mentioned that I should describe the scream and show the reaction of the character instead of having the character actually scream out "Ahhhh!"
Any suggestions or feedback about this advice? | [
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60,862 | I am a few days away from sending in a manuscript for a textbook to a publisher. The publisher's site instructs prospective authors to attach a cover letter describing the work, including why the author wrote the work.
In my case, this came to criticisms of existing textbooks, and the belief that my product addresses those criticisms.
I was inspired to write the textbook to replace two existing books on the market. The publisher I want to work with will be familiar with both books...they once sold the first, but when it went out of print, another publisher came and started selling a competing product and took away their contracts and sales.
As a teacher, I found considerable issues working with both books (for instance, the publisher's own book falling severely out-of-date on the subject area) and I met many other teachers who shared my complaints. This inspired me to write my own textbook.
Is it unprofessional if I lay out my complaints about the existing, competing products in my cover letter? | [
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60,866 | It just seems to me that for some novels -- especially those published in the last ten years or so -- that the author goes out of their way to make a point that a character is Asian, or black, or whatever. It's almost as if someone, an editor, say, said, "Hey, this is a really good book, but it would be so much better if it was more 'inclusive.'" So the author revises it to make this or that character a racial minority. Does this sort of thing happen nowadays? | [
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60,871 | A common piece of advice young writers get is to use all of the senses with which the POV character perceives their surroundings.
I can feel how important this piece is. I would like to describe subtle, yet inspirational details that affect the character in different ways; I want them to fully experience the scene.
Unfortunately, I often struggle to implement it. Currently, I'm writing a short story happening on a small Mediterranean island. The problem is: I've never been on one. Therefore, I can hardly come up with any natural impressions.
Going there is not an option. Reading others' journals and repeating their parts feels artificial and kind of like stealing.
How can I make a character's experience fully immersive with limited knowledge of the actual setting? | [
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60,880 | I've been writing some flavor text for my next board game release, which is about settling a colony in/on different planets, and I am not sure if I'm using those two prepositions correctly, if I have to use always the same or if it depends on the context.
Some of the examples are:
1. This is a tough planet to settle a colony **in/on**.
2. It has the conditions we need to settle **in/on** it.
3. We will settle our colony **in/on** the icy, rocky surface.
4. We were forced to land and settle **in/on** the dark side of the planet.
5. We will settle **in/on** the sunny hemisphere.
6. There are some regions with mountains and plateaus, and the colony has settled **in/on** one of them.
Is there any formal rule about this?
Also, do you think I should use another synonym, like "establish" or similar? | [
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60,881 | Something I'm working on in my mind- a detective is called in to investigate what turns out to be a man having taken his own life. Once it's confirmed to be a suicide, it stands to reason the detective's superiors would want him to close the case and move on, but if that happens I have no story. So how do I explain the detective continuing to probe the suicide and find the motive for it? | [
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60,888 | I can't figure out if my songs are stories since they don't contain a climax, multiple characters, or a resolution.
For example is this song a story? It lacks conflict and climax and resolution but it tells the 'story' of someone who wants to go somewhere.
```
I want to go to that open field
way out west on the old frontier.
There I can be free,
and I'll have no problem chasing my dreams.
I want the old west back,
so if I have the chance
I'll jump into the past.
I'd trade anything
to have the old west back.
```
How can I be sure my songs are stories? | [
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60,893 | Until very recently I had a world building first approach (architecture writing) to writing. But now I've found a compelling character to write about, I'm making choices about the setting and her background on the fly (gardener writing).
I've already noted the same detail down twice, but differently in the same document (the character's parent's names), so I've definitely got room for improvement.
How do I effectively take notes when exploration writing to avoid those issues? | [
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60,913 | I am planning on writing a story about witches and wizards and I want to have child and teen protagonists, but not copy Hijrp Potfeq too much. One of the ways I thought of doing this is by having school on the SIDE so that I do not repeat the idea of magic school too much. Any ideas? | [
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60,915 | My sci-fi story is told from an alien wild animal's perspective. The story is immersive, so the reader directly follows the thoughts and reflexes of the alien. I enjoy writing this way, because the immersion allows me to slowly reveal things the alien thinks are irrelevant (for example, the alien calls humans "outsiders" when interacting with them, so revealing to the reader through implication that they are actually humans makes a cool plot twist).
The problem lies in describing what the animal *is*. While a short description wouldn't be difficult in a more traditional writing style, since I am directly translating the thoughts of the animal, I am having a hard time coming up with a scenario when the animal would contemplate its own appearance and abilities. For example, people don't often think, "Wow, I am a land-based mammal with two arms, two legs, and a head with eyes and a mouth" in their daily routine (speaking for myself at least).
I've considered leaving the description out and leaving hints throughout the story (example: the creature frequently mentions using its claws, showing the reader it has some kind of claws) and leaving the rest to the reader's imagination. However, for an immersive story, I see this quickly becoming frustrating for the reader, as the events of the plot directly depend on the animal's design and abilities.
Would it be better to add another perspective that offers more description between chapters/segments (*Ender's Game* does this in a sense) or is there a better way to create a clear image of this creature in the mind of the reader from its own thoughts? | [
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60,923 | im building a world for a screenplay and i would like to have some main characters I have already made some character profiles for some of them but i was wondering whether or not if adding too many characters will make the storyline confusing. I want to make 6 main characters, 24 secondary characters and 70 tertiary characters that wouldn't have large speaking roles. they would show up in an "episode" or "chapter" but that's it. | [
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"answer_id": 60922,
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"text": "I don't think there's such a thing as too many characters. Especially tertiary characters. A good amount of small... | 2021/12/31 | [
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60,927 | I'm trying to properly phrase a main sentence on a banner. Imagine that you had a dream to do something but it had to be put aside (let's say into a drawer) to wait for a better times. Now, I want to ask a viewer whether it is a good time now to get back to his dream and make it true. Does the following sentence make sense? Can it be improved?
>
> Good time to get your dream out of the drawer?
>
>
> | [
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"text": "Typically for billboards or banners you want to keep your word count at 6 or less. Or syllables under 8. That is wh... | 2022/01/01 | [
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60,931 | how do you make a character feel like an actual person and not just a character that you're reading on a page? I'm aware that they should have likes/dislikes, flaws, a dialect, etc. But what else could I add to make them more relatable and feel like real people? | [
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"text": "A backstory, a goal or three, needs, living conditions, people they relate to, skills and their limits...\nThe thin... | 2022/01/01 | [
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60,942 | Suppose an author created a book "Learning Mandarin", which contained a bunch of readings and assignments in English and Chinese for learning the language. The problem is, they have to work with a special publisher who can publish both in the western markets and in China, so they use a Chinese textbook publisher capable of handling this.
Now suppose the same author took the basic components of that book, recycled the readings, and rebranded it as "Learning French". It resembles the content of the first considerably, but it's for a different audience that the first publisher doesn't even serve.
The author already did much work to consider the pedagogy behind the first book, so the second book will be naturally quite similar. Can this author work with a different publisher for the second book? Or because many components are reused (simply translated Chinese parts to French) does it mean the first publisher has copyright ownership over the second?
Can authors work with a different publisher for a derivative work? | [
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60,945 | I am writing a script where there are quick flash cuts, where the current present action is then 'captured' in a still photo which is representing a 'highlight' on an Instagram post/story shown for one second, and then it goes back into present action. It's as if someone is going around capturing these highlighted moments. It's meant to be a stylised concept to have this idea of how people on social media only portray 'highlights' of their life and I was wondering how do I format this?
In the context of the script it goes something like this:
>
> INT. LIVING ROOM - SUNSET
>
>
> She is blankly staring in front of her, clearly uncomfortable
>
>
> QUICK FLASH - PHOTO
>
>
> The girl next to her laughs obnoxiously loud.
>
>
> BACK TO:
>
>
> The girl bumps Florence in the process, she sighs.
>
>
>
Is this correct and does this make sense? | [
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60,947 | Ok, I'm trying to write a book but I lack in going into detail when it comes to fighting scenes. (I'm working on that) Now I would just skip this and come back to it at a later date *but* I can't this time. as this seance in the book is essential for the rest of the book. That may not be much help but it's what I've got sorry.
Now let me give a little more intel
The main character is on his way back to his pack (Blue Moon) when his truck tuns out of gas, he pulls over and decides that since it's dark he'll sleep in his car for the night and walk to get gas in the morning. But in the middle of the night, someone wakes him up and drags him back to the pack (Crest Lining). but when he gets there he realizes that this is a very unstable pack where the alpha only wants power. as he's escaping the pack he comes across two kids and takes them with him (his wolf pleaded with him) But as he's leaving he's attacked by a wolf.
That's where I need the help, I don't know how to write this out | [
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"text": "Confusion, Pain and emotion:\n============================\n\nAll fight scenes are a platform for you to transform ... | 2022/01/03 | [
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60,965 | What are the fair use rules in the USA for short quotes from books or song lyrics in a novel when they are explicitly quoted and attributed to their source? I'm looking at self-published work (otherwise, it would be the publisher's headache), so probably not more than 1000 copies. | [
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60,970 | So I have a character who is often very vulnerable. She's easily scared, put down, and often fails at what she's trying to do. But there are a lot of times when she gets serious (particularly in battle, as it's a fantasy novel) and is a very capable fighter. However, the two characters seem so distant from each other, they often seem like different people. I want to lessen the gap, at least in my head, about the two sides of this character. Any thoughts? | [
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"text": "Vulnerability can be used to communicate capability *and* humanize your character.\n-------------------------------... | 2022/01/04 | [
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60,976 | I'm stuck trying to figure out if I should put numbers or words. Which one looks better?
1. After it took me 4 hours and 24 minutes
2. After it took me four hours and twenty-four minutes | [
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"text": "In creative writing it depends on the tone of your writing, the genre and the audience.\n-----------------------------... | 2022/01/04 | [
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60,992 | Is there a technical name for a character that is mentioned by name but is never present in a story?
For example, a parent who is discussed by their children and still alive but has no screen time whatsoever?
Is "estranged" or "offscreen" character good enough? | [
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"text": "Unseen Character\n----------------\n\n> \n> s there a technical name for a character that is mentioned by name bu... | 2022/01/06 | [
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60,994 | I want to write a sad scene where a mother finds out that her son passed away. What things/clichés should I avoid in order to not make it overly dramatic? | [
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"text": "By \"over drama\" you probably mean \"melodramatic.\" The following article gives us several clues to keep it dramati... | 2022/01/07 | [
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60,998 | For the sleuth, I'm having some problems brainstorming some internal and external goals apart from the main goal of catching the culprit or villain. I understand that both internal and external goals should be in opposition to each other, but I'm having some difficulties. Can you give some examples or guiding principles for this? Thanks. | [
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"text": "Internal and external goals may conflict, or may align, or may be sort of sidewise to each other. As the quest... | 2022/01/07 | [
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61,004 | In a book I’m writing, the main character (a 15-year-old girl) has/struggles with [selective mutism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_mutism). I’ve quickly run into the problem where she is in a “mute situation” where she doesn’t talk. I’ve tried just focusing on what other characters are saying and doing, but I feel as though the story forgets the MC in a way.
Which brings me to the question; **what do I have the main character do if she isn’t speaking?** | [
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"text": "This is definitely a bit of a writing challenge, as a character who doesn't speak may be harder for readers to autom... | 2022/01/08 | [
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61,017 | I read some movie scripts and I know how to write one, but I haven't seen one for comics books. I heard some people use movie scripts to write comics, but I need a template that associates each dialogue and description to a single panel. (A panel consists of a single drawing depicting a frozen moment, and one page contains several panels.)
However, I couldn't find one and there doesn't seem to be a standard way of doing this. Is there any good example? I don't want to draw a storyboard, because I can't draw, but maybe there's some way to circumvent this. I want to make it easier for someone to draw a full page from a written script I wrote. | [
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61,040 | My protagonist is living under a curse, with added amnesia, making her have a false name. Halfway through the book, she learns what her real name is and chooses to become that person again, with all the things it means as well. After this, when writing the dialogue tags - to show who has spoken - should I use the false name or her real one that she learns? | [
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"text": "Imagine such a revelation taking place in your life: your birth name is not the one you have been bearing all this time... | 2022/01/12 | [
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61,045 | I'm working on my first novel, and my main character is going on a 'no contact' vacation where she doesn't communicate with anyone in her life. I'm struggling to figure out how to write it even though it's only temporary (one month). This is what I have so far;
>
> "Are you sure?"
>
>
> "Yes," I say to my obnoxiously loving husband.
>
>
> Kvllun's used to me pushing him away at this point, yet he still begs to drive me to the airport every year. I take a one-month vacation by myself to Rhode Island every year to motivate myself to write. I go alone and cut off all communication with my spouse, friends, and family. It's a necessary part of my year to develop ideas for novels. I often get stressed, putting pressure on myself to create the best ideas possible, and take it out on my husband.
>
>
> "Sophie always drives you. I can go in late today and say my car got snowed in or something."
>
>
> "Kvllun, stop. You're not going in late for work to take me to the airport. It's not that big of a deal, baby. You'll see me in a month," I say, moments before the front door slams open, revealing my best friend of nine years.
> Sophie.
>
>
> Sophie and I have always been extremely close. It's harder staying away from her for a month than any other person I know. She's ditzy, loud, and beyond gorgeous. But, the girl hates my husband.
>
>
> "Kvllun," Sophie says with an unamused look. This forces my husband to gaze away from me and onto the obnoxiously honest individual in the door frame. "You haven't left for work yet?"
>
>
> "No, Seshaa, but your sudden visit gives me a reason to." Kvllun looks at me, kisses my temple, and says his goodbyes.
>
>
> | [
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61,060 | I'm building a D&D campaign and I'm at the point where I have to create a villain. There's also a character that will join the players a few times as a hero. In an attempt to make them more memorable, I'd like the villain and the hero to feel like they were made for one another. What makes two characters, like a hero and a villain, feel made for one another? I'm not sure I can really describe what I mean by made for one another, but I want to avoid putting just any old hero against any old villain. Simply mushing backstories together isn't quite right either.
Alternatively, what are some other hero/villain pairs that were made for one another? I can think of Batman and the Joker as an easy example. | [
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61,063 | I've often been accused of "head-hopping" in my stories and not always being consistent with POV. Also, I got a note from a beta-reader once saying that at some points, it sounded like they were reading a narrator's observations instead of the perspective character's. | [
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"text": "Third Person Omniscient (3PO) and Third Person Limited (3PL).\n\nI always write in 3PL; I follow one POV character,... | 2022/01/13 | [
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61,067 | In my three book, fantasy series, I have a character who is a traitor to the group of protagonists.
The reader knows from the beginner that there is a spy somewhere because the anagonists discuss the fact that they have a spy, but it's very nebulous to begin with, though I am careful to leave a couple of hints here and there about who it might be so that it's not a huge surprise when the reveal is made.
At the end of Book 1 there's a turning point where the spy does something so overt that the protagonists will definitely know that someone is a traior (they will find out at the beginning of book 2) but they will not know who that traitor is until the end of Book 2. It's actually a turning point for the spy character where they decide to be a full on traitor and not just a passive spy who occassionally gives the antagonists tips but does little more.
The overt action involves the traitor physically meeting with the antagonist for the reader to observe. I could write this in such a way as to NOT reveal the traitor's identity (only confirm that it is someone the reader knows and possibly cares about) or I could write it in a way that reveals the traitor's identity to the reader so that they know before the protagonists discover it.
I'm struggling to determine which is better. I know this is subjective but I'd still like advice or an opinion that is outside of my own head!
On the one hand, I think it would be nice to only reveal that the traitor is part of the protagonists' core circle at the end of book one and leave the reader trying to figure out who it is, while leaving even more overt clues / misdirects along the way.
On the other hand, I don't want to insult the reader with a "tease" at the end of book 1 by writing a scene that's designed to keep the traitor's identity a secret even though the antagonist clearly knows who the person is. There is also some merit to giving the reader the identity and getting them excited about figuring out how the traitor will slip up and reveal himself to the protagonists.
At the end of the day, neither way I write this will affect much of how I write the traitor's plot or character-arc, it's just with one choice, the reader knows who it is quite a while before the characters.
I keep going back and forth, and it's driving me nuts. | [
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61,071 | Mystery novel with a cast of five suspects. The plot moves from red herring to red herring, making the reader suspect each of the five characters *at least once*.
In principle, one could go in circles and make each character fall under suspicion multiple times. There is however a diminishing return such that after a few times the reader may lose interest, or not find it as compelling as the first time that a certain character was accused.
Also, in a 50k words novel, we remove the introduction and the conclusion, and that gives around 7k words for each character to become the focus of all suspicions. If we accuse them once, then these 7k words are roughly the space to discuss the evidence against them and dismantle that. In the absurd case of each being accused ten times, each time takes around 700 words, which seems too little.
How can I find a good balance? How can I provide variety, but not become superficial (and keeping the total length of the novel to a reasonable size)? | [
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61,074 | I have an idea, fiction, which uses the following moral:
"Young, fallible hero seeks to improve his life by exploiting a higher power, however, the angry Gods don't just punish the hero, they extend their wrath to everyone the hero touches, including those he loves".
However, as an experiment, I'd like not to limit my story to this one moral. I don't want to accept that when "Gods have punished the hero and extended their wrath to everyone he loves" that that's the end of the story, despite how bleak it is.
I want to keep the original moral, and explore it as a piece of fiction, but I only want to treat it as half of the story.
I'm curious to know what other writers would consider a worthy continuation/follow-on from the moral described above, without it feeling too inconsistent or jarring to the reader. | [
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"text": "A [moral](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral) is usually a pithy one-liner giving a symbolic reco... | 2022/01/14 | [
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61,075 | In a comic panel, how do you show your readers that the voice is heard within? Do you use a different font, do you use italics, do you use bold characters? And how do you write this in a comic book script? I saw people use BOX: to refer to descriptions inside of box and then BOB: to refer to what people say, but I am not sure what you should do when the character or a character hears a voice from the inside. | [
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"text": "What I've seen is either italics for the text or quotation marks around it to indicate that this is interior mo... | 2022/01/14 | [
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61,078 | How do you write a character with goes from A to Z and back to A realistically? Let's say the characters is extremely in love, then wants to murder the person she was in love with and then go back to being completely in love. How do you do that realistically without resorting to cheap tricks like amnesia, magic and other similar things? I don't think this can be done realistically at all. | [
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"text": "Let's call our girl Aluke, and her love interest is the naive Seck. We totally frame Seck. In her eyes, Seck is gui... | 2022/01/14 | [
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61,092 | What are some tricks you can use to write a good story if you don't know how people talk and behave? Are there some tips and tricks on how to be able to still write a good story if you try to avoid making your characters talk as much as possible to not show how clueless you are about how normal people react in certain situations? It feels like if you put your characters in tense situations and you're clueless about what's normal behaviour, it just invariably make the story worse. | [
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"text": "There are no normal people. Everyone's going to react differently, so it's your choice what they do.\n\nBut for ti... | 2022/01/15 | [
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61,097 | This is a question that often comes to my mind while writing. I can't know whether I should respect the sequence of events chronologically as they happened or try to include backstories/flashbacks.
How do I know what entertains more a reader in such a story and attracts him/her to continue reading?
Currently, I'm writing a short story. This story is about a 12 year old child who accidentally kills his twin brother. Through the time, and with the growing sense of guilt, this boy will develop some sort of psychotic disorder, till ending up with a severe situation, especially that the familial environment is unbalanced, which complicated things more.The whole story intends to focus on two major things: The child's development of mental illness, and how his mother dealt with that.
In this case, what's better to do? Write events as they happened, from causes until consequences, or start for example with the boy is taken to a mental institution and then start explaining things for the reader? | [
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"text": "One common element that keeps a reader reading is the feeling that the stakes are rising and tension is building. Ther... | 2022/01/16 | [
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61,099 | Is it bad to end a story with a lot of loose points? Are there some exceptions where some loose points are permitted as long as the main questions are answered? I heard it's bad, but I see a lot of stories with loose points. If your story is complex, isn't it natural to have loose points? And also ending a story with a lot of loose points related to Chekhov's gun? If we need to prevent loose points, do we need to make the story shorter and simpler? | [
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"text": "### TL;DR\n\nYou can end the story with loose ends as long as the main story arc is fully resolved to a satisfying end.... | 2022/01/17 | [
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61,102 | I recently watched the entire *Hijrp Potfeq* series in December 2021. I really loved the *Hijrp Potfeq* world and all the characters.
Even after days, I couldn't stop myself from thinking about it and I'm pretty happy about the innovative idea that struck me about writing a sequel for the series. I really want to publish said sequel, but I'm clueless about how to contact JK Rowling. I am aware that publishing without her permission would be copyright infringement after going through a few articles online. | [
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"text": "I'm sorry, but the chances of JK Rowling letting an amateur, unpublished writer use her ideas is zero. She and her ... | 2022/01/17 | [
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61,119 | For context, this would be from the POV of children who are trapped in a high-rise office building during a monster attack in the city. They wouldn't have any injuries from the event; they would just be unable to move. | [
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"selected": false,
"text": "Provided that you cannot come up with what your character could feel and think, you have several options to get some f... | 2022/01/18 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/61119",
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61,121 | not exactly sure how to solve this, and haven't used the app before. Just started story writing. So ya, I don't know what else to say | [
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"text": "I've always used just a simple, 'he grinned' or 'smiled, or for greater effect 'chuckled' or 'laughed', during th... | 2022/01/18 | [
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61,123 | I am working on a price list. On the price list I have a column for the name of the model and a second column for a specification.
Currently I have an asterisk on each model. I also have a footnote (1) next to each specification.
I have to add another note related to TWO models only in the list I have (out of eight). Someone told me to add a NEW note with two asterisks but I cannot because at the bottom of the price list we have another note with two asterisks for something else on that sheet. Please see below a simplified example.
If I keep the asterisk in the first table and add a NEW note for Apple and Banana, how do I go about doing this? FYI - we did not use numbered footnotes originally for all footnotes because the number and product name together are confusing. (Product model name includes numbers).
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Wqzeh.jpg) | [
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"text": "There are many symbols you can use as footnote markers.\nAccording to wikipedia\\*, the traditional order of use in Eng... | 2022/01/18 | [
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61,130 | I have a hard time viewing clothing outside of the simplest descriptors. A shirt is just a shirt, shoes are simply shoes, pants, etc.
Basically, what I'm asking for is some clothing terminology? | [
{
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"text": "I offer a couple of my own:\n\n\"She recognized him as soon as he came in the door. He was one of the few men wh... | 2022/01/19 | [
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61,143 | How does one go about showing a characters tone/pitch while talking?
For example, if someone said something that someone else doesn't believe and they reacted like:
>
> bullsHIIt
>
>
>
or
>
> whaAATt
>
>
>
Where the capitalized letters show a change in pitch from disbelief. Of course, the capitalized letters wouldn't be capitalized, so how would it be portrayed, or would it be left up for interpretation? | [
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"text": "I imagine you are asking about fiction.\n\nSpelling alterations similar to the ones proposed in the OP tend to have a c... | 2022/01/21 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/61143",
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61,149 | I am creating a series of student workbooks for use in classrooms. The page count is quite high, so I'll need to divide it into many separate books, but I'm not sure if I need to split it into 3, 5, 10, etc. books. Assuming approximately letter/A4 size, is there a physical limit to the number of pages that printing machinery can bind together, still allowing the pages to be comfortably laid flat for writing? | [
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"text": "I imagine you are asking about fiction.\n\nSpelling alterations similar to the ones proposed in the OP tend to have a c... | 2022/01/21 | [
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61,162 | How would you write the following in fiction given that my style guide says write out numbers up to and including 99?
*From the till, she robbed six 50,000-won notes, two 10,000s and eight thousands.*
I think some exceptions need to be made, not least to keep it informal and to respect the fact that there is a list. It is in narrative rather than dialogue. It seems unnecessary to repeat "-won notes" every time. There are too many options. Help!
From the till, she robbed six 50,000-won notes, two 10,000s and eight thousands.
From the till, she robbed six 50,000-won notes, two 10,000s and eight 1,000s [saying "eight one thousands rather than "eight thousands" seems overly formal and precise?].
From the till, she robbed 6 fifty-thousand-won notes, 2 ten thousands and 8 thousands.
From the till, she robbed six 50,000-won notes, two ten thousands and eight thousands.
Thanks for the help and suggestions. | [
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61,164 | Let's say you wrote a comic book about F1 racing, how would you cover an entire race? Should you spend 10 volumes to cover a single race, or should you just skip times very often? For example, 3 panels for 30 seconds in lap 3, then 4 panels for 40 seconds in lap 18 and 3 panels for 10 seconds in lap 45 and 4 panels for the lap 70, which is the final lap? How would you do this? Because I am trying to imagine how to do it and I am not sure how this is normally done. | [
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"selected": true,
"text": "Focus on the conflict driving your story.\n=========================================\n\nAnd please skip the rest!\n----... | 2022/01/23 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/61164",
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61,166 | How do you write a worldbuilding manuscript? I am wondering what a worldbuilding manuscript should look like. I am planning on writing a novel with a really detailed world, so I was wondering what I should put in there and how I should format it. | [
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"text": "I am not aware of any standard format.\n\nMost worldbuilding exercises I have seen begin with a map of the world, ci... | 2022/01/24 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/61166",
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61,172 | A typical approach when presenting an elaborated plan and wanting to show its execution is to make sure that something goes wrong with it. In this way we can have a fairly detailed exposition during the planning phase and tension building during the (failed) execution.
Consider instead the case in which we want to establish the character of the strategist as a master planner. We start by giving the detailed exposition of the upcoming military plan in the war-room. I am not happy with the following options:
* if the plan fails in order to raise tension, the strategist may look like an incompetent;
* we could skip the execution by saying '...and everything went as planned', but it seems dull to me;
* we could create some minor execution hiccup, which may not affect the reputation of the strategist, but does not raise tension and could bother the reader.
In the contest of medium-/large-scale military strategy, how can we have **both** a detailed exposition, in which additional worldbuilding details are revealed (e.g. alliances, or other strategical considerations), and an execution of said plan that does not detract from the reputation of the strategist and is still exciting/interesting to read? | [
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"text": "A daring plan that *does* work is a common trope - both in fiction and real life.\n\nExecution of such plan creat... | 2022/01/25 | [
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61,174 | What are the most important parts of worldbuilding that may have a big impact on the story or narration? I want to focus on the part that would have the biggest impact on the story or narration so I can spend as little time as possible worldbuilding. Do you have any insight on this? | [
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"text": "It Doesn't Work that Way:\n=========================\n\nWorldbuilding is not just a step in writing, where you need... | 2022/01/25 | [
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61,185 | What do you need to understand in order to be able to craft complex political intrigues with ease? I feel there are some missing pieces that prevent me from being productive in this area. I can't think of a good political intrigue that will make my story a lot more interesting and with full of unexpected turns. | [
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"selected": true,
"text": "Many moving parts:\n==================\n\nI won't say it's simple, because by definition intrigue is complex and dec... | 2022/01/26 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/61185",
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61,196 | How do you catch people by surprise when crafting a political intrigue? Whenever I put some politics in my story, people know exactly what's gonna happen, so I have trouble coming up with some kind of political intrigue that catch people off guard and make them excited. Is there some kind of trick to it? | [
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"selected": true,
"text": "Outrageous Fortune:\n===================\n\nHow do you surprise anyone about anything? You throw a wrench into the n... | 2022/01/27 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/61196",
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61,198 | Taking suggestions from your readers on how to progress your story without being liable to legal damage? Is there a way to navigate this, or this should be a no no at all times, because the risk of a lawsuit outweigh any positive impact it might have on your story? | [
{
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"text": "**Make them waive their rights before making suggestions.** \n\nFor example, you could have a contact form on your webs... | 2022/01/27 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/61198",
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61,207 | I want to describe the look of a room. In particular I would like for the reader to be overwhelmed by the many objects stacked on the shelves. This list of objects serves no purpose in the rest of the story other than giving the reader a >wow< moment when reading this particular passage.
I tried just going with the plain list, as if scanning the shelves with the eyes, but it ended up being as exciting as a catalogue from IKEA. Alternatively, I listed the items by grouping them, e.g. the statues, the books, the bottles, but that also had the feeling of some mail order catalogue. Giving the spotlight to some curious items, like a specific bottle, or a rare book, sounded equally bad and definitively did not produce any >wow<.
The question is: how to give the reader a sense of >wow< when making a list of all the objects in a scene? | [
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"text": "\"The shelves were coated, like snow, with items, from books to bottles, statues to jewelry. \\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\... | 2022/01/27 | [
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61,208 | >
> "Brrrrrr, it's cold, brrrrr!" said Eyadual
>
>
> "teeth grinding noise" it's cold, teeth grinding noise" said
> Eyadual.
>
>
>
Is there a way to add noises that don't have an onomatopoeia? I can't think of a way to express the sound inside quotes. Is there a way to do this? How is this usually done? | [
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"text": "I'd say something along the lines of: \"'It's so cold. So cold.' Eyadual said, grinding his teeth while he did so... | 2022/01/28 | [
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61,216 | I had been planning a story/novel for a short while and started by focusing on worldbuilding. After I got the basics down, created a character (with flaws, motivations and hooks into the world I build and the story I want to write) and I then made an outline for the plot. But I'm finding that I'm not motivated to write that character at all, despite being excited about the *idea* of writing *that character* in *that world*. I shelved that world/story a while back, as I didn't feel any motivation to write.
Contrast to more recently where I've created a character first (albeit for a Dungeons and Dragons RPG I am playing), and did some exploratory worldbuilding around them. I'm finding them very motivating to write for, to the extent that I've been making extensive background story from their past before the game.
Now I could abandon the previous story concept that I started worldbuilding for, but I really like the concept and world - I'm reluctant to give up on it. The character is one I also want to write (because of their flaws and the hooks I made into the world and story I outlined), but given how I've found writing my D&D character, I'm guessing they might be the cause of my lack of motivation. Or that I did so much worldbuilding upfront? It's not that the world I build is overly complex, or I spent a crazy amount of time on it either. It's mostly just been idle thought with occasional notes.
So how do I motivate myself to write in this situation, when I don't have that issue with my character-first approach? | [
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"text": "I've had similar experiences.\n\nBoy Meets World\n---------------\n\n**Boy Meets World** seems to have more disc... | 2022/01/28 | [
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61,226 | What's the minimum panel for a single scene in a comics? I guess it's one, but if a single scene consists of 1 panel it's going to be hard to understand when you have 9 scenes in a single page and each of them has a single panel. What are some rules of determining how many panel a comics scene should have and when can there be an exception to these rules? I know this might be subjective, but there has to be some kind of consensus rules on this to make a comics "flow" better. | [
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"text": "This is not how comics work\n---------------------------\n\nComic panels are not storyboards. They do not need to... | 2022/01/30 | [
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61,227 | I'm writing a story where one of the characters is taken in by three other characters, but they don't know the first character's name. I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out how to write this scene, since they can't refer to the first character by name.
>
> Soat couldn't help but nervously glance over his shoulder at the unconscious (person??) in his backseat. He didn't know why he felt like the had to look, it wasn't like the kid was just going to disappear.
>
>
> Siloh sat on his right, Thulos on his left, and both were wrestling to buckle the middle seatbelt over the \_\_\_\_\_\_
>
>
>
(I know this scene looks rough, it's my first draft.)
They aren't going to know his name until at least two more chapters, and I have no idea what to refer to him as until then. How should I handle this? | [
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"text": "\"**Boy**\" seems a good start.\n\n> \n> Soat couldn't help but nervously glance over his shoulder at the unconscious *... | 2022/01/30 | [
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61,233 | What are things you can do to insure your plot doesn't have hole while you're writing after you wrote the plot? Is there some kind of trick or tip to insure that after the plot is written, the subplot or parts of the plot doesn't cause some kind of plot hole down the road? | [
{
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"text": "There are any number of times and places to discover and deal with plot holes.\n\nFirst, you mentioned writing ... | 2022/01/31 | [
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61,238 | Sometimes, in movies, you see people (2-3 persons) talking while we zoom into a flower or some seemingly unrelated shots or shots that have symbolic meaning. I am wondering if it makes sense to do that in a comics book, because it would be harder to understand what's happening, because the text bubbles would make it impossible to know who's talking since we can't hear the voices of the people talking. | [
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"text": "Two devices I've seen used to make it clear which characters are talking when they're not in-panel are:\n\n* give all c... | 2022/01/31 | [
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61,241 | I am writing a paper, and I was wondering if I could use an asterisk and dagger symbol to add a note in the footnotes section explaining a word in Chicago style.?
Example:
>
> Lola\* and other plenipotentiaries† signed the document.
>
>
>
>
> ---
>
>
> \*Filipino word meaning "grandma."
>
>
> †Diplomatic representative of a country.
>
>
> | [
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"text": "The references[1](https://research.wou.edu/c.php?g=551307&p=3785233), [2](https://www.scribbr.com/chicago-style/footno... | 2022/01/31 | [
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61,255 | Consider the following sentences
>
> She did not feel the bullet going through her skull.
>
>
>
vs
>
> She did not feel the 9mm NATO Parabellum lead bullet going through her skull.
>
>
>
vs
>
> She did not feel the nine millimeter NATO Parabellum lead bullet going through her skull.
>
>
>
I have the impression that the last two examples have a beat dilation caused by the added details. The last one in particular seems to slow down even further due to the choice of longer words. On the other hand, when re-reading the last passage I find it almost cartoonish and somehow lacking the pathos of the first sentence.
I would like for the beat to slow down as if the bullet were to take forever to go through the skull, but at the same time I wouldn't want to lose tension in a mound of details.
How can a beat dilation be created and extended without detracting from the main event and without becoming comical? | [
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"text": "An effective method to lengthen an important moment is to expand it with specific details. \n\nFrom 'A Bullet to the Br... | 2022/02/01 | [
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61,257 | I am writing a book, and I'm trying to figure out how to reveal the main character's identity. It is a crime book set in modern day and is a story told in the perspective of a serial killer. I plan for the reveal to come somewhat early in the book and display the main character's thoughts and mental process throughout the story. I have to get the story out by April 1rst to be a part of a book collection based on inspired songs by the band, Talking Heads. This will be inspired from the song, Psycho Killer. | [
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"text": "Just have the POV character be introduced to a new person by a mutual acquaintance, they have a short exchange (\"w... | 2022/02/02 | [
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61,266 | I've been working on a story for close to two years, and have (almost) everything fleshed out — the world, the background, the characters and most scenes. I recently gave it to a friend to read, who loved everything but pointed out that my main character lacks an ultimate goal.
I'm struggling to find it, but I want to avoid a Nick Carraway-esque passive bystander narrating the story, since the character's PoV forms and defines how we see the world.
Their abstract goal is to find a place in a politically and socially changing world, but this is not *it*. Everybody wants this in one way or another.
I tried the suggestions in [How can I figure out my main character's overall goal?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/26851/how-can-i-figure-out-my-main-characters-overall-goal). I know how she will act, depending on the situation. She has her flaws, and will iteratively overcome them, while paying some price for it. I put her in difficult situations. But she severely lacks motivation or goals. As a young adult, if asked what her future occupation would be, she would probably put down undecided. As an adult, her initial pursuits are decided by chance and absence of better options. She will slowly gain control over her life — but there is always this lack of *why* she does it, and why she is more than the sum of the people and events around her. | [
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"text": "What is at stake?\n-----------------\n\nFundamentally, conflict is about potential loss. The character must ... | 2022/02/03 | [
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61,277 | So, I'm writing a piece of fiction where there is a King with three daughters. In order to decide who becomes the next Quuan, he sets three trials. Trials of Heart, Mind and Might. I'm done with the first trial and have a good idea about what will happen in the second one.
But try as I might, I can't come up with a test that tests intelligence that is good enough to decide who becomes the next Quuan.
I've thought of things like treasure hunts, and a hunt to catch some bandits first or something along those lines. But, is it really realistic to think a King will determine the Kingdom's future by means of a treasure hunt?
For the Heart, I sent a farmer whose crops were destroyed by locusts to each princess to ask for relieve from the year's taxes.
The first one was kind and agreed to allow him to not pay the taxes of that year.
The second one was intelligent and moved, so she allowed him one more year to pay only a quarter of what he should have paid.
The third one is clever and sly, and her spies had already informed her that the farmer was a test. So she also allowed him to not pay that year's tax.
All three passed the Trial of Heart in that way. Obviously, other than the third, none of them knew they were being tested.
Does anyone have any ideas? | [
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"text": "I would (as an author) invent some historical puzzles, and quiz them on that. Any new Quuan should be well versed in... | 2022/02/05 | [
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61,278 | How do you explain that the people talking English in a comic book are talking in another language that isn't English? Let's say that in panels 1, 2, and 4 the characters don't talk in English, but the dialogue is still translated into English inside the text bubbles. However, in panel 3 the people are *actually* talking in English.
The people in panels 1, 2 and 4 are Germans speaking German. The people in panel 3 are English people speaking English. All the dialogue is still written in English.
So how do I make that difference clear? | [
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"text": "Put the text in angle brackets and add a footnote at the bottom of the first panel (or page) where you do it, to say whi... | 2022/02/05 | [
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61,286 | How do you make characters sound like non-native English speakers without using any grammar error in their dialogues? I don't want to make people uncomfortable by having a character speak like an idiot of some sort like they did during the 18th century. | [
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"text": "Colloquial, Archaic, big, and non-English insertions:\n=====================================================\n\nTo g... | 2022/02/06 | [
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61,293 | I've started to write [a book](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-VMXftN_SCYkSpaJT1vH6heC5IQ-q6PkZIQf3cdCGi8/edit#heading=h.c24cwmxt7ech) of short stories about a quirky nerdy guy and his growth into an adult man (see [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/themiddle/comments/ru90ja/writing_the_middlestyle_book/hvrfm4u/?context=3) for a description). I got a recommendation to use first-person narration.
While about 70-80% of the book has the main character present, I want to include situations and dialogue where he is not. But I'm using first person narration. What should I do? I got some ideas, but I cannot use them everywhere:
* The main character is close to someone and overhears dialogue
* A side character says what happened when the main character was not present
* Write some chapters from the POV of a side character | [
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"text": "If you stay in the first person POV (and not shifting POVs is the preferred approach for short stories) then you need t... | 2022/02/06 | [
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61,300 | How do you show, not tell when a person poisons someone? Instead of saying, "Rumerz put poison in his drink", what do you do to show that Rumerz did it? Do you just heavily suggest it was done by describing how the poison fluid spreads inside the cup of water? What are the things you can do? | [
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"text": "Pick your Poison:\n=================\n\nPoisoning would involve an action, or the action could take place prior, in ... | 2022/02/07 | [
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61,310 | I see a lot of films using allegory. For example, a scene from a movie can be a Biblical allegory of Musu crossing the sea. But rarely do they seem to do anything with it. It's like the allegory added doesn't really serve a purpose. Is it possible that an allegory is added just for the sake of it without serving some grand narrative purpose? | [
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"text": "**Hide the real meaning** \n\nIn some situations it can be hard to discuss a subject. Perhaps because they're taboo or ... | 2022/02/08 | [
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61,325 | <https://screenwritingbae.tumblr.com/post/133954599046/an-outline-of-whiplash-2014-please-share>
I see set-up and inciting incident, but then there's call to adventure, which seems like something random that not every story beat should have, and even worse last chance to chicken out. So I was wondering if there was a web app that would let me check a list of exhaustive parts or sub parts of a story beat. Something free would be nice. | [
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61,330 | I'm writing a story with 3 POV's. One of which is a 6 year old girl. The problem is simply this: I'm neither a girl nor in first grade. In fact, I'm quite a bit older. The first problem I've more-or-less gotten, but it's the second one I'm having issues with. I've looked at the question [How can I make dialog sound like that of a six year old?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/32142), and it helped, but the storytelling aspects aren't there, which is more of what I was hoping for.
I definitely understand what Wetcircuit said, that this is asking what to write. I don't want an exact 'she'll sound like this,' more of a generalization to pointing me in the right direction. I tend to write with a style of long sentences and words, and it doesn't end up fitting at all.
Essentially: How is a little kid's thinking different from older kids and adults, and how can I transfer that methodology into my writing? | [
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61,341 | In my writing, I’ve found that (in dialogue) I use the em dash to show a sudden break from dialogue, and I use an ellipsis for trailing off, often coupled with a pause.
I’ve run into the situation where a character suddenly stops talking and pauses for a while. It feels clunky to interrupt the dialogue, so I arrived at using an ellipsis after an em dash.
So the question here is, **has this been done before?** While I feel such punctuation would be easily understood, I want to know how unfamiliar or unusual it would be for a reader. If possible, examples would be appreciated. | [
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61,354 | I'm an undergraduate student who's currently self-studying writing in quarantine. At present, I've read some books and browsed writing workshop websites on academic or technical writing. However, the more I learn, the more I notice the differences between professional writers' writing and mine, without knowing why.
This text reflects my current level of writing: I generally understand and put to practice the main points which are repeatedly mentioned in writing books or workshops, but I neither know what I don't know nor understand the main points in depth. Would anyone recommend resources for better writing? I'm open to resources from any genre of writing/type of text, from undergraduate or graduate student courses, or from subjects that are related to (or are incorporated in) writing, such as grammar and other linguistic concepts.
Thank you, in advance, for the recommendations! I appreciate them so much. | [
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"text": "For fiction, I recommend Stephen King's book, \"On Writing\". There is also a series called \"The Elements of Ficti... | 2022/02/11 | [
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