qid int64 1 2.78M | question stringlengths 2 66.6k | answers list | date stringlengths 10 10 | metadata list |
|---|---|---|---|---|
65,884 | How can I write a short story without naming the places characters visit?
Example: If the main character visits a restaurant then I want to show it to the the reader without naming the restaurant. | [
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"answer_id": 65885,
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"text": "You can include a description. You don't have to mention the name if you don't want to."
},
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"answer_id": ... | 2023/03/20 | [
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65,906 | I would like to search for words in a sentence that ends with a question mark - ?
For example I have a pdf document or a word document with the following sentence:
>
> Which of the following describes a benefit of a data lakehouse that is
> unavailable in a traditional data warehouse?
>
>
>
I would like to search in the document for the word 'lakehouse' that is followed by a question mark.
A successful search would find the above sentence or the following sentence:
>
> Assuming the data engineer is the Delta table owner, which part of the
> Databricks Lakehouse Platform can the data engineer use to grant the
> data analysts the appropriate access?
>
>
>
I thought I could do a search like **lakehouse*?*\* but that doesn't work.
Any thoughts? | [
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"text": "I'm afraid the only way I know how to do this is simply to search for `lakehouse`, and check if it's in a question o... | 2023/03/22 | [
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65,909 | Is it possible to write a character that remains mysterious until the very end without sacrificing character development?
I was thinking you can't do it to a main character, so I thought about an evil character that remained very mysterious until the very end while developing him as a character throughout the story. While I can't reveal everything about the character by showing his backstory, I am wondering what I can reveal and how much? Should you show very little of their backstory, should you even show some of it, and if yes, what information should you keep secret to maintain this aura of mystery? I would like some tips for achieving that. | [
{
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"author": "Community",
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"text": "On the outside, character development is nothing but a change in their behavior.\n\nAt the beginning of a story a chara... | 2023/03/22 | [
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65,918 | I was thinking of writing a story that starts out as a serious drama, but suddenly shifts to a comedic tone without any clear reason or transition. I thought it would subvert expectation and make the whole story more funny, but I am not sure if this is a bad idea, because I've been told many times that you need to be consistent with the tone and style of writing and a sudden shift could be jarring for readers and may take them out of the story. How can you make this work? | [
{
"answer_id": 65919,
"author": "Phil S",
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"selected": false,
"text": "While there's nothing to say you **can't** do this, it's unusual for a reason.\n\nWhen a reader selects and starts r... | 2023/03/24 | [
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65,924 | How do you plan for a story with multiple overlapping arcs? In One Piece, you have one big story arc, and then multiple arcs within it (2 layers), but I am wondering if it's possible to have a story with multiple overlapping arcs (10+ layers or more), and if it is possible, how do you plan for it, because when you write a beat sheet, you only write the main story arc, so in the case of multiple overlapping arcs, your story may end up with a lot of plot holes, pacing and logic issues, so I was wondering if there was a way you can plan for a really complex story like that. | [
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"text": "When writing complex arcs, it's best to start with one overarching plotline. The one that draws all the character... | 2023/03/25 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/65924",
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65,932 | I've been told that a tragic hero is a protagonist with a tragic flaw or a character defect that ultimately leads to their downfall and that the audience should sympathize with the character, even as they recognize their flaws.
I am wondering if it's ok if the audience doesn't sympathize with the character. I have a character who is extremely evil and unlikeable, an anti-hero type, so I am wondering if that's ok. I've seen a lot of people experimenting with genre and archetypes, and I was wondering if it's possible to write an effective tragedy with an unlikeable tragic hero who people can't sympathize with. | [
{
"answer_id": 65933,
"author": "Amadeus",
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"text": "I really doubt that is possible.\n\nReaders (because we are somewhat egotistical) tend to identify with the protago... | 2023/03/27 | [
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65,936 | I am looking for a good or common way to include search terms and phrases in complete sentences with clarity when the term/phrase begins and ends. I do not want to include punctuation near the terms unless the punctuation is part of the term. I am currently double spacing before the search term then continuing the sentence. I would like to make the search term stand out more but using brackets or parentheses may cause the reader to mistake them for part of the search term. Italics may give the impression that the search term should be written in italics. Do you have suggestions, or is there a common way to express search terms that I have failed to find while searching the net? | [
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"text": "I really doubt that is possible.\n\nReaders (because we are somewhat egotistical) tend to identify with the protago... | 2023/03/27 | [
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65,942 | One effective technique I was told to use is to integrate the exposition within the narrative, rather than presenting it as a separate block of information. This can be accomplished through various means such as dialogue that describes the world for the sake of worldbuilding. However, wouldn't using a dialogue for instance be considered an info dump, or an exposition dump? How can you balance narrative and exposition then?
I have a world that's way too strange and different from our world and not doing info dumps constantly is very hard to do, because there are too many weird things happening all the time. How can you then balance the two? Is there a technique that allows you to do info dumps on a constant and frequent basis without affecting the pacing and the narrative? | [
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"text": "My understanding of 'info' dumps is that they shouldn't be used and that the writer should insert information in the ... | 2023/03/28 | [
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65,943 | How can you signal the readers that the perspective has shifted to an omniscient narrator without explicitly stating it? Sometimes, you want to change from third person narration to omnipotent narration, because it's easier to describe something objectively without having to write narration while taking into account the psyche of your narrator without telling there's a perspective shift?
Also, how do you tell your readers that this perspective shift is not from an "omniscient narrator", but is from the flawed point of view of the original narrator, but is told as though it was an omniscient narrator telling the story to make writing a lot easier and more manageable? | [
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"answer_id": 65950,
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"text": "For the first part of your question. You could switch the focus to the environment the main characters are in. For e... | 2023/03/28 | [
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65,961 | How would you describe a magician and his tricks? What would his daily routine look like? | [
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"text": "There are no shortcuts\n----------------------\n\nwhen resolving your challenges creating your characters. I would assu... | 2023/04/01 | [
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65,964 | I am writing a science fantasy novel, but I think I should re-write it completely. Let me explain the situation.
Here's the concept of my novel: The story takes place in an alternate world where a minority of residents are "angels". Each angel is an embodiment of a branch/concept of science, and unlike humans, they can cast magic. Teaching science to humans is their duty.
What I'm trying to achieve from this setting is to have an educational effect on the reader. The angels act as science teachers not only to human characters, but also to real humans who are reading the book.
The problem is, my novel is becoming just a science textbook in disguise. I've taken *Der Zahlenteufel* (The Number Devil) as the reference to take ideas from, and just like how this novel is just a math textbook (for children) in disguise, my novel is becoming one for science.
That said, let me show the plot. The protagonist is Berta Newton, the alternate-world counterpart to Ohaac Nektet, and is an angel. Her student is Joseph-Louis Legrunna, a human. Berta is to teach Legrunna Newtonian Mechanics, and Legrunna is to develop his own theories (Lagrangian mechanics) to be encrowned to an angel too.
I think the reason of the problem is the lack of building the antagonist. I still haven't succeeded in finding who this would be, and what they would do to compromise Berta's and Legrunna's mission. There are some unsure options:
* Maybe the antagonist is a pseudo-scientist advocating their own pseudoscience, and Berta is to debunk them.
* Maybe the antagonist is an anti-scientist disparaging Berta's works, and Legrunna is to defend her.
* Or maybe... just let the antagonist be a chaotic evil destroying the world, and let Berta act as the hero, using her science magics.
These options will result in completely different stories. What would be the best option when my novel is meant to teach the reader science? Are there any other fitting options? | [
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"text": "When the goal of the novel is to teach the reader, then lack of understanding can be the antagonist in the novel, too. ... | 2023/04/02 | [
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65,971 | Which one is correct? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the context matters. I've heard that "if the sentence cant stand on its own, the semi-colon isn't needed", but I frankly can't tell if this adage applies here.
>
> I want to emphasize that this doesn't exist, it's just one that I
> thought of.
>
>
>
Or
>
> I want to emphasize that this doesn't exist; it's just one that I
> thought of.
>
>
> | [
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"text": "Semicolons are optional punctuation marks used to join complete sentences in place of a period.\n----------------------... | 2023/04/03 | [
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65,977 | When an editor goes over my writing, even if most of their feedback is Writing 101 advice, it's still super helpful because my writing has a lot of flaws.
But I never notice these flaws (big picture stuff, and subtle stuff alike) while writing and editing my writing. Even if it's something as basic as the beginning and the ending not matching up well, or the main character being unlikable and uncool, or introducing way too much terminology early on -- I've criticized other people's works for these mistakes and more. So how come I'm literally blind to the glaring faults in my own work?
How can I learn to find the errors in my writing? Or is it impossible to get better at this, and should I focus on getting a lot of editors? | [
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"text": "The problem to overcome is be a different person, which implies changing focus, metrics, perspective, involvement, in... | 2023/04/04 | [
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65,991 | My story is set in a dystopia. The main character is on a train journey until suddenly the train got hijacked by a terrorist group. The terrorists aren’t inside the trains so most passengers don’t know what is actually happening. They just know the train is going at speeds faster than it should and that it’s going off the actual tracks into pedestrian areas. | [
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"text": "So I would look into documentaries and first-hand accounts from actual train derailment survivors as to their experien... | 2023/04/06 | [
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65,998 | My character is on a train that’s about to be hijacked. She notices strange things with the train like thudding on the roof but no one else seems to care. How can I convey that uneasy feeling you get when you feel like something bad is going to happen? | [
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"text": "I think you are already off to a good start. The viewpoint character notices something and no one else seems to react t... | 2023/04/07 | [
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66,004 | I am currently doing a rewrite of my story, starting with the prologue. Now, my prologue exists mainly to introduce the main villain of the story, and I've been working on making some improvements, such as spreading the big bad's description across the prologue, rather than just simply dumping it all in one paragraph. The prologue introduced him playing chess, getting interrupted by someone begging him to help his associate, and ordered his guards to dispose of the interloper before returning to his game. However, I've had some criticisms such as the perspective being too objective, (I use 3rd person, and try to avoid 1st person), and a few other things. I know it'll never be perfect, but I at least want it to at least be more engaging. | [
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"text": "You should not do this at all.\n\nThis doesn't sound like a prologue, but an opening scene.\n\nThat said, your stru... | 2023/04/09 | [
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66,017 | What is the most appealing way to insert a bit of narrative within dialog in a single sentence? For example:
>
> “The unified realm of my childhood,” Hubykd hoped to avoid discussing the reasons for its disintegration; the children carried the blood of the traitor, and she carried more than her share of the scars, “had one councilor for all the districts.”
>
>
>
Should I use dashes or em dashes to indicate the break and resumption of Hubykd's dialog that was interrupted by her thoughts? Do I capitalize "had" when Hubykd's dialog resumes? How, precisely should this example be formatted? | [
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"text": "The only time you should insert anything into dialog in this manner is when you are explaining something about how... | 2023/04/12 | [
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66,023 | Table of Contents:
* Prologue
* 24 Years Ago: Omissions of the Past
* A number of chapters of backstory (life) of father of main character, but son, who is the main character for rest of book is not in it, but mentioned.
* Present Day;
* A number of chapters about the son, who is the novel's main character, but the father is still in the story to the end of the novel.
Does this make sense, as in, a good way to handle a backstory that is necessary but does not easily fit into the "main" story? | [
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"text": "This sounds perfectly acceptable to me. It's quite common to have a prologue from a different character setting up t... | 2023/04/13 | [
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66,025 | I’ve scoured the internet for help, but my search bore no fruit and left me very frustrated. I’m currently proof reading a novel I plan to publish soon and I’ve run into a little snag. So my character sits down at a piano to play two pieces:
Ycxuqegt’s Impromptu No. 3 in G-Flat Major, Op. 90
and
Ycxuqegt’s Ständchen, D. 957, No. 4.
Trouble is, I’m not sure how to properly format them. My questions are, should Impromptu and Ständchen be italicized or should I use quotations? What should or shouldn’t be capitalized?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. :) | [
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66,031 | I'm developing a naming system for a video game, where a player or NPC's name can and in some cases will be mononyms, and in other cases a full name with a first and last name. This leads to a problem when figuring out how to display a list of names in alphabetical order.
For full names the 'sorting' format is 'family name, given name', and for mononyms just 'given name'. Should I change the way that I format the full name, and compare it to 'given name' and 'givenName familyName'? Or is there a more appropriate way to handle mononyms? | [
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"text": "This sounds perfectly acceptable to me. It's quite common to have a prologue from a different character setting up t... | 2023/04/14 | [
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66,036 | I'm a beginner writer, trying to learn fundementals. I'm editing some work now and I'm confused about proper formatting of paragraphs with dialogue.
I know that you should start a new paragraph when there's a new speaker, but is that more in a back in forth conversation? What if there's actions or context before the dialogue like this example below?
Is this formatted correctly and does it not need to have the dialogue starting in a new paragraph because there's action before the dialogue? Any advice is appreciated.
>
> Adellyn or her partner Qhea had never ridden in a limo as luxurious as this. The dress their boss had insisted she wear rode up to an almost indecent height, forcing her to keep tugging it back down. “Remind me again why the agency chose me for this mission?” she asked.
>
>
> Qhea grinned, amused by her irritation, but replied without his usual sarcasm, “Well, you’re the only one on the team who looks good in a dress.”
>
>
> Adellyn snorted unladylike and shifted in her seat again. “Seems like everyone’s forgotten about Fiunu. She’d look just as good in this dress with her golden blonde hair and tan skin. Plus, she’s used to wearing them.”
>
>
> | [
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"text": "I think you're doing it right\n-----------------------------\n\n* You have one speaker per paragraph.\n* Who speaking i... | 2023/04/16 | [
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66,052 | The scenario is that a person from our present time travels millions of years into the future. A catastrophic event caused the Continents to shift and reform, and wiped out near all life. Earth is entirely different now.
It has been millions of years. The language at that time has changed so much as humans had to re-evolve and they cannot understand our form of English. I am writing this scene from the perspective of the person in the future, meeting the traveler and trying to communicate with them. The traveler has a device that translates for them but it is malfunctioning. During this time that it is not working, I want to describe roughly how present day American English would sound to someone in that time period. Not with actual quotations, but with the sounds and accents that come with language. I will say the person in the future is on the continent that used to be North America, and would be a descendant of English speakers. I want them to be able to understand certain words, but the rest to be gibberish.
English is my first language so I am struggling to explain how it sounds because I have never heard it from the outside. When I hear Spanish spoken, it sounds fast paced with lots of rolling Rs and soft Ys. It flows more than English. German has usually sounded thick with lots of tongue movement and harsher in some phrases. Could anyone else explain their experience with English in this way?
It is imperative to the plot that she speaks American English. | [
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"text": "A million years is a long time, even on evolutionary time scales\n-----------------------------------------------------... | 2023/04/21 | [
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66,057 | I wrote a passage about slavery, with a target audience of 12-13-year old students. Though for young students, I try to keep conventions highly academic, so students are exposed to real conventions used by historians.
Whenever 'slaves' appears, Grammarly recommends I change it to "enslaved peoples", with this comment:
>
> The term slaves may be considered dehumanizing. Different wording may help to acknowledge the humanity of enslaved people.
>
>
>
This suggestion confuses me, because though "slaves" has a derogatory connotation, and my goal in writing it to make the readers understand their plight was *awful*, so why replace the derogatory word?
Is enslaved peoples now regarded as the proper term to use in academia? | [
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"text": "When you use a noun - slave, prisoner, billionaire -- to refer to a person, you are assigning them an identity... | 2023/04/24 | [
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66,065 | I am editing a mystery that takes place in an apartment building. Various apartment numbers are referenced often. 503 is where the murder takes place. Everyone always says each digit when referring to the unit.
So... how should it be written? Five-o-three or 503 or five oh three?
Thanks in advance!! | [
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"text": "It is correct to write 503 as \"five zero three\" or \"five hundred and three\".\n\nBut it is common to say \... | 2023/04/25 | [
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66,075 | I’m writing a novel. I am planning the plot in detail and doing worldbuilding. In the meantime, I would like to write some short stories to practice writing itself (style, pacing, emotion, descriptions…). However, when I start a short story a find myself planning the plots, characters etc., so I end up with the same problem. There are plenty of prompts for writing out there, but they lead to the same problem.
Is it possible to find a place with short stories ready to be told, so that I can focus on telling the story instead of inventing or finding it?. They don’t need to be original at all, I just look for some exercises.
For example, imagine Little Red Riding Hood:
* Little girl lives in the forest with Mum
* Grandma is sick at the other side of the forest
* Mum tells her to visit Grandma and warns her not to speak to strangers
* Little girls finds the Xolg and chats with him
* Etc.
* They put stones in the belly of the Xolg and throw him into the river.
* Happy ending.
Foity tales are an option and I might try, but I don’t feel very compelled by them. | [
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66,078 | I'm looking for adjectives to describe incremental degrees of injuries of various body parts for an RPG system. They should be both intuitively understandable and rankable to an average English speaker. That is, if the list of injury terms was given out of order to different people, they would consistently order them the same way. It's fine if they don't anatomically make sense for every kind of body part, e.g. a sprained head or a broken eye, so long as they establish a general degree of injury.
Injury levels are meant to represent a distinct degree of *functional impairment*, not the actual nature of the injury. A "broken" limb means a limb that is as impaired in its primary function as a partially broken arm would be, even if it happens to be some alien limb without bones at all.
I'm going to need about half a dozen injury levels in total, from superficial (currently named "bruised") to "might as well not be there" (currently named "crippled"). Right now I have:
1. Bruised
2. Sprained
3. Injured
4. Broken
5. Mangled
6. Crippled.
I'm the least happy with "crippled" as it could easily be mistaken for permanent impairment and is also often used as a term to describe disabilities.
These would be prefixed to body parts when describing injured characters, e.g. a mangled right arm or a sprained leg, but still accompanied by the numerical injury level. These terms aren't meant to replace the numerical system, but rather flavor it and provide intuitive guidelines for what ballpark of injuries a given level represents. | [
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66,080 | The tradition of dropping the definite article in dramatic dialogue seems to go back to William Shakespeare's days and beyond. Thus, in *Romeo and Juliet* (to pick a play at random), the Apothecary is referred to (in the dialogue and blocking) as, simply, APOTHECARY, and not "the Apothecary." As in:
>
> Enter Apothecary.
>
>
> APOTHECARY
>
> Who calls so loud?
>
>
>
... and the Prince simply as PRINCE.
In contemporary plays and screenplays, a nameless character - say, an incredulous-looking cop - would become, in dialogue format, INCREDULOUS-LOOKING COP. As in:
>
> INT. STREET - SUNNY AFTERNOON
>
>
> An incredulous-looking COP approaches. Seck and Jolr stare at him.
>
>
> INCREDULOUS-LOOKING COP
>
> What are you morons even doing here?
>
>
>
Here's my question:
If you were writing a story and came to a point in which two characters engaged in friendly banter, would it be okay NOT to drop the definite article? As in:
>
> Standing on the beach, the Frenchman and the Englishwoman looked skeptically at the approaching ship.
>
>
> The Frenchman said:
>
>
> "Well, didn't I say it would take them less than a week?"
>
>
> The Englishwoman:
>
>
> "That wasn't the bet."
>
>
> The Frenchman:
>
>
> "Of course it was. What are you talking about?"
>
>
> The Englishwoman:
>
>
> "You said, three days. Not the same thing."
>
>
> The Frenchman:
>
>
> "Oh, no. Pedantic? You?"
>
>
> The Englishwoman, stubbornly:
>
>
> "Three days. You said, three days."
>
>
> The Frenchman:
>
>
> "This hair-splitting doesn't become you at all, my dear."
>
>
> The Englishwoman:
>
>
> "Don't try to weasel your way out of this. You've lost the bet. You owe me."
>
>
> The Frenchman shrugged. The Englishwoman raised her eyebrows sarcastically.
>
>
>
What do you think? Is it okay not to drop the article? | [
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66,095 | I'm writing a fictional(science fiction) story. Currently, I'm on a chapter that has a lot perspective changes, and I'm writing in third person, so my readers can experience things near the protagonists or the main antagonist. I want to apply very little perspective changes to the chapter, but the whole story has a ton of action written into the core of the book's identity. What could I possibly do to apply less character perspective changes? | [
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66,111 | Was watching Babylon 5 and am used to excellent writing with Harlan Ellison. There was this sentence in Season 5
>
> Humor is a universal element…like helium.
>
>
>
This seemed to lack impact, especially as delivered with the pause by Bruce Boxleitner. It seems to me that it should be
>
> Humor, like helium, is a universal element.
>
>
>
Or even better
>
> Like helium, humor is a universal element.
>
>
>
Is it just me. Is there a term for screwing up a sentence in this fashion? | [
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"text": "I don't think it is screwed up at all.\n\nThe punchline should come at the end of the sentence. And \"helium\" is f... | 2023/05/01 | [
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66,119 | I am in the midst of reworking my latest manuscript into a shape that someone might be inclined to publish. To help me along I hired a professional editor and writer, whose comments and suggestions, for the most part, have been very helpful. However, I am struggling with her insistence that I avoid the third person omniscient POV. While writing from a character's POV can certainly add immediacy and authenticity (and changing POV can be jarring), sometimes it just doesn’t work for me. My editor insists that the omniscient observer style of, say, Churluq Yicrans (I was flattered) is no longer in vogue. Can a successful urban fantasy novel be narrated with a combination of both omniscient observer and individual characters POVs? | [
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66,126 | In my book a character who the main characters have saved before is revealed to be the real main antagonist. I originally wanted this reveal to happen at the end, but after looking at betrayals in most things, I found that they usually happen at the climax. But my question is: **When is a good time to have a betrayal?** | [
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"text": "It's the [Ragem Rabbit principle.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtfHaJKW1zQ) Ragem could only take his hand out... | 2023/05/03 | [
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66,132 | I have a convoluted sentence that I am struggling to get punctuated correctly.
Sam is talking with Perkins.
>
> "This is costing me money," Perkins retorted. "And Triple A doesn't pay enough as it is."
>
>
> "Sorry to be costing you money," Sam said. "Ashcroft Apartments. Do you remember, not this past Sunday, but the Sunday before that--"
>
>
> "Buddy," the driver interrupted, "I don't even know what day today is."
>
>
>
The interrupted question is what I'm struggling with, but will pay attention to other suggestions as well.
Should there be a comma after 'remember'? And should there be a question mark after the dash?
Thanks very much in advance! | [
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66,135 | I am writing the text of a significant musical work that will be sung by a chorus. I will also be composing the music, but this question is specific to the lyrics that the chorus will sing. Note that this is *not* a "dramatic work" like an opera or music theatre work, but rather a "concert work." None of the singers in the chorus are trained as actors, nor will there be roles, acting, characters, costumes, or a set.
The subject of the piece is a significant historical event in the 19th century, for which I have found several good sources:
* diary accounts and letters from people who were there
* poetry by people who were there, both narrative poetry and more abstract
* newspaper articles from the days and weeks after the event
* historical accounts written in the last ten years
Stylistically, I do not want to use a [spoken] narrator to tell the story. I want to tell it entirely in music. But how to I make sure the audience grasps what is going on? I could write explanations to be printed in the concert program, but wouldn't want to rely on these because sometimes it's too dark to read them, people who listen to recordings after the fact won't have them, etc.
One of the poems written about the event uses a detached, third person perspective. It's a simple narration, in rhyming verse. But then, how do I transition the text back to the first person accounts, which tell parts of the story in dialogue? I could break the work into movements and give each movement a descriptive title, but I worry that this won't be enough to tell the story fully.
Using some of the more abstract poetry is easier to do - that suits itself well to chorus - but it doesn't really advance the narrative.
I would love ideas for how lyricists/librettists would approach thinking about handling narrative voice in such a setting. | [
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66,143 | I'm writing a short story set in a medieval-like fantasy kingdom. At some point a group of people are passing through a forested low mountain area when they are attacked by hooded people, there is a fight with arrows, swords etc and the villains win.
However, a 10-year-old child manages to hide and survive. He witnesses the massacre, or at least a bit of it (to the point of recognising the assailants, either because he recognises some of their voices, or maybe because a hood falls for a moment, or maybe for both reasons).
The child wasn't supposed to be there in the first place, and at the moment of the attack he was a bit away from the group, so the attackers don't know he's there and aren't looking for him.
Is it realistic for the boy to hide in a tree (he would climb it for fun before the attack)? If so, what kind of tree would be suitable? If a tree is not a good place to hide, what about a bush? Or a tree with big curved roots? | [
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66,146 | I have spent years trying to get published. I even had a publisher at one time who took my hard earned money and never published my manuscripts. I finished my first manuscript in 2003. It's now 20 years later and I've gotten nowhere. I have dozens of completed manuscripts. All are 500 pages or more. All are handwritten due to my circumstances at the time. I've paid three different people to type them and none ever finished. I've tried read-to-type but it's too error-persistent. And now that I am out of prison trying to work, I just don't have the time to do it myself.
I would like to find a traditional publisher, as paying for it is not within my budget while trying to feed my family. I'm married with two children living with me, as well as my wife's uncle who has terminal liver failure. So any help or advice is greatly appreciated.
I have my manuscripts all on PDF. But where no traditional publisher takes unsolicited manuscripts, I have been unsuccessful in finding one. I've even resorted to looking for a co-author for the books I've already written, just to get them published. | [
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66,150 | I've been rewriting a book, and I've realised how blocky and kind of boring my character descriptions were in my first version of the book, and I thought that maybe instead of writing a character that is described with their physical looks all in one paragraph, it's better to scatter information about how they look throughout the book and mainly focus more on certain physical attributes and more on personality and speech patterns. Will that work better than having blocky paragraphs describing a character when writing from the third person? | [
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66,170 | I need help finding ceremony names that would suit underwater ceremonies. I've looked at several name generators and thought they wouldn't work underwater. I've also thought about the "Coral Reef Ceremony," which now sounds stupid and juvenile, but it's the only thing I can think of that's 'underwater' themed.
The ceremony celebrates her first trip away from home alone for the first time; as soon as she's 15, she gets to go anywhere past the Coral Reef where her father's castle is located, including the surface, as long as she's not seen. | [
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66,189 | Looking for formatting rules or conventions for screenplays. Many times they mention `this format results roughly in 1 minute on film per page`.
Is this an observation on average (i.e. an output), or is it a prerequisite (i.e. an input)? Just wondering ...
---
**P.S.**: W.r.t. the excellent answers from @Amadeus and @user52445 it turns out that it's good practice to follow the US-formatting conventions for screenplay scripts.
* it may look old-fashioned
* it seems to be a good tool to interest and coordinate a (big) team of creatives, actors, technicians etc.
---
**References:**
* <https://screencraft.org/blog/how-to-write-a-screenplay-a-10-step-guide/> :
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wNOY4.png)
* Conventions: <https://writersstore.com/blogs/news/how-to-write-a-screenplay-a-guide-to-scriptwriting> :
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nTzXw.png)
* Final screenplay from "Forrest Gump" (154 pages), from <https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/best-free-movie-scripts-online/>
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6nRjB.png) | [
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66,193 | In my 3rd draft, a character, that adds a lot to the main character's backstory and motivation spends around 10 minutes in the movie. Am I safe killing him off, or should I extend the character's time? | [
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66,196 | I'am writing a novel. The events in the novel take place in about two years. In this time the events of the main plot and conflicts between the characters get a conclusion. However, there is a secondary plot that cannot be resolved in two years because it would be completely unrealistic, however I would like to provide at least some clues about how that turned out and what happened to the characters.
I know I can write an epilogue, but are there other options?
In case it is useful, the narrator is a character that is a child while the events of the novel take place. I mean, the child becomes an author and the she writes the book in third person. Maybe I keep this information to myself or maybe I reveal it to the reader at some point. | [
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66,202 | Trying to have a character express hesitation and uncertainty with the tone of their voice. Like the verbal equivalent of an eye roll or an awkward smile. I'd like to say they're employing vocal fry, by lowering their pitch and stretching their voice until it buzzes or rattles a little bit. But I'm concerned the term "vocal fry" isn't common enough to read smoothly if I just write that. For example, I think this is pretty awkward:
>
> "Ha, yeah," she said with vocal fry.
>
>
>
I could avoid the terminology and describe it more literally, does that come across more clearly?
>
> "Yeah," she said, stretching out the word until it buzzed in her throat.
>
>
>
I think it would be best if just "fry" was something that everyone understood, but unfortunately I think it's too unfamiliar:
>
> "Yeah," she said with a low fry.
>
>
>
What is a good broadly-understandable way to describe this kind of speech/tone?
EDIT
FYI, if you're not familiar, here's the Wikipedia article on this kind of vocal style: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_fry_register>
The article contains an audio example that is easy to play. Source file: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vocal-Fry-May-Undermine-the-Success-of-Young-Women-in-the-Labor-Market-pone.0097506.s005.oga> | [
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66,207 | Is there a way to have multiple alternative variants of a scene (alternative dialogue, shorter scene, etc.) in a spec script that, for example let's say the writers room of a tv show, would agree on one of them before turning it into a shooting script? If that's possible, how would one properly format/denote that? | [
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66,214 | I am attempting to begin writing a Substack newsletter, but I have hit a serious problem: I am a chronic, crippled perfectionist. I can't get through a sentence of any given post without freezing up and becoming unable to continue. It is the same situation with my programming; I can't work on any of my projects because I can't stop criticizing my own code. I tried taking a few weeks off of working on both writing and programming, but it hasn't helped in the slightest.
What do I do? I can't get anything done and it is really taking a toll on me. I have so many things I want to do but I can't get out of my own head and just *do it*. I have tried following online courses and guides, but none of them have helped.
Does anyone here have any suggestions? | [
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66,217 | My protagonist finds out that his friends have completely forgotten him. I want to write an insulting scene for my protagonist and want the readers to connect with him fully. Need some tips on how to achieve this. | [
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66,226 | I'm writing a story and want to immerse the readers by describing the sound of a knife being pulled out of an eye socket. I can't think of a good word. It'd be descriptive, wet, and grating. It could be a series of words I could form a sentence around for this particular instance.
I settled on "shunk," but I think I could describe it better, seeing as the character is removing the knife from his own eye socket, much to the shock of the person whose perspective we're following. "Shunk" seems hollow for this moment. | [
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66,232 | I am 10 years old (almost eleven), and I'm trying to write a novel. I discovered it is a lot harder and stressful than I thought. I'm also scared of people judging it negatively. This seems a lot more complicated than I thought, and I don't have anyone helping me, other than suggestions. Help! :'( | [
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66,240 | I'm currently working on a fantasy novel.
Storyline wise I'm just about to charge into the second arc of the story, much more intense and action focused than the previous world building arc.
I'm dealing with three main characters right now, one is actually set to die as a way to force the other two into the "quest" itself and have them interact with two other characters that would follow them all the way to the end of the story.
Right now, each one of these three characters had their own "mini" adventure gathering important knowledge and information that when put together makes for the whole picture. They get together and after a chase scene they had some downtime. This is that chapter. It's the first time all three were together in a non-risky situation, so I felt it would be only natural and logical for these characters to exchange information, form a plan they can all agree to but also exchange perspectives.
Instead of just dumping exposition onto the reader (or repeating information they already know) it sort of reads like a "revision" of facts. These characters are interacting with each other, their bonds are building, they are not just sharing what they know with each other and about each other, but actually sharing of what they think about those things and how they come together. The point is to have these characters actually agree to move towards danger instead of away from it, because that is what it feels right after they share their thoughts and feelings on the previous events.
Of course, this is theory and the reality is a full chapter of conversations and pondering between three people over what to do next. I'm a bit worried.
I think it works because now information is focused and revised in a way where the reader knows all the players, the risk, the events and what comes next, and I know I don't have to explain any of it again.
It is a solid chunk of text, though. I used first person POV when new sentiments or info were shown, but third person when I had to summarize previous events and give a character's perspective on it.
Now I'm considering just doing a sharp turn of perspective and toss the reader in the room with the villains, not only to change the actors on stage, but also the tone and sort of show how things are coming from the other end and forming the "collision course" that will be the heart of act 2.
My worry is that by having to slow things down for a full chapter to logically explain what each character knows and how they feel about it, would just feel like a slog and then "rewarding the reader" with the villains perspective. I'm trying to replace "surprise" with "tension" but unsure if it's a good bet.
I would love to get some perspectives and opinions on this course of action. | [
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66,243 | okay, trying to settle an argument. on my dating profile, one of the prompts says: "together we could.."
among other things, my response includes, "eat (spicy) food".
my friends argue that this statement says "we could eat spicy food". what i meant was, we could eat food, spicy optional. did i screw this up? one of these friends has severe dyslexia and is functionally illiterate. i love her very much, but don't trust her opinion on the matter. i have scoured the internet and couldn't find any validation... nor was i able to find another example of this type of parenthetical usage.
i need your help !
but please be gentle - i am a frequent visitor of this site but a very infrequent poster. | [
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66,249 | I am writing a book at age 10-11, by myself. I have some people like my teacher and parents helping to edit, but I don't have anyone I can trust to help me (without screwing it up). I also don't know if I should do the cover art physically or digitally.
How does all this work? | [
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66,257 | I've been editing for my girlfriend, a non-native speaker, recently, and she asked me an interesting question, which we have modified to the following two questions:
1. Which sounds more natural?
2. Which reads better?
Here are the options in question:
1. First, we focus on the thing.
2. We first focus on the thing.
3. We focus, first, on the thing.
We are both Ph.D. students in mathematics, so we are, as a rule, befuddled by non-quantifiable quandaries. | [
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66,262 | I'm writing a survival horror story that's a mixture between *Bloodborne* and *The Last of Us*. The story follows an emotionally distant woman and a physically disabled child as they trek through a world slowly being corrupted by some horrific cosmic entity.
Merayaca (the emotionally distant woman in question) is cold and withdrawn. She suffers from PTSD induced by her turbulent childhood. The only way she knows how to cope is with violence and suffocating control. She's always been a curious person, but trauma distorted this passion into something she uses to predict and manipulate those around her. Only one person ever managed to sustain Merayaca's torment and breach her defenses (let's call him GunnKc.) He was killed by the godlike entity not too long before the story begins.
Currently, Merayaca's driving motivation is to reach the town in which the entity was first reported. She has an almost feral need to better understand this cosmic power because not knowing how it works saps away her control and leaves her panicky. This is a purely selfish motivation which is very in line with her character as almost everything she does is selfish, but I worry this isn't a relatable or potent enough motivation from the point of view of a reader.
Merayaca does some horrible things (ex. almost shoots the kid she travels with since he's being used as a meat shield and murders a friendly group of scavengers for their supplies) that she justifies with this motivation. As the story progresses she begins to soften and her motivations change, but this doesn't happen until much further into the novel. I want Merayaca to ride the line of redeemability but I'm scared this motivation will make it way too easy to hate her and reject any growth she shows later in the story as being undeserved.
I'm considering a different motivation where GunnKc and Merayaca had promised each other that they would both try some of the native cuisine in the town where the entity was first reported. Since GunnKc's now dead I think it's a stronger motivation that more readers can get behind, but it doesn't mesh as well with her selfish nature and comes out of nowhere. Should I have both? | [
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66,269 | I'm toying with the idea of starting off with the MC freshly landed in his new world. But I reveal the a) Normal World and b) Inciting incident using through two methods. 1. The Normal world is revealed in a flashback. 2. The inciting incident is revealed via a conversation that the MC has with characters from his new world.
What are the pros and cons of doing it this way? Has it been done, any examples? | [
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66,270 | I want to have one of my characters slowly fall in love with a boy who has liked her from the start, but I'm not sure how to
1. Show that he likes her but not make it too obvious
and
2. make her slowly fall in love with him.
Some background information: the book takes place in the real world where some girls have the power to turn whatever they're singing about into reality (weird concept I know). They are part of a singing group (of regular people that don't have powers) that can amplify the special girl's power.
The two people that I'm talking about are around the ages 13-14 and the girl has this special power while the boy is just someone she knew from her childhood.
Edit: I probably should have clarified the book is not being told through the girl or the boy. | [
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66,273 | So what started as an attempt to write a memoir, I found myself struggling to commit to just one underlying theme. I also found writing about myself in different time periods, it felt as though I was writing about entirely different characters. It just didn't read well, so I stopped writing for a while. I wanted to put more thought into how I would write and structure my book. I wasn't dead set on writing my story as a memoir. Thinking about both the problems I was having (not having a specific theme I could stick to, and feeling like I was writing about completely different characters when I wasn't trying to). It got me thinking about the fluidity of identity. How in my own way, I have lived many lives, played many roles. How my very identity has changed with my environment. And so I believe I found my theme. I want to write this as a fictional story (albeit one that is autobiographical in nature). But I am considering writing it as though the book is following multiple main characters. Slowly leaving clues and hints that they are in fact the same person, which will be revealed towards the end.
I suppose what I am asking, as I am just a hobby writer. Can this be done? Has it been done before? Or better yet, has it been done well? I feel it will need to be done with a great amount of thought put into it, certainly. Or do I risk it being incomprehensible rubbish? Any advice, or examples of this being done is greatly appreciated! | [
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66,279 | If a writer uses an AI tool and enters a prompt then uses the tool's output, is that copyright infringed?
Just to be more clear with my question. I am not talking about a prompt that says "Write me a romance novel set in Japan," then proceeding to copy/paste it all and call it your own.
I am referring to very "specific prompts". example prompt: a husband and wife are fighting over a financial matter. The husband pays all the bills. He asks her to contribute and she throws a storm. Write lines portraying this scene.
Basically, it's MY scene. So given this, would it be copyright to use some/or all parts of that AI's response? | [
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66,282 | In a scene I had in mind, there's a tricky hook or unexplained event that happened, that I fear might be considered as a mistake or a plot hole. It is basically where a girl (one of the characters) is in a fight, she was cornered and was about to lose, until the opponent suddenly died. Defeated right in front of her eyes.
Now that would certainly be considered cliche or writing mistake or a plot hole, but later on in the story it would then be revealed that she got outside help from an outside "arena" (I'm saying it metaphorically/allegorically, not literally,) from an ally hidden away.
How would I make sure and subtly tell the readers that this is a hook and will be answered later, and not some writing mistake or a plot hole? I mean, in this scenario, a hook might start off as a plot hole, but how do I tell the readers that it is something intentionally put for hook and new parts of the story? | [
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66,287 | I'm trying to figure out the best way to show a projector showing clips like key events over a lifetime. I'm thinking a montage with some dialogue, but I'm not certain that's the correct way. | [
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66,301 | Background:
-----------
I'm writing a fan fiction story to a Bagry Patab-like novel about a group of 3 close friends. The novel has the simple third person limited narrator, with POV generally following the friends, if they are together, or one of them, when they separate.
Description:
------------
Now, in my story I want to make a trick: it is narrated in a way that resembles the usual third person, but actually it is a character — the quiet girl attending the same class — which tells the story. This is, the text is about what she hears, sees and thinks, but not about her.
For example, it starts along the lines of:
>
> The bus was full of people, only at the joint there was some free space remaining. The Main Characters were standing on one of its sides, Two Other Classmates were sitting a few seats further into the back.
>
>
> The bus slowly entered the road. It was almost completely dark outside.
>
>
> "A night at school, huh?" said One MC.
>
>
> The Second MC slowly raised her head.
>
>
> "It's not even ours" she said.
>
>
>
In reality it is the girl getting into the bus, finding a free space for her to stand, seeing The Main Characters, then seeing two other classmates. Later she hears their conversation.
Throughout the story she doesn't refer to herself at all, probably doesn't even speak. I.e. she doesn't say she walks from one place to another, she may only describe the other place. In the plot I make her generally follow, as well as pay closer attention to MCs, which is justified by that she simply tries to stick with her class (and also that she has a crush on one of them). This role should fit her, as a very shy, staying in the background kind of girl who would rarely say a word.
There will be subtle moments when the reader may ask "Why has this conversation been discontinued?" (because the interlocutors have left the room and she could not longer hear them), "Why are only those details mentioned?", "Why the MCs aren't featured all the time?", putting them in the, possibly unconscious state of "Something is not about right, but OK".
But then everything falls back to normal. Only towards the end the true nature of the narrator will be probably somewhat evident, the exact person should be then easy to guess.
It should be even possible to make situations which change their meaning when read for the second time (when knowing who the narrator is), for example an indirect insult to her thrown in the air by someone in her surroundings.
Question:
---------
Do you know of someone doing something like this before? I haven't, maybe it's simply to hard to pull off?
From what I have tried it indeed seems hard, but possible, to write a narration in such a way — one that would suit both a real narrator and a particular character — it can't refer to peoples' thoughts, it mustn't be too smart or in-depth, it should perceive things as the girl would, it must tell the story, including the girl's own, without using 'I' or 'we'.
Do you think it is feasible? What would you suggest? | [
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66,308 | Is my story too much like Hijrp Potfeq?
* My story is set in a magical world hidden within our own, and it has many magical version of things we do.
* It has wands but I have decided to change it and make it that there is a ritual to make your own wand. There are also brooms but I was going to have it so witches and warlocks have to make their own.
* I am going to make a magical government, a council with branches and departments, that deal with various things.
* I am going to create a newspaper, with reporters for news in my world.
* I am going to have secret places for magical teleportation, hidden in things that look normal, fireplace, cupboards, sink, toilet etc.
* I am going to create a wise old man, to act as the mentor for my story, but pretty much every fantasy series has a wise mentor character. LotR - Gandalf, Narnia - Aslan, HP - Dumbledore, etc.
* For the first part of the story my main villain is going to be in a weakened state and her followers are working to revive her.
* I am also going to make magical shops. I am not going to create an alley, but I am going to create shops hidden in secret places.
* I am going to give witches and warlocks the power to turn into animals, but I am also going to give them other changes as well.
* I am going to have some spells and potions that do the same as in Hijrp Potfeq, but I am not going to copy unique ones like expect patronum. I am going with ones I know are alright to use. I am also going to create my own unique potions and magic that do things not in Hijrp Potfeq.
* I am going to have paper communication, letters, newspapers and posters, because they are more fitting for magical world. I am going to invent of different way of mail transportation.
* I am going to create food that does magical things.
* I am also going to create items that do funny things, because I want my story to be very dramatic, with a chunk of humour mixed in.
* My story is going to be set in the 90's because all the tech stuff we have today doesn't really work for magic.
* I am going to set it in the UK because all the old fashioned buildings we have here are fitting for magic.
* I am going to put racism, prejudice and bigotry, about humans, magical creatures, and sorcerers born from humans, because racism is pretty much part of any world.
* I am going to give them in old fashioned clothes and robes. For example, pin striped and tweed suits, bowler hat and old cardigans and sweaters.
* I am also going to have one character's family be carers of magical beasts, because I am very adamant about animal welfare and I wanted to show that in my story.
**The key differences in my book are:**
* There is no magical school, because that instantly makes it compared to Hijrp Potfeq.
* The magical names I am going to use are witches and warlocks
* My main villain is a woman, and I am thinking of using the soul jar trope with her, or is that too much like Hijrp Potfeq?
* There is a main trio but their powers and stories are all very different from Hijrp Potfeq.
* There are going to be merpeople but I am going to make them, more human than in *Goblet of Fire*.
* My main group are going to be teenagers, not kids, when they start. | [
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66,319 | Are there any stylistic markers (sentence structures, vocabulary choices, or anything else) which may help the reader suggest, even if only tentatively, the gender — male or female — of the author, particularly in the first person narratives when the narrator's and the author's genders may not be the same? If yes, what might those markers be? | [
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"text": "No, there are not. Which is not an interesting answer. The interesting part is the reason why there aren’t.\n\nPsychome... | 2023/06/03 | [
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66,321 | I found some stories my mother wrote and they were never published. She is deceased. I know I can send them in but can I edit them before I do? She wrote them in the 1960s on a manual typewriter and they need editing. I would want to publish them under her name. | [
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66,322 | I have a location in my story that is a key central hub which much of the interaction surrounds. An example of this might be the bar in *Cheers* or Greendale Community College in *Community*. I want to really make this location stick out in the reader's minds when it is first introduced, as the story is going to keep coming back to it over and over again, but this tactic is creating problems.
Namely, it results in the setting, a building on a college campus, being described to the point at which it feels overindulgent. The draft I have gets way too into the layout of the building *because* it's going to keep showing up again over and over again in the story and I don't want to break the flow to re-describe it, but upon editing its clear it places way too much focus on something the reader has yet to become invested in, and thus gets bored.
The specific location itself is not something a lot of readers encounter in their everyday lives, so I really want to get across the feel of immersion for a type of place most people wouldn't get to experience.
How would I go about describing a key set piece to make it really stick in readers' minds, and how do I do this without going into gratuitous detail and boring them? | [
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66,326 | I’m currently writing a murder mystery novel in where the MC has to solve a murder that happened in 1998. In the climax she is fighting off the killer but then her love interest comes in and kills the guy, and I want to make her *extremely* upset but I also want her to seem emotionless like she’s hiding her true feelings because that’s something she does a lot in the book. The thing is, she’s already watched people die, her parents, so it’s not like it’s new to her but it’s still traumatic. She never cried much after she lost her parents because then it would seem too real, so this is also around the point where she’s accepting her parents’ death. | [
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66,342 | I have done this twice at the beginning of 2 of my stories (IIRC.) The first was a lecture on the Dust Dragon, an extinct creature in this world. The second was a schoolteacher giving a lesson on the making and history of their species.
I like this method of infodumping as it allows you to tell your reader info that would have otherwise been too hard or long to 'show' them, all without feeling too unnatural.
I understand it does not work in all types of stories, but in some it at least *seems* like it works well in some.
Is it really good storytelling in *any* works? Should other, better, methods be used in order to infodump readers? | [
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66,343 | I'm working on a rewrite of a story of mine. One of the improvements I'm trying to make is avoiding the block of physical description text, and trying to use more show-don't-tell. So far, all I've been able to start with are "The warm light painted the sky gold as it spilt onto [MC]’s leonine face," and "The warm breeze swept through his mane..." but I still feel like I'm doing something wrong here, and not fully conveying that my protagonist is a lionfolk without outright telling the audience. | [
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66,354 | On online forums, I often see the argument that not every story needs a theme. This is the flip side version of the question of when a story needs a theme. I felt that those arguing that some stories don't need a theme often fail to point out when exactly a story needs or doesn't need to have a central theme, thematic statement, or moral.
When I posted the above question on Quora, I got the following answers (I've summarized the answers):
1. Choose-your-own-ending stories written in second-person narration don't need to have a central theme.
2. Mysteries, thrillers, and suspense stories that focus on mysteries and plot devices don't have to have a central theme (Quora's AI bot gave me this answer).
3. When the writer does not want to give his/her story a theme. Is this a legitimate answer to my question? How is this different from saying that a writer doesn't need to give his story a theme when he doesn't care about the quality of his story? In other words, how is this different from saying that a story doesn't need to have a theme when it doesn't need to be a good story? I felt that this answer dodged my question.
4. When the theme of a story is immoral, then the story would have been better if it had no theme at all.
5. If the theme is too obvious, then it would be better to write the same story without any theme than with this kind of theme. When is a story's theme so obvious that the story would be better off not having any theme whatsoever than having this particular theme?
In addition to the above points I've seen the following arguments for when a story would be better off without a central theme:
1. When a story is preachy. But what makes a story preachy?
2. A story should be open-ended and its central theme should be a question rather than a statement that forces the reader to accept the writer's point of view. Readers should be allowed to think for themselves.
I would like to know if you agree or disagree with the above points. I've not seen any surveys about whether or not most readers would prefer to read a story without a theme than to read a story whose theme they strongly disagree with. Does such a survey exist? Do you think the number of people who would prefer no theme to a theme they disagree with outnumber the people who prefer there be any kind of theme even a disagreeable one than there being no theme at all? And would writers be better off financially if they gave all their stories themes even if they believed that many readers would disagree with their themes? Would writers be happier and more fulfilled if they just gave all their stories a clearly laid out theme even if they feel uncomfortable giving certain stories a definitive conclusion?
Would you prefer a story to have a theme you disagree with than have no theme at all? For example, I detest the theme of the Legend of Korra series, but if you asked me if I would prefer it to have no theme, I would give you an emphatic "no".
I also hate the theme of the Arcane animated series. But these are 2 of my favorite animated series. I cannot imagine enjoying them without these themes that I hate so much. I suspect that these shows would be largely incomprehensible without their central themes, but I could be wrong. And I dislike incomprehensible stories more than I dislike right-wing stories.
I hate the Legend of Korra's theme because it says that the political status quo, whatever that may be for any given nation, is the best possible socio-economic system for a given nation because some sort of "balance" must be maintained. In my opinion, the so-called "balance" can best be described as a balance of military power between all warring kingdoms and nations i.e. no nation should have the power to conquer another nation. I think the Legend of Korra's theme could have been far better executed, but even if it were better executed, I would still hate the theme because of my left-leaning political orientation. I found its theme morally reprehensible. The theme also makes no sense, but I would still prefer a better-executed theme I disagree with than no theme at all.
And I hate Arcane's theme because I think the show hates poor people and is essentially saying that the only reason why the poor would want to overthrow the rich is out of jealousy and spite and not out of any legitimate economic grievance or out of any kind of economic necessity. But I still found the show very entertaining even though I found its theme morally questionable. I also love the 300 movie even though I wholeheartedly agree with a YouTuber called Big Joel that that movie is basically well-disguised Nazi propaganda.
I think it would make more sense for authors whose stories readers describe as propaganda or as immoral or preachy to write better-executed themes than to give up on the idea of giving their stories any theme whatsoever. Let me know if you agree or disagree with my assessment. | [
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66,368 | I'm writing some documents with embedded code listings. I reference such listings many times using something to the effect of, "...we provide an example as follows", with the block of code shown below as expected. What I'm unsure of, though, is the punctuation immediately after the word "follows". Should it be a period, a colon, or neither?
**Example 1:**
Below is an example of a tail-recursive factorial program:
versus
Below is an example of a tail-recursive factorial program.
**Example 2:**
We provide an example of XYZ as follows:
versus
We provide an example of XYZ as follows. | [
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66,379 | I have a character who is an expert at using language to his advantage. Both in terms of doublespeak, subtle put downs and deliberately avoiding the point and making the conversation about something else, but also in terms of effortlessly sounding professional without having to think about it. I'm not particularly skilled in either.
The main thing he's using these skills for is that he's in the employ of a company who (through dodgy-dealings) is the political entity running the small country and people are trying to escape their exploitative circumstances. He says he's trying to 'help', but he's actually trying to stop them. (Of course he then has a change of heart)
What I've been doing is writing what he's actually saying, and going over and obscuring it a bit, but I'm not entirely sure what specifically I'm meant to be aiming for and how to word the dialogue to achieve the desired effect. I'd really appreciate any tips!
---
P.S, character background/context in case it helps.
He grew up in a political family. His parents used him as a trophy and groomed him to be the model diplomat so that he makes them look good. ('Look how amazing we are, we raised such a brilliant diplomat,' when in reality, they just emotionally abused and manipulated him into being exactly who/what they wanted him to be.)
So he's grown up surrounded by people who do the politician thing of never saying what they mean, never answering questions directly and lying without a flinch. He grew up adopting this communication style both because it was the main/only type he'd seen - but also as a survival strategy, having been surrounded by people who hide both compliments and insults under 3 layers of hidden meaning. Add parents who put an immense amount of pressure on him to be perfect by those standards, even at home, and you have a character who struggles to be direct or deal with directness. These struggles then make up part of the overall conflict since he's paired with a character with a much more direct communication style. | [
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"text": "Take full advantage of your ability to *revise*.\n\nTake a long time thinking about and drawing up his dialog. That he... | 2023/06/13 | [
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66,382 | I'm in the process of writing the first draft of my first novel (a medieval low-fantasy). In the story, I have multiple characters who slowly get possessed over time. The possession occurs through manipulation of the characters' fears and wants. I want to be able to show how the process of the possession is slow, but here's the thing: I switch character perspectives in the book. Each chapter is told from a different point of view, and I have seven different people I tell the story from (though a lot of them die and/or get possessed, so I slowly go down in number of perspectives).
Since I want to show the details of how these characters slowly lose their minds but I don't want to have an incredibly long book or have weirdly structured chapters, **does anyone have any suggestions for how to show slow character changes without being long in page/word length?** Note that all the different character perspectives occur at the same time. I can't have a month pass in one chapter and then in the next go back in time a few weeks. For the sake of consistency, time is continuous. | [
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66,397 | I am preparing writing samples for a trade book proposal. My chapters have section breaks (usually to indicate passage of time). Is there a standard or best practice for how to graphically/typographically represent them? i.e. is an extra space best? Three asterisks? A line? Everything looks pretty lame to me! | [
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66,426 | What to do if there are no more people left on Earth to write for?
Let's take an extreme case to illustrate this point. Say, there's a small evil group of people who lobotomized everyone's brains on the planet in very specific ways. (Not a single doctor who performed lobotomies was ever punished, by the way.) People can no longer reason and comprehend, cannot believe logical but unpopular views, are no longer driven by sound human psychology, people are indifferent about the most important things that matter to human beings. People don't care about their brains being hurt. Neither do they have a capacity to understand that this most extreme case already happened to them and they need to act now because this ultimate threat affects everyone already and their every offspring.
One person manages to survive this horror, the brain not entirely damaged, and wants to expose what has been done in exquisite detail. Even if a book with this ultimate plot can be written, who would read it? The only plots people consume are so removed from the terrifying reality of human condition at this point that it is unclear if anyone would even be not deficient enough mentally to even crave, be curious about a plot that would describe the ultimate evil on the planetary scale that's so evil it is hard for human psyche to even fathom, let at alone to believe. And the evil has no way but to continue on the path because they've crossed so many unthinkable lines that the only way for them to survive is to continue on the uphill path of more evil.
Do books even have a meaning in this case? | [
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"text": "First off, great idea for a novel. Second off, this is a great hypothetical scenario to analyze why we hu... | 2023/06/21 | [
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66,434 | Sometimes, you have two characters talking to one another and then as a character is about to describe what happened to the past, a flashback can be seen, and this is done in movies often. Now, I am wondering how to exactly do this in a novel. One issue is that the flashback can be several pages long, and so cutting back to the dialogue could really mess up the flow of the narrative, and I am also wondering if you should skip to the next paragraph when doing flashbacks like this, and some other formatting rules that people are expected to follow when introducing a flashback mid-dialogue. | [
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"text": "It depends on the amount of detail in the flashback that's relevant to the present day story.\n\nOne thing to keep in... | 2023/06/24 | [
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66,444 | Watching a video from an editor yesterday, she said authors should refrain from using too many verbs on action beats, instead relying mostly on "said" and "asked".
I think it is bland. There's hundreds of verbs that can convey the character's mood, the tone used, the intent. Instead of:
>
> "I don't think we should enter the mansion," Jusg said. "It looks haunted."
>
>
> "Does it now?" Yally asked. "It might be your mind playing tricks on you. It's dark, the mansion looks old and abandoned. It's just a cliche."
>
>
> "Hurry up! I don't want to stay here in the rain!" Emily said.
>
>
> "Guess I'll take the lead then," Jusg said.
>
>
>
I could enrich the dialogue by changing the verbs:
>
> "I don't think we should enter the mansion," Jusg conjectured. "It looks haunted."
>
>
> "Does it now?" Yally teased. "It might be your mind playing tricks on you. It's dark, the mansion looks old and abandoned. It's just a cliche."
>
>
> "Hurry up! I don't want to stay here in the rain!" Emily whined.
>
>
> "Guess I'll take the lead then," Jusg bemoaned.
>
>
>
What are the pros and cons of either sticking to "said" and "asked" or using more diverse verbs for the action beats? | [
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66,449 | I'm writing crime fiction. The current scenario is that I have a main character (late 20's) who is Algerian but the story is set in Chicago. He lives in the United States because, as a baby, he fled Algeria with his Uncle after his parents were killed. Rather than the cliche of say, a random car accident, I did some quick research and learnt there was a civil war in Algeria in the late 1990's - the timeline works for my character. To make it more authentic I zeroed in on specific massacres that occurred in different villages during that time in Algeria.
Eventually, my character will have a scene where he describes to another character in some level of detail that his parents were killed in their village during one of these massacres.
* Is this disrespectful to the real victims?
* Does it make it better if I only reference the Civil War and not pinpoint a specific massacre?
* Does it make a difference if the victim count is up near 100,000 (the war), compared to 40 (village massacre)? | [
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66,459 | One mistake people can make when reinforcing the theme in their story is being too didactic. If the theme is forced upon the reader or becomes overly explicit, it can feel preachy and detract from the storytelling, or at least that was what I was told, but I am wondering if this is always the case, or we can actually make it work.
Let's imagine a fictional example where the author wants to reinforce the theme that "overreliance on technology disconnects us from the real world." The author decides to explicitly state this theme through a character's lengthy monologue at the end of the story. The character directly addresses the reader, listing the negative consequences of technology addiction and providing a step-by-step guide on how to break free from it.
Is there a way to make this work, or should you rewrite the entire ending and why? | [
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"text": "I feel that the problem with overemphasising the theme and being too preachy is the subversion of reader ... | 2023/06/28 | [
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66,470 | I have a character that is the stereotypical "token good member of an evil organization". The organization is a brutal social darwinist one that sees nothing wrong with killing people and taking what they want from people. This is their attitude to both to people outside the group and leads to brutal, constant power struggles within the group.
I am trying to figure out how a stereotypical "one good one" character would see/refer to themselves and their place in the world. This would seemingly affect both characterization and their word choice. For example, in other works of fiction the "one good one" often openly refers to their group as evil. This is not how people naturally talk or see themselves. Usually it would seem like you would get a character some kind of self-justification like a conqueror believing they are "bringing civilization" to conquered people, shift blame by saying it was necessary, or actively avoiding bringing to avoid focusing too hard on unpleasant topics to avoid looking at contradictory facts in their worldview. A person probably wouldn't declare their home culture to be evil unless it was as a cassus belli to rebel.
The problem is the character hasn't really swallowed the Kool Aid and thus ism't likely to give the "white man's burden" or "necessary evil" argument. They subconsciously know there is something wrong and their values don't align with their culture's, but they haven't been exposed to alternative viewpoints to realize how messed up their situation is (think cults). They're mostly staying out of Stockhold syndrome at this point. They haven't gotten the push needed to tell them they need to leave.
I think this is mostly a conflict between societally accepted values and individual values. The character has been told that killing is okay and you shouldn't feel bad for harming others. Yet that doesn't agree with their own personal morality. Nevertheless, they aren't going to say these things openly, because that goes against societal norms, and will tailor their dialogue (and to some degree, thoughts) to be socially appropriate.
Given this, how would the "one good one" see/self-justify themselves and their place in the world? | [
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66,476 | Should you support the aftermath of every single supporting characters after the main conflict is resolved?
Not exploring the aftermath of supporting characters can be seen as a mistake to avoid when writing a story. The aftermath of the main conflict can have a significant impact on supporting characters. Neglecting to explore how they cope, heal, or move forward after the resolution can leave their storylines incomplete.
My question is whether I should do that for every supporting character and if not, how do you go about choosing which characters deserve such attention from the writer. Should you do it for all characters at the same time and do it as briefly as possible or doing so is as bad as not exploring the aftermath for any supporting character? | [
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"text": "A light hand with aftermath is usually wisest. After all, the climax is over, and this is just cleaning things up. (An... | 2023/06/30 | [
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66,486 | I am writing a book that I planned out as a kid; I've completely changed it around so that only the characters have stayed the same. I love them a lot and I love the names I gave them back then, because they fit them perfectly. But now that I am older, I am scared.
Their names are just words I translated into other languages until I found one that sounded pretty and that became the name. They aren't even in the same language as each other. Now I'm scared that using these names might be insensitive or appropriating. What do I do? There is literally nothing in my story that links to those languages or cultures and I am very worried and really don't want to hurt anyone. Does anyone have any advice?
(Sadly, I don't have the money for a sensitivity reader.) | [
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"text": "I wouldn't deem it offensive if I ran across a name in your story that forms a word in my language, but it's a litt... | 2023/07/01 | [
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66,488 | I’m currently working on a book in which the main character’s parents died in a somewhat ghastly car accident. I haven’t decided yet if my MC was a part of the accident, which would make the death of her parents all the more traumatic. I am debating now if the "parent death by car accident" thing is *too* cliché. I do want her parents dead, as it is important to the plot. I feel like you hear about parents dying in a car accident a lot in TV shows, movies, and books, and I don’t want do do something that has been done *way* too many times to the point where my readers don’t sympathize with the MC as much as they should. | [
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66,507 | In my story, a group of courageous teenagers named Mokarimk, Kristy, Nquurt, Aluke, and Gaaruc find themselves engaged in an intense battle against formidable extraterrestrial foes. These teenagers are aided by their trusty AI Robots, Tom and Ben.
Among them, Mokarimk and Tom share a special bond since Tom was created by Mokarimk himself.
However, their greatest challenge arises when they encounter an immensely powerful alien known as Devestator, surpassing anything they have faced before. Devestator is a notorious criminal, wanted across the galaxies.
One day, while the rest of the group is away, Mokarimk receives a dire warning of an alien presence on Earth. He discovers that it is none other than Devestator, the infamous criminal he has been hunting. Determined to confront the threat head-on, Mokarimk sets off for the battle alone, alerting his friends about the situation. Although it takes them some time to arrive, they eventually reach the scene, witnessing the fierce clash between Mokarimk and Devestator, with Tom standing by their side.
To intensify the dramatic effect, I plan to depict a pivotal moment where Devestator launches a devastating laser blast at Mokarimk. The impact is so powerful that everyone, including his friends, assumes Mokarimk has been obliterated by the attack. They become disheartened, believing their comrade has been lost forever.
However, unbeknownst to them and to the readers, Mokarimk manages to miraculously survive the assault. Unveiling a surprise twist a few chapters later, Mokarimk makes a triumphant comeback.
**I am unsure about how can I write tbis**
To subtly hint at Mokarimk's survival, I envision either Ben or Tom picking up on a clue that suggests he wasn't destroyed. Whether it's a cryptic remark or a small observation, this clue will indirectly indicate to the readers that Mokarimk's demise may not be as it seems, leaving them intrigued and eager for his eventual grand comeback | [
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66,509 | It's a 195k word epic fantasy. These next few passes will bring that down quite a bit, and I know there's wiggle room. Reddit constantly focuses on that despite that the debut epic fantasy 120k word count stuff has been debunked by other debut novels among other things. The story, in my opinion, is at its strongest at this point, but I'm still going to go over it and find whatever extraneous stuff I can to eliminate or rework.
That said, I'm also curious about the "standalone with series potential" thing. Since I'm going to be doing some more smaller rewrites, I'd rather have a better grasp of this in mind.
My novel is one with multiple POVs. The main goal of the story is achieved and a few massive questions are answered, though not without massive consequences. The "whole new world" aspect is left kind of open ended, meaning it's shown they can start, but a bloody war will ensue to make it happen.
It also answers another big question posed at the beginning, but leaves the consequences of that question being answered somewhat open ended too. All in all, it's kind of like The Dark Knight: Batman hinges the future of Vutfam on a lie and goes on the run. The movie is perfectly fine as a standalone but some massive questions are left out there.
How much leeway is there for this? I'd like to submit to some of the better publishing houses, but I know the cliffhanger type endings (which I admit, mine kind of are since the answers bring more questions, but there are still answers regardless). Is it just one of those things we throw into the wind and hope its accepted? | [
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66,513 | I've written a 225,000 word manuscript for a historical novel adapted from a reliably good story, shifted by me into a more modern, popular setting that I love and know a lot about (England during the Wars of Napoleon). The manuscript has been beta read extensively and tightened up and sent back out to betas and gotten encouraging reviews, for what it is worth. But professional editors say its very rare for books now to be of this length anymore. Several people have suggested making it a duology including the betas.
There are not ant books on Amazon about how to books on how to write a duology and this story is not written in the spirit of a series. My grasp of terminology is sketchy, but my understanding is that essentially a writer does not want to have a cliffhanger, or at least the wrong kind. And you need Book One to feel like a completed tale.
Halfway through the story, news of Napoleon Bonaparte's escape from exile reaches England, directly impacting the two military families at the center of the story. So internal and external conflicts among these family and friends get overlaid by news of war and a new conflict.
The aspect that makes me uncertain of how and where to split the book is that the story's main promise and conflict centers on the related themes of honor and redemption, with the protagonist being a riotous, profligate party-animal who, at the halfway mark makes a heartfelt vow to his father that he will turn things around. But of course he does not really fully prove himself until the battle at the end. There are stages and obstacles in which he begins to prove himself, and subplots (friendship and romance arcs, unresolved plot threads that support the main theme). Possible break points are the scene where the news of Napoleon's escape arrives; the scene where the protagonist vow's to his father; the scene where the protagonist puts his old riotous friends on notice he will one day part ways with them; the scene where he succeeds at his schools big Speech Day event just before embarking for the war; or perhaps the scene where the father says his fateful goodbye to his wife (the protagonist's mother) as he leaves for the war.
I certainly can write a new chapter or two into the break point to better create a feeling of a complete story at the end of Book One, but I'm not sure how, and reading of terminology like "unsettled status quo" has me a bit confused, and well, unsettled. | [
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66,514 | In my story are non-human characters who naturally have their own languages and set of personal names. I have no problem devising interesting names like "Saþil Duqhuãn" (pronounced /sə.θil dʊ.χʷã/) with the help of the International Phonetic Alphabet, but I worry about the readability. So,
1. How can I tell whether a name is too difficult to read?
2. How can I make names easier to read?
3. How can I better hint at correct pronunciation?
I know Stack Exchange frowns upon multiple questions per post, but I feel these three questions are strongly related and integral to the wider question. | [
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"text": "> \n> How can I tell whether a name is too difficult to read?\n> \n> \n> \n\nYour example name I find difficult to p... | 2023/07/06 | [
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66,528 | I am seeking examples of clean ways to transition from my main characters to my secondary characters. When I review what I have written, it is clunky and unclear that the story is now focusing on the secondary characters, and this causes confusion.
Thanks | [
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"text": "The reader does not need to know \"the story is now focusing on the secondary characters\" - that's meta infor... | 2023/07/07 | [
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66,536 | I'm having trouble writing my first real novel. The first three chapters in my story are dedicated to set up, introducing the main characters, and providing character motivations.
However, I have noticed a problem: almost none of my characters' motivations are driving the plot forward. Rather, the plot is driving the characters forward. The desires of the character are not driving the action, but rather it feels like the action is forcing the characters to mindlessly react to what is happening during the plot.
How can I have my characters drive the plot forward based on their motivations instead of just doing things because the plot demands it of them? | [
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66,551 | For the first time in a while, I have made quite a bit of progress in writing my book. For the last two weeks or so, I have forced myself to try and write at least 2,000 words a day, regardless of how I am feeling or how good I think the writing is coming out. Using this method, I have made quite a bit of progress wordcount-wise and have gotten near the end of the first act of my first book. However, although I have made a lot of progress in sheer word count, I have found that the quality of my writing has greatly suffered over the last few days.
I have found out via personal experience that the quality of my writing takes a nose dive if I force myself to write under a deadline. Heck, I will even admit that in the past I have written random gibberish just to reach the word count deadline on some days.
Furthermore, due to the fact that I'm a pantser, the effect of my bad writing has a rippling effect: If I have an off day and write something terrible, I either have to discard an entire large section of finished writing, or spend time re-writing that I could have used making new prose.
I understand that, in order to become a professional writer "which is my career goal" I will have to be able to write under deadlines all the time. But, I have simply never been able to find a "groove" where I not only have a high daily output of words but also have said words be of a high quality.
It is currently not an option for me to slow down my current pace due to the fact that I have established my writing routine out of necessity: my second year of college is coming up and I won't have enough time to write during the fall.
I guess what I'm trying to ask is this: how can I learn how to write high-quality stories while also writing under a deadline? | [
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66,557 | Does saying "next evolution" sound redundant? Isn't evolution already something that comes next? I'm editing an article and the author talks about the "next evolution" of a theory, where two older theories are getting merged and refined to create this new approach. To me the "next evolution" hits the ear wrong. What do you all think? | [
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66,564 | I'm struggling with my first chapter (fc). I have a plan but it doesn't contain any action, something that I know from experience should be in the fc to capture the reader's excitement.
I was going to start by introducing the key characters and their home, something that does sound incredibly boring but made a little more interesting due to the fact it's a dystopian setting.
The main character's backstory is very interesting but I was intending to reveal it a few chapters in, rather than introduce it in the fc (as a time skip).
Another alternative is to give a Prologue about how the apocalypse started (though I don't know if it should be a fc or Prologue were I to include it).
The main ideas I could potentially use are:
* Description on how the virus was released and the effect of this on the population.
* Description on how the Protagonist entered the village, bringing with her the disease.
* Simply starting the story without any of the above information but finding some way to make it interesting. In this case I would describe the village and what life is like living in the post-apocalypse.
Any ideas on how else I could add action/make the fc interesting? What are 3 useful tips when writing it and what are 3 things that should be included in it? | [
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66,567 | Like most of us, I hope to one day have a book published by a major publishing house. My current work-in-progress, *Borradh*, is far larger than anticipated. At the moment, it's about 129,000 words, with nearly one-third finished. I aim to complete it in around fifty or sixty chapters.
Not making the situation any better is all the horror stories I've heard about traditional publishing. There's talk about how expensive getting a professional editor can be—the longer the manuscript, the higher the commissioning cost. It doesn't help that my part-time job is dead-end and pays next to nothing, though it does give me a lot of time in the evening to write.
I'm not particularly keen on self-publishing, as I don't have a large enough fanbase to make this option viable. Posting my work online on sites such as Wattpad and Royal Road wouldn't get me anywhere either since my writing is darker than smut and wish fulfilment stories usually found on those platforms; most women aren't into this type of material.
So, where do I go from here? | [
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66,574 | I'm writing a story inspired by the 2010 South Korean movie called [I Saw the Devil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Saw_the_Devil). The movie is about a secret service agent called Kim Soo-Hyun who enacts his revenge on a serial killer called Jaqh Kyung-Chul for having murdered his fiancée, Joo-Yun. Kim kidnaps and releases Jaqh multiple times throughout the movie to psychologically torture him. The theme of *I Saw the Devil* is that revenge turns one into a monster. I think the theme topics are revenge vs personal humanity (or integrity), but the plot is very messy and doesn't really support the theme that well.
My story is about an FBI agent who wants to get revenge on an incel serial killer who murdered his fiancee. The incel murdered the agent's fiancee because he was jealous of the fact that the FBI agent had a beautiful girlfriend, but he was a lonely virgin. The theme of my story is that one can only overcome one's grief through restorative justice. The theme topics of my story are restorative justice vs retributive justice.
The philosophy of restorative justice eventually wins. At the end of my story, the serial killer's father will ask the FBI agent to work with him on an organization dedicated to preventing incel men from becoming violent extremists. The incel serial killer will commit suicide at the end of the story because of his inability to overcome his need for vengeance against womankind.
My story has the same problem as *I Saw the Devil*. In *I Saw the Devil*, Kim's, the protagonist's, goal is the weakest part of the story. His goal is to torture Jaqh for an indefinite period of time. His goal is too abstract, vague, and not concrete in any conceivable way. In other words, Kim's goal has no physical manifestation, and it cannot be represented by a single measurable or quantifiable event or by a limited number of chronological events in the plot. My protagonist, the FBI agent, like Kim, had the goal of torturing the killer who murdered his fiancee.
In *I Saw the Devil*, we never know if Kim is making progress toward his goal of avenging his dead fiancée because there's no possible way to tell when a torture scene brings him any closer to a sense of closure or helps him overcome his grief over his fiancée’s death. There's just no way to quantify the progress Kim makes toward achieving his goal.
Moreover, each and every torture scene feels highly repetitive because of a lack of quantifiable progress made toward achieving the protagonist's goal. Even though Kim tortures Jaqh in a variety of locations and there's a bit of a thrilling aspect to the chase of every catch and release, there's still so very little tension in the movie. I'm working on ways to give my story thrilling action scenes, but I want to have more character development than I Saw the Devil in my story, and I want to maximize my story's tension. I also want to include some ultraviolent scenes in my story like some of Kim's revenge scenes in the Korean movie.
What are the various kinds of ways I can turn my protagonist's goal of revenge into a quantifiable goal with a definitive beginning, middle, and end? In other words, what are some examples of ways I can turn my protagonist's abstract goal into a measurable concrete goal so that my readers know when my protagonist is making progress toward accomplishing his goal of revenge? And what are the various methods I can use to ensure that my readers will know when my protagonist will have achieved his act of revenge? My story is a horror thriller and I need it to be a very violent story. Is there a way for me to determine what amount of torture and physical suffering my protagonist can put my antagonist through before he gives up on his quest for his vengeance?
I want my protagonist to eventually change his goal from revenge to restorative justice when giving up on his goal of revenge. But I also want to make sure that when he's pursuing his goal of revenge he has a tangible way of achieving it.
I feel that my story is fundamentally flawed, but I'm stubborn, and I still want to write it. I don't want to give up on my story, so any suggestions would really be appreciated. Thank you. | [
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"text": "Revenge is tragedy\n------------------\n\nI think you may be mixing genres. Your story is not about a 'hero' who... | 2023/07/14 | [
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66,590 | I'm in the skeleton stage, but to get into the rhythm of writing, I write short stories every few days. Upon reviewing them, I've realised that unless I am specifically aiming for abstract and vivid metaphors (which I'm pretty good at,) my writing is fairly boring and clunky. Obviously this presents a problem as it means that when writing normal or even action scenes, the writing just doesn't flow and appears to be written by a younger kid.
Examples:
* In fast flowing action scenes, it either sounds too accurate/factual and therefore less like a story *or* too full of adjectives making it very clunky.
* In average scenes, I just can't balance actions and dialogue without making it sound slightly childish - not at all what I want if I'm going to be writing a book. It just doesn't flow, I don't know how else to describe it.
* In scenes with large amounts of similes/metaphors (particularly if I'm describing thoughts) I do fairly well and it sounds pretty good, but obviously a book doesn't only consist of abstract and metaphorical descriptions.
Are there any tips to get better at the flow and quality of writing in different scenes? What methods do I need to use to make the sentences flow? I have plenty of story prompts so that I can just write short stories and do lots of practice, but I don't know how to practice in a way that makes the writing better. I don't know how to make it sound more adult. Are there specific methods/websites/tips that could possiblly help? | [
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"text": "Read, read, read, then read more.\n\nRead stories once for pleasure. Then, read the same story again critically. Take n... | 2023/07/16 | [
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66,594 | I am currently working on a murder mystery novel with a vintage aesthetic. I already have vintage names, Pinterest boards and mood boards. So I know what I want it to kinda look like. The problem is I don’t know how to effectively convey the look and feel of the aesthetic that want my readers to see and feel.
I’ve heard of other authors who take an aesthetic but they don’t properly convey the aesthetic that they had chosen, which leads to annoyed readers who love the aesthetic that the author has chosen.
The other problem is I have to mix in the eerie and dark feel of the *murder mystery* part of the book as well. | [
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"text": "1. Do your research. Make sure you know commonly used words, phrases etc from that time (sprinkle them in liberally, ... | 2023/07/18 | [
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66,602 | I am responsible for product X. Product X has bi-directional connectivity with other systems A and B.
When I am referring to data coming from A in to X, I can say:
* "Inbound interface from A to X"
* "Inbound from A to X"
Or I can give the directionality a codename and say that:
* X1 = data coming in to X (implies from A)
* X2 = data leaving X (implies to A)
I don't find either of these to be elegant solutions. What is a good, succinct way to reference the directionality/flow of information between 2 systems? | [
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66,606 | I have written a children's book about dragons and the things they do in Texas. Do I need to ask i.e. the Lubbock Arboretum if it's okay that I mention them in my story? So my question is: When do I need to ask permission to use a location? Or do I even need to? Thank you! | [
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66,609 | This website in incredibly useful and it's already helped me a lot. However when it comes to asking questions about specific details/genres or questions that are heavily opinion based, sadly, this website doesn't work so well.
**Examples**
* If I were to ask what the blast radius of a small bomb was, I doubt I would be allowed to ask here.
* Similarly, I wouldn't be allowed to ask whether post-apocalypse survivors would be able to set up their own solar field without instructions.
* I can't ask what people think is the best form of dystopian governement is (opinion based).
I've tried searching already and haven't been able to find anything - I actually didn't find this one either, it was pure chance. If anyone has any useful websites that would be really helpful. I would just do lots of research but I feel like the police would give me a call if I kept on searching up questions about bombs. | [
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66,610 | My book plan is to cover at least 2 possibly 3 books. I've skeletoned out the first book into a very brief plot. Should I do the same for book 2 and 3 before developing the plot of book 1 or should I just start writing? I'm getting a little bored of the planning and research stage and kind of just want to start writing. But from experience when I start writing without planning it doesn't end very well.
I haven't fully developed the first plot so what should my port of call be? Strenghten the first plot then start writing? Finish the skeleton for all books then start writing? Not start writing until both the skeleton and bulked out plot for all books have been written?
I did find a smiliar question asked 3 years ago but the answers didn't help me so I thought I would ask again. | [
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66,616 | I am trying to locate a co-author for a book series I have planned. I have the basic premise and foundation done, and have written a rough "first page." But, even though I am a published author in my own right, I do not feel proficient to write in the genre the idea demands. Any ideas for how to locate such an individual? | [
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66,636 | I have been planning a murder mystery novel for a couple months and just need to get a few more specific details planned and then I’m ready to write.
But I was laying in bed one night just scrolling through YouTube Shorts when I just get an amazing idea (sort of). I decided that I should write the idea down before I forget it. But then I realized that I needed more of a plot to write down, so I started thinking about it and what I came up with made the idea even more amazing.
But the problem is writing the idea down. Let me be more specific, I am perfectly fine writing the idea down in my ideas spot in my notes app. But usually when that happens I end up forgetting about it and never look at it until the next one comes around.
I use the app Milanote for my planning, but I can’t get the upgrade so every time I have a new plot to plan I have to delete the other plot the was being planned there which I can’t do for the novel I’m working on for obvious reasons. But the only way I’ll remember the other plot is if I start planning it but I need my storage for my current work.
I’m desperate to not forget this idea it’s currently two in the morning and I am working hard not to forget the idea. Any feedback on what I should do to preserve the idea would be greatly appreciate | [
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66,646 | I noticed that many authors use different ways of conveying dialogue, from conventional to unquoted ramblings mixed with explanatory sentencing. Are these types of artistic license with punctuation like Cormac McCarthy better for someone with a foothold as an author or should you stick to strict structure from the beginning because it could lead to bad styling and grammar? | [
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"text": "Well...\n\nIf your goal is to have your story accepted by a publisher as a no-name beginner author, or win first pl... | 2023/07/27 | [
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66,652 | What is the best way to describe a woman's lips without being cliche? I can't help but think "pillow" or "pouty" but that's wrong. I looked through all the synonyms for words like thick, plump or voluptuous but they just don't fit. How would you describe it in a way that may not be a singular word?
For context he's staring at a picture of her from several years ago on his phone and describing her face with a sense of nostalgia | [
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