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How to turn an unknown detail in the story into a mystery instead of a lacking detail? I mean, how to make so that an undefined information in the plot be considered a mystery, i.e. an intentional unanswered question, instead of: ー So, then what? ー Well, this is an unknown fact in the story. ー Sorry but this story is incomplete.. <Q> Near the end of the book, have a character comment on it, and perhaps express some kind of emotion about the mystery. <S> If I remember right, Stephen King did that in The Colorado Kid. <S> This trick— have a character comment on it —is useful whenever you want to make it clear that you are aware of something that may bother the reader. <S> Not only unresolved story questions, but also improbable successes (have a character say something like, "it's a million to one..."). <S> Some readers will be unsatisfied by that, and you can't patch every "hole" this way, but at least readers are aware that you left the hole there on purpose. <A> You might need to clarify your question: I'm not sure exactly what you mean. <S> But maybe: (a) <S> As Dale Emery says, have the character's comment on it. <S> If, for example, you never mention what Fred does for a living, the reader may not even notice that you don't bring it up. <S> Or if it's obviously relevant, the reader may wonder if the author made a mistake by failing to clarify. <S> But if a character says, "It's funny that nobody knows what Fred does for a living", then you make it explicit. <S> (b) Have the characters do, or attempt to do, something about it. <S> I often get maddeningly frustrated when the characters in a story never do what would seem the obvious thing to solve their problem. <S> Sometimes I find myself just wanting to shout at the book or the TV screen, "Why don't you just call the police?" <S> or "Why don't you just tell her you love her?" or whatever. <S> And I know that the real reason is because if the characters did do the obvious thing, that the story would be over in five pages. <S> But this is easily solved by having the characters attempt the obvious thing and it not working for some reason. <S> Like they call the police and the policeman shows up and turns out to be part of the conspiracy and calls that station and says, "Nothing going on here. <S> Just some nutcase making up crazy stories." <A> I can't think of an example, but <S> I know my interest has often been piqued by a story starting with something like, "We never did find out how the Duchess disposed of the severed head... <S> " <S> Putting the unsolved mystery at the end works well in both the book and the film of The Day of the Jackal . <S> From memory, almost the last scene of the film ends with someone asking, after discovering that the eponymous Jackal could not have been the man they were tracking, "Then who the hell was he? <S> " <S> Somehow it adds to the memorability of the Jackal's character that we never do find out his true identity.
| In combination with "lampshading" the unsolved mystery in dialogue, as mentioned in the answers by Jay and Dale Hartley Emery, you can demonstrate that your unanswered question is intentional by putting it right at the beginning or right at the end of the story, i.e. at the parts of the story where readers know that the writer is most likely to have carefully planned every detail.
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Connecting my plot to different locations in my world In my world, there all sorts of places that I'd like to include in my book but I have yet to find sound reasons to include more a handful of them. How can I connect several distinct locations to my plot? and What type of constraints should I keep in mind while doing so? (I'm shooting for ~100k word count) Note : I have been intentionally vague about the details of my plot, characters and world because I'm looking for over-arching, reusable mechanics rather than specific fixes for my book. <Q> If you want to include a place: Give characters a reason to go there. <S> Have the characters <S> interact with the things that make the place interesting to you (or to the characters, or to readers). <S> Show the characters' sensory experience of the place, and their opinions of what they experience. <A> Typically, I see this being done three different ways in the books I've read: <S> A) <S> The narrative is a journey: <S> This is the simplest reason to visit many different places <S> --the narrative is a trip, and each place is a natural stop along the way. <S> B) <S> There are Important Things located in each place. <S> This can feel a bit cliche, but it's an old standard in adventure plots because it's effective. <S> C) <S> The main character is being chased, and needs to hide out in a variety of places. <S> With all that said, don't feel that your characters have to actually visit every single interesting place you've thought up for your world <S> --that wouldn't be a book most people would want to read. <S> It might be better for your main characters to just hear about some of those places --or to meet people from them (or just save those places for the sequel!). <A> Otherwise the reader may always think you just try to "make pages"... <S> One of the worst books I ever read was that way. <S> Hundreds of pages because the protagonist just wanted to watch animals ... <S> That had nothing to do with the story and was just annoying, because nothing important happened.
| Let there be important actions and / or information at those places, that are needed for the story.
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Possible To Introduce A Character Through A Dialogue? In a screenplay, would it be okay to introduce a character through a dialogue? The character in question isn't given a background (in the ACTION) in the start since his first appearance is one where he appears all of a sudden.A couple of lines later, he gets a description of his physical features. And even though he has a sizeable role (read '3 minutes of screen time') in the film, I have referenced him simply as MAN in all of the dialogues. Is it common practice to first have a character speak something and then introduce him to the reader, purely out of narrative demands? I wish for the answer to hold for the introduction of the protagonist as well. He is introduced with a voice-over and it's only after a minute of VO that you actually get to see him. Should I describe his voice or just get going with it? Also, is it okay to reference him with his own name (in the VO dialogue that he speaks), since he will be introduced later in the very first page? <Q> A screenplay is an odd hybrid because you have two audiences, the reader of the screenplay, and the viewer of the film. <S> Because of this, screenplays have a lot of strict conventions which you should never break (or only for EXTREMELY good reasons). <S> In general, anything that will appear on screen needs to be described the first time in appears, not in the dialog, but directly in the stage directions, so the reader can see the movie in her mind as she reads it. <S> I can't tell from your question if you're generally following screenplay format, aside from this, but if not, you should take the time to research it <S> --there are many good resources online <S> (here's a decent one ). <S> No one in the industry will be willing to read an incorrectly formatted screenplay. <A> Yes, it's possible to introduce a character only after the VO. <S> Look at American Beauty as an example. <S> It does both of those things you describe, with RICKY having dialog O.S. before he's actually described, and Lester having his VO introduction before he appears physically in the screenplay. <A> It is perfectly possible to do this. <S> A classic example would be Moby Dick. <S> Okay, it's a whale <S> but it's a character that gets spoken about in great length before finally appearing. <S> Likewise, Keyser Soze gets spoken about in The Usual Suspects without ever appearing. <S> A lot of the time in films, a character in teen films especially is usually talked about for some embarassing event before they appear and are laughed at so <S> we know why they're being laughed at.
| When he appears on screen, however, the physical details must be provided right at the point that he appears, not a few lines later. If , as you indicated, the character first appears in voice over, describe the auditory qualities of his voice, rather than his physical qualities, because that's what the final audience would experience at that point.
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How do I get rid of the tic of paired adjectives, predicates, etc.? In technical writing, I have a tic of writing in pairs. Some examples from a recent piece: "When you speak, be sure to be clear and concise ." "Face to face conversation is personal and private ." "Great communicators know how to provide the right degree of guidance and structure. I'd like to get better at editing out these tics (or at least making them less prevalent), but I struggle because I want to use the pair to draw out shades of meaning. For instance, in the last example, great communicators provide guidance to the recipients about what the audience should think, but they also provide structure in how the audience will get there, organizing the thinking process along the way. Are there any suggestions for how to work on this tic? <Q> If both words in your phrases need to be there to make your point, then don't worry about it -- that's not a tic but the writing process. <S> In the case of pairs (or larger groups) of descriptive adjectives or nouns, sometimes you don't need more than one. <S> When you see yourself doing this, stop and ask if there is a single word that conveys what you mean, either one of these or a different, encompassing word. <S> I know you said you want the nuance in your last example, but let's look at it again: <S> Great communicators know how to provide the right degree of guidance and structure. <S> Guidance includes structure, so I think you could safely remove "and structure" there. <S> (It's hard to say without seeing this in context.) <S> If you want to call out some nuance of providing structure, you could do that separately. <S> Sometimes you do need both <S> but they don't need to be in the same sentence. <S> For example, you write: Face to face conversation is personal and private. <S> That's true, but why are you telling the reader this? <S> Are you going to follow that sentence with something about personal interaction and something about privacy? <S> If so, do you need this sentence too ? <S> Sometimes the answer is <S> yes, you want the sentence as an introduction -- but ask yourself the question because sometimes the answer is no. <S> The first step in changing any unwanted writing pattern is noticing that you're doing that. <S> You've done that. <S> The next step is attacking them on a case-by-case basis as I've suggested here. <S> In time you should find yourself adapting your writing style, so instead of editing them out you'll write fewer of them in the first place. <A> Try expanding the adjectives into more fleshed-out clauses. <S> That will keep them from being right next to each other and creating that "X and Y" structure that you're noticing, as well as allowing you the chance to more fully explore the shades of meaning that you say is your intent. <S> "When you speak, be sure to be clear and concise." <S> When speaking, take care to explain your points fully while not sacrificing brevity. <S> "Face to face conversation is personal and private." <S> Face to face conversations not only increase privacy, when that is a concern, but also create a personal connection that is lost through electronic communication. <S> " <S> Great communicators know how to provide the right degree of guidance and structure. <S> While a good communicator can guide their audience to a particular conclusion, a great communicator will also provide a structured framework of thinking to allow the audience to reach that same conclusion on their own. <A> This doesn't seem to me like a serious problem, it's just a part of your own personal writing style. <S> Even in technical writing, you don't necessarily want to edit all individuality out of what you produce. <S> My advice would be only to resist the impulse to add this in places where it isn't really necessary or helpful. <S> Personally, I like your parallelism. <S> It has a certain elegance. <A> It depends on what you are trying to say. <S> For example, concise writing is not always clear and clear language is not always concise. <S> Saying both is in that border area between tic and idiom. <S> For the record, you're not alone in this habit. <S> If you read any legal writing, this repetitive style of writing is all over the place. ' <S> Will and Testament.' ' <S> Crimes and Misdemeanors.' ' <S> Cease and desist.' <S> It dates back to the days when most law was still conducted in Latin (or French, heaven help us). <S> Lawyers would use both the English and Latin terms for "clarity." <S> Doesn't help your problem, but an interesting fact, nonetheless. <S> If it helps, just pretend you're speaking French.
| When I'm editing technical documentation (and, ideally, when I'm writing it in the first place), I try to make every word earn its place.
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Publishing Through Blogs/Story Equivalent of Webcomic? I really want to publish my work somewhere online. That being said, recently, I've had quite of an interest in webcomics--however, I can't draw, and I prefer full on writing. Is there a possible way to just start a writing blog with a similar concept, or are there other ways to publish my writing and make the platform completely my own? (Sorry if I'm not making any sense. :p) Thank you so much! <Q> There are a couple of things you can do for this. <S> Start your own personal blog. <S> There are lots of free services like Blogger <S> (you'll need a Google account to use this), <S> Wordpress .com <S> (careful, NOT .org), Tumblr , etc. <S> Publish with a free fiction-posting service, like Wattpad . <S> Work with an artist to create a web comic in which you are the writer, and the artist does the artwork. <S> Which leads me to... <S> DeviantART <S> is a good place for both writers and artists, and for them to collaborate and get their work seen. <S> Lots of working pros out there in all fields of creative arts. <S> It's a wonderful resource. <S> Hope that helps some, and good luck. <S> Most of all, have fun. <A> I'm not sure exactly what you want to do. <S> If you want to make comics but can't draw there are various comic creation sites, such as bitstrips, and software packages that help you by providing the graphics. <A> Although there are some talented people who do both art and writing, it's quite common in comics for one person to write and one person to do the art. <S> I'm not personally tapped into that community, but I'd imagine you could locate someone interested in collaborating if you looked hard enough. <S> I believe the award-winning Fairyland series began that way. <S> The key for success in any serialized writing is sustained, consistent, regular updates and high writing quality.
| If you're not necessarily interested in a comic, but just want to write your own stories as a serialized blog format, there are people who have done that very successfully.
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Character name and its capitalisation Nobody in my story knows the actual name of one of the characters. She calls herself 'tina. She always writes it 'tina and gets irritated if people write it Tina - it's short for something, but nobody knows what. To her, the apostrophe and the lower case "t" are important - she likes the air of mystery that it creates for herself, allowing herself to hide away part of her life. My question: When I'm talking about her, should I always write her name as 'tina? I want to, but it's a name, so an inner voice is telling me i should drop the apostrophe and capitalise the T when I'm saying "Tina did this" or "Tina said that". But if I start doing that then how do I decide when it should be 'tina and when it should be Tina. If I'm not careful then her name, an important part of her character, will be relegated to a throw away comment when I first introduce her and will likely make her sound much more pretensious than she actually is. <Q> Lots of names are short for longer names. <S> Beth is short for Elizabeth. <S> Nobody writes it 'beth. <S> That said, lots of people have insisted on defying orthographic conventions in the spelling of their names. <S> Prince even changed his name to . <S> Needless to say, people tend to find that sort of thing quite pretentious. <S> So Tina's name is short for something: why should anyone care? <S> The fact that she angrily shoves that in people's faces whenever they try to spell a normal name with normal rules is pretentious. <S> Especially given that this is a spelling-only issue: orally, 'tina is equivalent to Tina and only people who have reason to write her name will even be aware of the distinction. <S> You could, of course, use the "correct" capitalization in the text to flag the speaker as one who is sympathetic to 'tina or not, as in the Eddings example in Lauren Ipsum's answer. <S> But I suspect a person who insists on such an unorthodox spelling of her name is going to be unhappy a lot of the time, when she tries to enter her name into a computer, or fill out a government form, or apply for a job, etc. <S> My advice would be to have an alternate way of indicating that the name contains something else. <S> For example, some people use their middle name, so John Harold Smith becomes J. Harold Smith and everyone refers to them as Harold . <S> But anyone who writes down the full name should include the J in it, even if they don't know what it means, and Harold could routinely sign his emails, letters, etc, as J Harold Smith. <S> Language is primarily spoken for most people most of the time. <S> And thus the token that identifies you typically is a sound, which then gets transcribed according to the local spelling rules. <S> Violating those rules makes your character stick out a lot, and maybe not in a good way. <S> And doing it so that your character can effectively constantly tell people "I know something you don't" seems incredibly annoying. <A> In David and Leigh Eddings's Malloreon series, one of the characters, a ruler, styles himself ’Zakath , with the apostrophe. <S> The characters under his rule use the apostrophe; those who oppose him don't, if I recall correctly. <S> So those who do and don't use it say as much about the character as the apostrophe does: do you respect (or fear) <S> the person enough to spell his name as he wants? <S> It's later revealed that the apostrophe is meant to stand for "Kal," which means "King and God" (so the ruler is using an epithet attached to the country's actual god, Kal Torak). <S> When the meaning of the apostrophe is revealed, it's done with great glee at Zakath's pretentiousness, because in this case he is pretentious. <S> You have a reason for it and character development behind it. <A> For this particullar example, the name is only expression, how to name yourself. <S> If i will call myself LittleOgre, it will be my name or nickname too. <S> So because of it i will use 'tina. <S> And the second, I will rather use 'tina instead of Tina and 'tina. <S> It can be rather confusing, because when you will tell about here you will use Tina, and when somebody from your other characters will call on her, <S> he/she will call 'tina. <S> Hope it helps. <A> I kind of like 'tina. <S> Her name could be Justina. <S> Perhaps someone gave her the nick name, Just Tina.. could be the explanation of 'tina. <S> Going to throw a hail mary here and say maybe the person that gave the nickname has passed... the ' suggests they will always be apart of 'tina.
| In English, when shortening a word by lopping off the beginning of the word, the tradition is to treat the shortened word as a full word in its own right, and to capitalize it as such. By all means, reference your character as 'tina if it means something to her, and she can absolutely insist on it.
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How to write about disgusting subjects? Context : I'm starting a story with supernatural creatures and trying to make it both gory and funny. Some creatures I use are really gross. For example, one of my characters is an akaname , a toilet-licking spirit, and an other is a wendigo , a forest cannibal. I have no problem with "regular" blood and violence but have difficulties with this project. The problem : I'm afraid too much gore and gross stuff might pass as some kind of fetish. How can I write this sort of story without sounding like a creep? I'm looking for advice on how to decide if I should include a scene or make it told/remembered by a character and how much detailed the descriptions should be, to keep funny and disgusting balanced. <Q> Are you a creep for writing about a toilet-licking monster? <S> I doubt it. <S> I don’t think Nabokov was a creep for writing Lolita , nor was Thomas Pynchon a creep for writing the extremely detailed scene in Gravity’s Rainbow in which a man eats excrement. <S> True, people have had visceral reactions to both the authors and their subject matter, but that’s to be expected. <S> As a fiction writer, you do your job primarily by telling compelling stories using images, characters, and motivations that give your readers something new and delicious. <S> In the long run, your reputation as a writer will likely hinge on several things: quality prose, excellent storytelling, memorable characters, unforgettable scenes, and consistency. <S> You might consider approaching your concern from the consumer's point of view: readers desire a “certain something” from a genre work, and they gravitate towards the writers most likely to provide that certain something. <S> They are looking for something general, rather than something specific, i.e. they want to be terrified or grossed out, but they aren’t specifically looking for toilet-licking monsters. <S> You’re pretty safe on that count. <S> If you can add humor into the mix, even better. <S> That being said, and more specific to your question, certain aspects of your writing can become “trademarks”, so to speak. <S> David Cronenberg (director) writes/directs films “about" body horror; Shirley Jackson writes psychological horror ( <S> and I doubt either of them would appreciate being labeled this way). <S> However, I suspect that “trademarks" of writing only become trademarks over time. <S> Perhaps a counter-arguement is Bret Easton Ellis, whose American Psycho was so shocking that he himself came under scrutiny <S> ( this NYTImes article from 1991 is a fun place to start). <S> Ultimately, I suspect that many readers have a maturity level that can handle the gross out details. <S> On the other hand, if your primary readers are presently friends and family, be prepared to get some questioning glances at Thanksgiving. <A> I'm afraid too much gore and gross stuff might pass as some kind of fetish. <S> If you have a fetish, you shouldn't be ashamed of it. <S> Okay, just kidding. <S> I experienced a similar problem while writing a novel called Animal Suicide, a romance/comedy about human/animal suicide. <S> Here's the good news. <S> It's very easy and effective to turn gory and serious subjects into humor. <S> In fact, that's the reason black comedy exists. <S> Apparently, humans find these stuff funnier because it helps them to channel out the fear/embarrassment they have tramped inside (think sex jokes). <S> So I say, go with it. <S> Make it funny. <S> And with this rule in mind: what makes you laugh is likely to make your audience laugh (as long as the scene isn't offensive or excessive). <S> EDIT: <S> Okay, some practical advice: watch George Carlin, Bill Hicks, or Louis CK's clips on YouTube. <A> I think you won't come across as creepy if there are reasons the gross characters are in the story. <S> The reasons don't even need to be deep. <S> For example, I think it could be quite funny for someone to wonder who has been cleaning his toilet, making a minor mystery out of it that is answered by revealing the existence of the creature. <A> I think the fact that you are concerned about overdoing it is a good sign. <S> Here are my thoughts: <S> Don't include grossness and gore for the sake of being gross and gory – make sure your characters have more depth than that. <S> If your story offers little more than akanames licking commodes and wendigos eating each other in the forest, you probably won't get rave reviews. <S> But if you can somehow weave the unique traits of these characters into the story somehow, most readers will appreciate your efforts. <S> Try to make the most memorable parts of your story your clever ones, not your graphic ones. <S> Imagine a broad readership when you're polishing your story. <S> Imagine your daughter reading it when she's in ninth grade. <S> Imagine your wife's grandmother picking it for her summer read. <S> This doesn't mean you need to strike the edgy characters from your plot and write something you think would get past the prudes, the censors, and the book-burners, but it might help you achieve that degree of balanced moderation that you're striving for. <A> In my opinion, there's no such thing as "too much gore and gross stuff" when you are writing about gore and gross stuff. <S> Only problem that you are facing is in the details. <S> For example -> "bloody Mary" and "bloody virgin Mary" are two different sets of data and when you write about gore, you just need to figure out (while writing) <S> which way does it sound best for current situation you imagined.
| When in doubt, lean toward the subtle and the humorous rather than the obscene and the profane.
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Current best program for self-publishing? What is the best program (or programs) for layout, typesetting, and then printing (at home, or taking files to a printing shop) a book? It would need to be one which takes into account the way pages would be ordered and folded so that I could sew and bind the book myself. Thanks! <Q> You need a desktop layout program, such as Adobe InDesign or Quark XPress. <S> Don't use Word; it's a word processing program and not meant for layout. <S> You could possibly use LaTex, but I don't know much about it. <A> If it is something as simple as a novel you can actually use a word processing program. <S> (I know of people who produce relatively complex magazines using Word. <S> My wife has written several books using Word.) <S> Open Office and Libra Office are both free and will produce pdfs if you want someone else to print it. <S> You need to check the layout on the pdf that is produced, but otherwise it is pretty straight forward. <S> Desktop publishing programs can produce better results if you are prepared to take the time to learn them. <S> I have used Serif's PagePlus to produce several editions of a community magazine as well as tri-fold leaflets, birthday cards and screen presentations. <S> You can download the starter version for free. <S> I am not sure what restrictions it has, other than being an earlier version of the program. <S> Normally, you are then offered an upgrade to the full program for a minimal price with no restrictions (I paid £10). <S> In the 1990's high end programs (such as PageMaker) offered features that were deemed necessary. <S> Unless you have very complex needs, I wouldn't pay for a premium product. <S> Personally, I never use Microsoft Publisher for three reasons. <S> Firstly, it is very restrictive and doesn't allow you to do many things I want to do. <S> Secondly, it is expensive. <S> Thirdly, and this is perhaps the most important point, any document produced using the program is immediately identifiable as being produced using Publisher. <A> Some publishers have their own layout applications. <S> They also work with a print business that can make moving your work to a print version a little bit easier and allow you to reuse your existing files. <S> Its more for organizing your work in chapters and keeping side notes and metadata like pictures related to what you're writing. <S> It's got a few hiccups with the exporters but other than that its a very solid writing tool and worth the meagre price.
| As for working in fiction with low graphical content you're still best using a word processor or there's also Nimble Writer . Now-a-days cheap or free programs will do just about everything you could ever want. Amazon has their own applications for design and layout for books of a graphical nature or that have specialized layout (they support many platforms as well).
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What should a literary writer read? Everyone knows that a writer should read, but the question is what ? The question I would like to ask here is: what books should a literary writer have read ? What are the critical reference points that anyone in the game needs to have exposure to? What are perhaps lesser known works that are nevertheless important? This is an open-ended question and clearly will entail a great deal of subjectivity, but writing is like that anyway. <Q> So I don't actually think anyone could provide you with a useful list of books here, because individuality, different approaches, style, subjectivity, blah blah all that. <S> But an approach that works is this: read what you like, be it sci fi, fantasy, whatever. <S> Harry Potter. <S> Then sift through interviews and wikis of the authors you admire, and find their influences and teachers. <S> Then read the stuff written by those. <S> And enjoy it, but also, once you're done, ruminate on how they connect to the writing that brought you to them in the first place. <S> Read them more than once if you have to. <S> Good books generally need to be read more than once anyway. <S> This approach lets you get more directly at what you want to do, and leave out all the classic junk you don't really need. <S> Yes, it does take a little bit of effort - but <S> hopefully you read enough for fun to have a list of authors you can siphon information from, even if one of them doesn't have a lot available. <S> I mean reading a lot for fun is how you get to be a good writer. <S> The best writers tend to read a lot. <A> It feels like you're asking for a literary canon, but really, I don't think there is one any more. <S> Things are a lot more wide-open, with a lot less dead-white-male worship. <S> In terms of books that were really important to me <S> (not that I'm a literary writer, but I tend to be a literary reader)... <S> they've changed as time goes on. <S> When I first read The Color Purple <S> I was blown away by the dialect and the honesty, but it's not a book I've gone back to very often. <S> I love re-reading Austen <S> ( Persuasion is my favourite) <S> but I'm reading for the characters, not for the writing style, so <S> I'm really not sure they'd help someone trying to read as a writer, rather than as a reader. <S> I agree with the other poster who suggested you try to narrow things down a little. <S> Literary Fiction is a really broad category, but it can be broken down into sub-categories that might make more sense for you. <S> Different cultural groups have different prominent writers - if you're African American, you should probably read Walker, Angelou, Morrison, Hughes, Wright, Du Bois, etc.. <S> And it certainly wouldn't hurt for anyone else to read them, but if you're writing magical realism you might focus on just Morrison from that list and come to the others later, after you've read Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Haruki Murakami. <S> If you're writing some other sub-genre, I'd say you want to focus on other authors. <S> So, really, it's pretty hard to pick one list that's going to be useful to everyone. <S> Never hurts to read some Shakespeare, though! <A> Inferring that reading the right books can save someone from being a bad writer is ludicrous. <S> Only repeatedly writing, and finishing, story after story can save someone from being a bad writer. <S> That said, all writers (all humans, really) should read equal parts fiction and non-fiction. <S> Fiction shows you how to write. <S> Setup a Goodreads account, add and rate the books you've read, and check out the recommendations. <S> Non-fiction shows you what to write. <S> This is food for original story ideas. <S> Which novels/stories you read is arguably less important than how you read. <S> That's a topic for another thread. <A> It isn't what you read, but what you write that makes you great. <S> What do you mean by 'literary writer'? <S> Do you mean James Joyce? <S> Also, although we can identify loads of popular fiction that is bad writing, surely agreeing what is good writing and therefore choosing a list of novels is extremely subjective.
| Read philosophies, histories, biographies, essays, and anything else of interest that exposes you to what individuals and communities think about their setting. As for specific titles, read whatever piques your interest, or is recommended based on your favorites.
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For a new writer, is it better to enter contests or submit to magazines/journals? I'm a rookie writer, working on short stories thus far, mostly for practice and exposure. I need to get them out there somewhere. They're probably going to mostly fit into Sci-fi, fantasy, horror, weird fiction, etc. Genre stuff, in other words.So my question is this: at this stage should I enter writing contests or submit to magazines and journals? I want to get going on this but I'm stuck on issues such as these. Thanks. <Q> Most writing contests are not terribly high visibility, and quite a lot of them are expensive to enter. <S> A single solid publishing credit in a reputable magazine is worth more than a hundred awards from contests no one has ever heard from. <S> Sci-fi and fantasy are fortunate in that there are a number of genre publications devoted to them, some more general, some more targeted. <S> One caveat: <S> Publications get so many unsolicited submissions that receiving any feedback at all is unlikely. <S> If you're still at a beginning stage, you might want to join a writing group, or find some other source of criticism first. <S> Otherwise, you might just be shouting into the void. <A> When I was in graduate school, one of my creative writing instructors suggested we students name awards after one another, win them, and then tell magazine editors about it in our cover letters. <S> The advice was flip, but served to point out that contests are often expensive to enter, whereas magazines don't typically charge reading fees. <S> In the interest of frugality, I usually steer writers away from awards and encourage them instead to focus on developing their skills in a writing group. <S> Once developed by the group, a piece could be placed in a magazine. <S> I wish there were a more clear "ladder to success" for writing. <S> Once upon a time, perhaps it was "Start with magazines, then move up to books," but these days I'm less sure. <S> Time spent studying writing in college and graduate school can also be a path, which will improve writing and increase connections in the community of writers. <S> In more recent years, another mode seems to be developing in which writers gain an audience online with a blog, and then bring that blog to publishers with metrics describing how many unique visitors, etc. <S> I wish you the best of luck with your endeavors! <A> I think the best way to get started as a writer is to develop a portfolio of professional work. <S> You can start by doing jobs for free or on sites like hire writers. <S> I wrote an article about how to use the site to get content created and how to use it to make money. <S> Check out the article hopefully <S> it will be useful. <S> Make Money as a Writer on Hire Writers Marketplace <S> Also there are articles about getting started as a freelancer on the same domain. <S> They were written by a freelancer so it is sage advice. <S> To learn about creating a professional content portfolio check out the link. <S> After you create your portfolio with a professional looking website featuring links to your work, you can develop relationships with editors and pitch them ideas. <S> Although I fully support the idea of entering contests and submitting work to magazines, it might be more difficult to get paid this way. <A> It depends on two things. <S> What your skill level is. <S> What you feel comfortable doing. <S> I began writing with fan fiction and fan fiction contests. <S> ( Note: these contests were loose and open. <S> They were not professional, and were simply somewhere to practice and receive criticism.) <S> That's how I learned to write. <S> If you're a beginner, still honing and perfecting your writing process, I believe open community contests may be for you. <S> I would also look into fan fiction on something you're interested in. <S> It's very open, and a great place to test methods out. <S> It also has the added bonus of giving you free criticism, in the form of your readers' comments. <S> However, if you feel like you know what you're doing, and are just looking to solidify your processes, I would say magazines and journals could be a good way to go. <S> They will give you a good taste of what actually writing a book is like, including the publishing process. <S> You will probably get professional feedback/editing on what you write, and all feedback is invaluable. <S> Summing up <S> So it comes down to where you're at, and what you feel comfortable doing. <S> If you're just a beginner, I would recommend contests, and especially fan fiction. <S> If you have a solid process that you use to write and are looking to solidify it, I would recommend magazines or journals. <S> Disclaimer: <S> I have dabbled extensively in fan fiction and fan fiction contests. <S> I have never gone near magazines or journals, simply because I never felt the need. <S> I honed my processes entirely through fan fiction (and this site). <A> The days when you needed to publish in a magazine are long over and thank god. <S> If I had to keep fighting with those annoying lesbian, B- student refugees from Swarthmore over my use of the 3rd person singular anymore at my age I would probably kill myself. <S> Just go to a copy shop and start printing it. <S> Haven't you heard of samizdat? <S> The Xerox machine is your ticket to freedom. <S> Don't forget to put contact info in the book, so people know how to buy more, but whatever you do, don't use your home address. <S> There are some real crazies out there. <S> Once, one of my friends and his buddy showed up unannounced on the doorstep of Kurt Vonnegut and scared the shit out of him; don't let it happen to you.
| It is tough to get published in a magazine or journal, but if you want to be a professional writer, I think that's the route to go.
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What does it mean when someone says "it doesn't sound very natural"? I hear this pretty often when I say/write something, be it in text messages or emails or on any social media/forums. What does this mean actually? I am thankfully able to convey my thoughts but I do not want to hear this anymore. Are there any thumb-rules to follow when I say/write something to make it "sound natural"? <Q> Natural refers to language that native speakers say or write. <S> It is possible to write sentences which are not natural, by using words that wouldn't normally be used, or using word order that makes sense but is unusual, or by speaking/writing in a way that is unsuited to the situation. <S> An example would be if a person always spoke as if they were dictating a legal contract, using only a small number of precise terms. <S> Or if every phrase they said was a Billboard top 100 song lyric. <S> Or if unusual word order like Yoda they use. <S> To make your writing seem more natural, you need to read more and practice writing sentences that match the patterns you see in real life. <S> You need to have appropriate grammar and choose the appropriate dialect and register. <S> For what it's worth, what you've written in your question sounds perfectly natural to me. <A> An important part of writing well is understanding your audience and using the words that will have the desired effect on them. <S> If you're writing text messages to a sixteen year old, 'natural' language is going to be a lot more casual and text-speak-ish than if you were writing them to someone unused to the medium and more practised at long-form writing. <S> Similarly, the level of diction on a writers' forum is probably higher than the level on, say, a forum dedicated to a pop group or celebrity popular with uneducated people. <S> It's not necessarily a positive, but if you want to draw attention to your content rather than your manner of speaking, try to read how others post/write in that forum and imitate it. <A> "Natural" is based on what most people would say. <S> A sentence could be perfect grammatically, and not sound "natural." <S> This could occur in a situation where most people would use abbreviations or slang to say what you are saying. <S> Example: A "hypothecation" is a mortgage. <S> A Spanish speaker might say, "I have a hypothecation (hipoteca) on my house. <S> But most English speakers would use the French term, "mortgage," and say "I have a mortgage on my house."
| You need to develop a sense of which words to use and where, and which kinds of sentences to use and which to avoid. "Natural" essentially means saying things in the way people expect to hear them.
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Having poems published in magazines/journals Vs. Posting them online for free? Until now I have written just 2 poems. I was looking around to have my poems published. From past few days, I am looking for magazines/journals that pay and accept online submissions. After having spent a lot of time submitting, I am wondering if it is worth it? Should I just post it online in my own website of something like that? My condition is that I have a full time well paying job and currently have no plans to make a living out of writing. What are your views on this issue? <Q> I kicked a soccer ball around in the park yesterday and now I'm trying to decide if I should go pro or get a college scholarship. <S> Any ideas? <S> Or, slightly more directly... if you've only written two poems until now, probably your two poems aren't much good. <S> I guess it's not impossible that they are, but for most people, writing is a skill that needs to be developed and refined. <S> So, with that in mind, you're probably pretty early in your writing life to be looking for publication. <S> There certainly are journals that accept and pay for poetry (although I don't think there are many poets making much real money at it, <S> so it's good <S> you've got a day job!) <S> but they tend to look for... <S> well, they tend to look for really good poems. <S> Which, again, your two poems probably aren't. <S> It certainly isn't impossible that you'll get your poems published - but do look out for the 'publishers' who want YOU to pay, rather than the other way around. <S> There are contests and such like this, mostly aiming at teenagers but some at older writers. <S> They're a scam, more or less. <S> But more realistically, I think it would make sense to post your poems, get some feedback, refine your craft, and eventually submit for publication when you've got a better idea of what's required. <A> I say submit your poems. <S> Give editors a chance to buy them. <S> If the chances are slim, so what? <S> As far as I can tell, the only harm in submitting is the time it takes to research the markets, and whatever anguish you might feel when an editor chooses not to buy. <S> If those things aren't bothering you, go ahead and submit. <S> Depending on the magazine's circulation, that might be worth the effort. <S> So send your poems to editors. <S> When you don't feel like sending a given poem out again, post it on your own website. <S> But first give a few editors a chance to buy. <A> I think Kate S. has a good point, in that the odds are that your first few poems may not be up to the snuff of what publishers are looking for. <S> If you're not successful and get frustrated with the time it takes, there are sites that will allow you to post your poetry, just to be able to share it, without having to go through an acceptance process. <S> Poetry.com is one of them. <S> If you want a good site where you can give and get critiques on your writing, try Scribophile . <A> One more benefit which can be gleaned from submitting your writing for publication, is that occasionally someone at the publishing company will include some constructive criticism in their rejection letter. <S> When it happens, that advice is a treasure buried under what is otherwise, a pile of disappointment. <S> Once you get clear of the anger and self-doubt which often accompany such letters, go back with an unemotional eye, and search for some clues on how to make your writing better. <S> I once got a rejection letter that simply said... "Not in the specified format". <S> I got pissed. <S> I got self-righteous. <S> I eventually even let in a little self-doubt. <S> But eventually, I went back and read the publisher's website and found their submissions requirements page. <S> Before that moment, I didn't even know there was such a thing. <S> Since then, I have searched for and found one on almost every magazine and publisher site. <S> From that reject letter, I learned something that made my submission packages, if not my writing itself, better. <S> Learn from your failures <S> and then they aren't failures any more.
| The big advantage of submitting is that if a magazine publishes one of your poems, your work gets free advertising.
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Can a character with poor communication skills be used to create an excellent first-person narrative? I am deciding between first and third person narration for a book (and am inclined to write in the first person). One of the limitations of the protagonist is that he is not a great communicator, and this impacts his relationships in a significant way. My question is: can he then write a fine narrative in the first person? How do I create the differentiation between me the author, who is actually writing the book, and the voice of the protagonist who is supposed to be narrating the story? <Q> You shouldn't have a problem. <S> People can be very good at expressing themselves in writing, while being terrible at saying the right thing in social situations. <S> Your protagonist has the benefit of distance when communicating to the reader. <S> He can take his time, get his thoughts in order and not only relay what happened, but also reflect on, or rationalise the bad communication choices he made. <S> Think about how many times in film or TV a perfectly eloquent character has made a nervous, confused mess out of talking to someone (usually of the opposite sex). <S> The audience gets it, sometimes it's difficult to talk, sometimes it's easier. <A> It depends on why your character is "bad at speaking". <S> I have written a short first-person story in which the main character does not say a single word, but he's thinking a lot. <S> He is even nearly speaking at himself in his head, he criticizes the other characters, he's thinking about what he should/could have said and then realises it was not worth the effort. <S> It's very easy with a cynical character which criticizes quite everything he see, but you can do it with a shy one, or any character with a lot of things in mind. <S> You don't have to make your character speak all the time to have a first person narrative, you only have to write down his thoughts. <S> And he can have a lot of thoughts even if he is quiet. <S> (I'm even quite sure that quiet people thinks more than the noisy ones, but that's an opinion) <A> There are plenty of examples of first person narratives by a character whose speaking level isn't easily comprehensible by the reader. <S> The character Benjy Compson in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury is notoriously difficult to understand, as every sentence is somewhat disconnected from those that come before and after, in both time and space. <S> His brothers, though able to form a consistent narrative, are likewise difficult to understand. <S> Faulkner's As I Lay Dying uses both dialect and intelligence levels in portraying over a dozen first person narrators, and while these do pose a difficulty for the reader, a texture and pattern begins to develop that helps guide the way. <S> Stephen Dedalus, a very careful and articulate thinker in James Joyce's The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses may also be considered a poor communicator, largely because his obsessions are far beyond those of the average reader, and these inform much of what he is saying. <S> Going much further back in English literature, we have Tristram Shandy, whose communication skills are so poor that, while he can write very well, his autobiography doesn't make it much past his own birth (and for all that <S> , it's a very funny and worthwhile book). <S> As a side note, we have a whole category of narrative technique wrapped up in the "unreliable narrator", someone who tells a story, but is either willfully lying or doesn't know as much as he or she thinks they know. <S> Regarding differentiating the author and the protagonist. <S> A third person narrator (the author) can insert himself into the text via commentary and asides. <S> Readers often need cues if both the narrator and the protagonist are guiding the text. <S> This is a huge challenge, but if you want to portray the thoughts of the protagonist as separate from the narrator's storytelling, the convention is to italicize the thoughts.
| As long as the voice is consistently used, and you the author are aware of what is being left out by the speaker, a compelling story can be told.
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Mobile writing: can you write substantial works on a Psion palmtop or similar? Context I've just picked up a second hand Psion 5MX with the intention of using it to fit in the gap between when not at a desk/laptop and when in need of more than just a phone for jotting notes. I've found the keyboard a little 'viscose' at first, but am slowly getting used to it. It's registering the spacebar hits that seems to be the most problematic so far. While I would be more comfortable at a laptop, the 25-40 hour battery life of the Psion and its complete lack of distractions might still win out in the end. I've heard people claim to have written books and articles for publication on them. It is the distraction-free and long-life aspect I find interesting and am wondering whether to pursue writing on the device for those aspects in particular. Question Do people write substantial[0] works on electronic devices[1] like these that are not laptops? If so, what factors are most important (either in the device or in how you use it), and what are the pitfalls to watch out for? Addendum I have had time in the intervening days to type up some web content and book outlines on the device and so far it is fitting into the gap between phone notes (almost useless in comparison) and at-desk laptop sessions (with all the other distractions that entails) very well. I'd be keen to hear impressions of others who are straying away from their PCs to write -- [0] i.e. of personal or professional importance [1] Important in my case to avoid time spent typing up from paper. <Q> Surely this is purely a matter of personal opinion and habit. <S> I have written very long pieces on Palm PDAs using handwriting recognition (of a sort). <S> It wasn't ideal. <S> I have also written in exercise books with pens. <S> Although I say that some types of devices, such as ipads, are very difficult to compose on, others disagree strongly. <S> You have to find what works for you. <A> If it works for you, who cares whether it works for someone else or not? <S> Personally, I find writing without a full-size keyboard awkward and tedious. <S> But if you have no problem with it, well, good for you. <A> Loved the (average for me) 28-hour battery life, plus the fact that instead of looking for a place to plug in a charger, I would just pop out the 2 AA batteries and replace them and keep going. <S> Once my batteries went dead on a long flight, and remembered the external flash for my camera used AA's. <S> Solved my problem. <S> Plus the advantage of being an easy fit for an inside coat pocket. <S> Alas, my screen cable broke. <S> (I see the cable is now available on Ebay. <S> Maybe I will try to fix it.) <S> I replaced it with an HP Jornada 720, which I also love, though the battery is around 8-9 hours. <S> Hope this helps! <S> Dr. Steve, central Mexico <A> It is certainly possible. <S> See these two news stories: prnewswire.com /first-book-ever-written-using-mobile-phone-is-published telegraph.co.uk <S> /Commuter-who-wrote-fantasy-novel-on-his-phone-on-verge-of-multi-million-dollar-movie-deal <S> I recall a third story about a science fiction novel written by a UK author on an underground train in London, over a course of several months. <S> I guess it depends how desperate for time you are, and how devoted you are to your story. <S> (Or how bored you get on the train.) <S> Just be sure to take regular backups. <A> I bought a Psion 5mx three years ago for exactly the same reason. <S> And also because I am a fan of vintage palm PCs. <S> But it seems mine was not in a great condition. <S> I felt malfunctions and once even got my whole drive reset (I did not save my data on a storage card <S> so it was lost <S> and I was very frustrated.) <S> It was also very hard sending everything to the normal PC. <S> And what I found most disappointing I could not write in Bulgarian with it - no language support than its natively installed. <S> Otherwise it was fun using it. <S> I even planned learning how to program on it. <S> But I got mine really cheap. <S> Now I see on ebay they are quite expensive <S> and I don't think it's worth all that money. <S> I think I'd rather use pen and paper if I want something for creative writing :D <S> I also felt very well with my ultrabook with SSD - it is light, fast and battery holds for 4-5 hours on Ubuntu and more on Windows.
| I used my Psion 5MX on long trips to other countries (Europe, Africa, South America) and wrote entire chapters of some of my books on it.
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How to write in a diary regularly? I have found that I've not been able to continue writing a diary on a regular basis. What tips and tricks are there to help improve and foster the habit of regular diary writing? <Q> Give money to a friend and tell them that they are not to give it back to you unless you can prove you wrote that day. <S> They then give you back a small percentage of the money everyday you write. <A> I used to write to my diary regularly for seven years. <S> And then the internet happened! <S> It introduced me to a lot of reading material which robbed me of time where I could stay alone with my thoughts long enough to transfer it onto paper. <S> I started writing a blog, later started writing on my laptop and smartphone. <S> Though I did write, it took away the ease with which I could write on paper, to my diary. <S> The best way to write great content is to keep talking to yourself throughout the day. <S> This way, by the end of the day, you will have enough thoughts and your opinion of it all that you will be able to pen it down. <A> First : Habit is something which you like to do with your whole heart. <S> You can't make habits forcefully. <S> Second : <S> What you want to write everyday? <S> Your thoughts,feelings or your daily routine activities. <S> You can easily write about daily activities. <S> But for thoughts and feelings, you can only write about it when you have these things. <S> Suppose If you have no thought or feeling one day or few days,then you can't force yourself to write on that day. <S> So there is no tip or trick. <S> It all depends on you, your feelings, your heart .
| So, from experience I can tell you that the best way to keep up the habit of maintaining a diary regularly is to cut yourself off from places where you can express your thoughts in the written form, be it Facebook, WhatsApp or even Stack Exchange :P
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How to work on a new software feature that affects different topics We're working on a software manual with several chapters and topics and, so far, these are mostly self-contained. This means we have a dedicated chapter for "connectivity" and do not mention connectivity elsewhere, a dedicated chapter for "software upgrades" and do not mention upgrades elsewhere, etc. You get the idea. But we have now a new software functionality that affects different topics in the manual (say, topics A, C, and G). Each one of these topics is self-contained and isolated from the others but affected in a different way by this new functionality. The question is, what would be the best approach to read about this new functionality?: Create a new topic H and discuss in detail how this new feature affects A, C, and G. Add references in A, C, and G to the new H topic ( central approach ) Add information about the new feature to the tothe existing topics A, C, and G , without the need of a new Htopic. ( disperse approach ) We see advantages and disadvantages in both. In ( 1 ) we have everything in one place, which makes things easier in the long term, but H would be a topic of disparate things. In ( 2 ) we provide the information in the topic itself, where is most needed, but this is difficult to maintain the in the long term. Thanks,Jorge <Q> It depends, but probably you want the distributed approach where the chapter on X tells you everything you need to know about X, even if some of that is only relevant if you're using feature Y. <S> However, if Y is a corner case or involves a lot of changes to several other features, you might be better off collecting everything about Y in one place and linking to it from every other chapter it touches . <S> Don't just put it in its own chapter and say nothing in the others, though; that can lead to surprises when users who jumped straight to X later find out that they should have done X' because they're using Y. <S> On top of this, one approach my team uses is to have a section of the doc set (an HTML bundle of all the individual docs) that describes new features in this release. <S> People interested in "new feature Y <S> " can go there for easy access to the information (via links), but the main content is in the other docs. <A> How do your users read and use the manual? <S> If they use it as a textbook , where 95% of the readers start at the beginning and progress through to the end in linear fashion, then put all the new information into one chapter at the end. <S> If they use it as a reference book , so chapters are read out of order, individually, or not even in total because the person is looking up a feature, then you need the disparate method. <S> To use SaberWriter's example, if all I need to do is look up how to create menus in HTML, it would be useful to have at the very least a note saying that I could do the same thing with CSS or even more easily with JavaScript, a quick summary of the process, and then a reference to a longer explanation in the CSS and JavaScript chapters. <A> I think you already have your answer really. <S> Explain each topic in it's own chapter as you have them, then create a new chapter which explains this additional feature which alters the behavior of these other items. <S> Use Layers of Explanation Create Layers of Understanding Breaking it up this way and explaining the foundational points you want your reader to understand first, will create layers of understanding which then make later materials more easy to grasp. <S> Let's use HTML, CSS and JavaScript as an example. <S> Chapter 1: <S> What Is HTML? <S> HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language... ... <S> HTML is the structure of your document. <S> It allows us to create the structure of the DOM (Document Object Model) <S> The tag is a block type of HTML element. ... <S> Chapter 2 <S> : What Is CSS? <S> CSS is an acronym meaning Cascading Style Sheets... ... <S> To style all of the <DIV> tags with a class="book" <DIV> class="book") we can do something like the following: <S> #book {color:red; padding: <S> 2px 2px 2px 2px;} Chapter 3: <S> What Is JavaScript JavaScript can be used to manipulate the DOM -- the structure of the HTML : <div id='extra'>test</div>document.getElementById("extra").appendChild(node); JavaScript can also be used to alter the style of particular DOM element. <S> document.getElementById("p2").style.color = <S> "blue"; <S> Foundation Is Solid <S> By the time your readers get to the JavaScript (more advanced topic which requires the understanding of the previous information) they will be able to add this new layer of understanding because you've built a foundation for them. <S> I hope this helps. <S> Good luck with your project.
| Each new feature gets a high-level description of what it is and when you might use it, ending with links to the relevant places in the "main" docs.
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How Much Descriptive Information Is Enough For a Locale In A Screenplay? First out, my question pertains strictly to screenplays . Secondly, it deals with a spec script . Now, there seems to be surprisingly scant information on the internet in regard to how far you should go in describing a locale . I'll throw you an example. If I intend on describing a building from the 'EXT' , should I specify the colour of the walls and the number of storeys? Can I go even further to describe its skeleton and the shape it cuts? How much is too much? Further, would it be superfluous to mention stuff like the frame of the windows and other things of the like? Your answer will be all the more appreciated if you could cite examples and/or sources. <Q> Short answer: only as much as you need. <S> Which Usually means "not a whole lot. <S> " <S> Screenwriting is a collaborative effort. <S> The author needs to write enough for the locale to be "suggestive," but not so much as to take away freedom from the producer. <S> The more "generic" the place (New York, Chicago, Paris, etc.) <S> the less you need to write. <S> Only if the place is very specific, e.g. a faraway island on earth, or in space, do you need a detailed description. <A> If your main setting is: Downtown Chicago <S> Then, your script reader will understand when you say the character is standing outside of a building. <S> Your reader will assume it is a skyscraper and not additional info is necessary. <S> SmallTown USA <S> However, if your setting is Smalltown USA outside of a building that is necessary and specific to your plot -- old barn or horse stable or something, you can probably just add the bit about the barn or horse stable. <S> Sci <S> -Fi <S> Setting <S> If, however, the setting is another planet in the future where the aliens have 16 eyes and 4 arms, then the buildings may look a bit different and need to be described specifically. <S> Main Reason <S> All of this is extremely well explained in the very short and fantastically instructive book : How To Write A Movie <S> In 21 Days by Viki King - amazon link <A> None. <S> Just write the dialogue and setting. <S> If the director cannot figure out what it looks like from the dialogue, then your dialogue is not good. <A> The Director, Cameraman and Location Manager will all participate in finding what's available and works. <S> Writers should describe in impression, like an Impressionist painter. <S> Overly specific location descriptions are without much meaning and mark you as an amateur. <S> Why tell them about the window frames when you can't know what city the show will shoot in? <S> EXT. <S> SCARY HOUSE - NIGHT Perfect for a Horror Movie, the dark, musty, long-abandoned home was almost as threatening as the WORSENING STORM. <S> Sheila ran to her car when suddenly,...
| To Make It Short Directors do not like to be told too many specifics because it : wastes their time limits their creative outlet may offend their intelligence. The Power of Common Knowledge Simply base the amount of description upon how easily you can apply common knowledge.
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Can an overdone theme still work? Okay, I think it goes without saying that vampire stories are really overdone. But I have a novel idea I would really like to write that has a vampire theme. I think I can pull it off if I do it in a way it hasn't been done before, but my worry is that the clear vampire theme will ward people off. If you see a good-looking book, but it's about something you see too often, do you still pick it up and read the back? Or do you just gloss over it on the shelf? <Q> Can an overdone theme still work? <S> Absolutely <S> You have the right idea. <S> You generally want to stay away from overdone themes, because they are, well, overdone. <S> Make sure your novel is a fresh look at a familiar topic, and you will be just fine. <A> Some authors have their vampires looking beautiful like in Twilight, or their true form is gruesome like Angel in Buffy. <S> (Vampires are commonly said to be lustful creatures, so making them more monstrous looking discourages that and makes it more memorable) <S> If you want to change it up, maybe you can give them a unique, possibly supernatural quality. <S> The perceptions of vampires aren't set rules! <A> World War Z: Zombies, apocalypse. <S> The Hunger Games: Teenagers, survival. <S> The Book Thief: Teenagers, Nazism. <S> You see, you shouldn't worry about overdone themes. <S> You should worry about underdone themes no one cares about. <S> Plus, you can always turn an overdone theme into something original. <S> For example, World War Z is an overdone theme: zombies, apocalypse. <S> But it's still original (and a best-seller) because ... 1) <S> It's written as a series of interviews. <S> 2) <S> It's a social commentary--featuring zombies!
| But if you do write a novel with an overdone theme, you should approach it from an unexplored angle.
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What is a ballad? I've always wanted to write poetry, and I tried my hand at a ballad today. However, I know very little about the technicalities of poetry, and the explanations of iambic meter and structure of the ballad were confusing to me. Here it is, in full (only five stanzas). I'm not requesting feedback on the quality of the poetry (I already know it to be godawful), I only want to know if it is technically a correct ballad. Even better would be if someone could explain, in plain language, what a ballad is and how to construct it. The room had but one resident,a young boy only knownfor never doing what he meant,he sat there all alone.One day he stood up to admit,his memories were old.No story to submit, he mustgo make some of his own.Then many mountains did he climb,he traveled every plain.He ate new food (it was sublime)he saw the pure humane.And when he went back to his room,he thought he should recordthe memories he had consumed,the places he'd explored.Before he got to writing, hehad fallen on his bed.Adventure was exciting, buthe rest now in it's stead. <Q> Ballads, as far as I am concerned usually do the following. <S> They tell a story -- yours does. <S> They have the same number of lines in each stanza (there can be verse and chorus with different lengths) -- yours does. <S> They have lines with the same number of syllables in each pair (first and third can be different in length to second and fourth) -- without counting them all, yours appear to do this. <S> There is usually a rhyme scheme where the second and fourth lines rhyme -- except for 'old' and 'own' yours does. <S> This pretty much fits my definition. <S> I'd call is a ballad. <A> A ballad is a very loosely-defined form of poetry. <S> Most rigorously, it is essentially nothing more or less than a narrative set to music (or that is intended to be). <S> Tave's answer runs in a specific direction with this, by enforcing a syllable structure and rhyme scheme that would make the lyrics suitable for setting to a predefined musical style, specifically folk or popular styles that use a fixed repetitive melody for several verses. <S> Your song, because it tells a story and is rhythmically inclined due to its structure, is a ballad, but it could still be so if it weren't so rigorously structured, as long as it could adequately serve as the "lyrics" to a piece of music, either a standard tune or a custom-written piece of music. <S> If you wanted to label this poem a ballad in its published form, methinks nobody would argue the point too strongly. <A> These can be any of the following: abac - first and third line rhyme aabb - first and second line rhyme, and the third and fourth have a different rhyme abcb - second and fourth line rhyme abab - first and third line rhyme, and the second and fourth have a different rhyme <S> Sometimes you may see a ballad with six or eight-line verses, but the four-line verse is by far the most common. <S> Another distinguishing factor of the ballad is the meter that is used in each verse. <S> The easiest way to understand meter is the natural rise and fall of the emphasis placed on each syllable or word. <S> Here is an example I created with the emphasized words or syllables in bold font: <S> I wrote a po <S> em <S> yes ter day <S> To show how it was done . <S> I did n't have too <S> much to say . <S> I <S> did <S> it <S> just for fun . <S> This particular example uses a 4-3-4-3 meter, which means that the first line has four emphasized points, the second has three, the third has four, and the fourth has three. <S> Another form of ballad might have a 4-4-4-4 meter, which means that each line has four points of emphasis. <S> As long as your poem is structured in this way, with four lines in each section and each section following the same rhyming pattern and the same meter, then you have a properly formed ballad. <S> From a technical perspective, your poem is a properly formed ballad. <S> Getting a ballad structured properly can be a fun challenge, but the real challenge is getting the words to flow naturally so that the reader doesn't think about the rise and fall within each line. <S> You were doing fine until you got to the third line in the next to last verse: "the memories he had consumed". <S> A lot of people will read "memories" as two syllables instead of three, so I felt a little tripped up there. <S> When I read it again and forced the three syllables it worked, technically, but it didn't have the natural flow. <S> If you can structure it properly and get it to flow naturally, then you can go from having a properly formed ballad to having a really good ballad.
| Technically, a ballad is a collection of four-line verses that follow a specific rhyming pattern.
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Magic or No Magic? I have the majority of the story for my first novel worked out. My only problem is that I feel like I'm trying to find a way to force magic into it. There is only one point where magic is essential to the story line: A (secret) government group has been kidnaping people from the lower sector (a really poor side of town). They keep the ones who test above a certain range of power and kill the ones who don't. I'm not positive what they will be doing with the ones who test above, but I'm thinking they fix them up and turn them into soldiers. Should I continue adding magic into into the novel or should I take it out completely? How can removing magic affect the feel of the book? If I do remove magic, do I need to compensate in some way? <Q> Technically, your story does not depend on the existence of magic, it depends on the existence of secret and powerful organization that believes magic exists. <S> There is a fundamental difference, as proven by the countless people who have spent all their money on devices and training improving their spiritual abilities. <S> When talking about actions and motivations of people, it is usually the beliefs that count, very rarely the reality. <S> This is actually realistic, presidents and senators do consult astrologers and diviners, intelligence organizations have funded clairvoyance programs, government money has been spent on occult research... <S> Real world examples have stopped short of kidnappings and murders, but all it takes is oversight of the agency in question breaking and such breaking of control is pretty much assumed by default in lots of modern fiction. <S> This kind of is it real or not is actually fairly common in fiction. <S> I guess many writers have stumbled on the same issue as you have? <S> Such "is it real" issues also play well with hints of horror. <S> I think this might be better asked in world building SE? <S> As a general writing answer: See what amount of magic (or other fantasy) existing your story actually requires and do not write more in than that. <S> Writing surplus elements generally makes the story less coherent and weaker. <S> In this case no actual magic seems to be required, just a belief in it existing among some people. <S> Implication is that you should not write in any actual magic, just people who act based on belief in magic. <S> But this is about as binding as all those other "rules" of writing anyone else tells you. <A> Being the author, you have the ultimate decision of whether or not to include magic into your novel. <S> In your question, you said that the element of magic feels forced. <S> Normally that would be a good indication that you should either change your approach, or remove it completely. <S> The central theme of your story sounds like it revolves around these government agents and their interactions with "special people". <S> You would need to figure out what kinds of abilities these people have, and how the government can leverage them. <S> You would also need to answer the question why these people developed magical powers. <S> What makes these specific people of millions, or billions of other people different than the rest? <S> Is there some kind of special circumstance that occurs when people live in this specific area? <S> You don't have to go into great detail explaining the process, but as the author, you should at least have an idea why. <S> In fact, the less technical you can get with it, the better off you are because people who are very technical will have a tough time suspending their disbelief if you describe a process that would not be possible. <S> Magic seems to work quite well in small doses. <S> If too many people have the power, or their power is too great, then these people may appear too much like a super hero, than a regular person. <S> The best example of this is Superman. <S> Sure he is super strong, fast, can fly, see through walls, etc. <S> But, he is nearly impervious to all physical danger except for a rare element that is really no more than a MacGuffin. <S> Most people really do not feel worried about Superman because he basically never loses. <S> To balance this out, the characters with powers should remain mortal, and only have slight advantages over the rest. <S> If you do choose to include a magic element in your story, try to balance it out as best as you can. <S> Magic cannot be the answer to everything, and if it is, then it becomes very cheap feeling. <A> The main trade-off for the reader is between the pleasurable escapism of a fantasy novel and the compelling believability of a realistic novel. <S> In some sense, you can get the best of both worlds by exploiting a bit of ambiguity <S> --which is to say, to leave the reader guessing as to whether the magic actually exists or not. <S> In my opinion, this was done effectively in Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore where there was doubt right up until the end whether the events in the book would have supernatural or realist explanations (with some characters within the book believing one way, and some the other). <S> Ambiguity can be a problem, however, if the audience believes through a major portion of the book that they are reading one kind of book and it turns out to be the other --unless that is the entire point. <S> That can be extremely effective if done well, but if done poorly, the audience will just feel cheated.
| As such the simplest method of fixing the story would be simply that the characters and by extension the reader simply never find out if the magic that is tested is real or just exists in the minds of some powerful people.
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What is the "inner consistency of reality" that Tolkein refers to in his essay On Faerie Stories? I read Leaf by Niggle, and I've ever since been recommending it to just about anyone who will listen to me. Now, I want to know how The Magician did it. I read over his essay On Faerie Stories, and while it was a difficult read, there is a key part where he says that when done correctly, faerie stories have the "inner consistency of reality". What does he mean by this? I'd also like to know what authors he read, to get his ideas in the first place. To sum up, I'd like to learn to create worlds like the one inhabited by the painter, Niggle. Any knowledge toward that end would be greatly appreciated! <Q> If it's established that dwarves live 200 years, there can't be one who is arbitrarily 500 years old. <S> There has to be an explanation: he carried the One Ring, Aulë gave him extra years, etc. <S> A mage can't just endlessly cast spell after spell without having a source of magical energy (just as a person can't run endlessly or regenerate a limb). <S> Starships need inertial dampeners so that when a ship comes out of warp, everyone isn't flung against the forward viewscreen and reduced to chunky salsa. <S> The reader is suspending a certain disbelief by accepting that there are such things as fairies, dwarves, elves, wizards, FTL travel, aliens who can reproduce with beings from another planet, and so on. <S> The writer must make sure to establish consistent, logical rules about how the universe works, and then obey those rules. <S> That gives the fantasy the strength of reality. <A> While a story does not need to be consistent with reality, it should have the same consistency with itself as reality has. <S> "Inner consistency" simply refers to being consistent within itself. <S> " <S> Of reality" means of same quality as the self-consistency of everyday reality we know. <S> In practice this more or less means what Lauren Ipsum said. <S> Everything happens for a reason, everything has consequences. <S> And the rules of causality linking the reasons and consequences stay the same unless something specifically changes them. <A> For speculative fiction (fantasy and sci-fi), the "inner consistency of reality" usually has to be even more rigorous than with mainstream fiction. <S> If the story doesn't set up reality-rules of some kind, it's basically a dream-sequence-retelling or else a 5-year old's storytime. <S> If the story has rules, but violates them, it's deus ex machina , at best, or at worst, a joke on the reader. <S> None of these genres have a very long lasting audience. <A> I think that Tolkien in that quote is intentionally using both meanings of "consistency". <S> The story's reality must have an internal consistency; it must agree with itself. <S> Other answers have covered that, so I won't belabor it. <S> But also "consistency" means "texture." <S> Tolkien labored greatly to give his stories the "texture" of reality. <S> They are full of the same kind of details that reality is filled with. <S> There are different languages, there are flora and fauna, there is geography, there is history. <S> There are seasons, and climates, and microclimates. <S> Not only do men differ from elves, dwarves, hobbits, ents, orcs, and trolls (not to mention sentient spiders and eagles), but the men differ greatly from each other. <S> And I don't mean only that the good men and the bad men are different. <S> Nor do I only mean that there are distinguishable varieties of good men and bad men. <S> No, enough details are given so that the reader can easily distinguish Beregond from Denethor. <S> Think of the characterizations of Bilbo, Frodo, Merry, Pippin, Sam, the Gaffer, Fatty Bolger, etc. <S> They're all male hobbits, all good-guy male hobbits, and yet are all distinguishable. <S> They have the "consistency of reality. <S> " <S> Even the various hobbit places are different. <S> Hobbiton, Bywater, Bree, Buckland, the Took Smials, Farmer Maggot's farm, Michael Delving -- these are all identifiably "hobbitish" and yet all different, just like they would be in reality.
| Essentially it means that they obey their own internal rules and logic.
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Does a writer have any rights to a work that has been completely rewritten by another writer? Does a writer have any rights to a work that has been completely rewritten by another writer? The rewriter used the original work as a blueprint, but ended up changing most of the details and developing the work significantly. Not a single line was untouched from the original work and though the general story of the rewritten work bears some similarities to the original, they mostly bare little resemblance. There is no written agreement, and it was initially intended that the original writer would be the sole writer and the rewriter would simply do a quick pass and make a few small changes. But, the writer decided to stop working as writer when he/she passed the work to the rewriter, making no effort or requests to write more. <Q> If you are talking about legal copyright rights, then it would depend on the extent of the revisions. <S> If, as you say, "not a single line was untouched", then I think the rewriter would own all rights. <S> But if a lot of the original text is still there, then you have a joint work and you share ownership. <S> New writers routinely are confused about copyright. <S> It does not protect ideas. <S> Writers are always saying, "Hey, I really loved Harry Potter and I want to write my own story about a boy with magic powers who goes to a wizard school. <S> Do I have to get permission to use those ideas? <S> " <S> Answer: <S> No. <S> Copyright does not protect general ideas like "a story about wizards". <S> It protects specific words. <S> So: If the original text said, for example, "To be, or not to be, that is the question", and you rewrote that to, "Existence, or non-existence, that's the point under debate", then even though the idea is the same, you have not borrowed any actual words (besides trivial ones like "or" and "the"), and so legally the sentence is 100% yours. <S> If you dropped pages worth of material and substituted entirely different pages, that would make your case even more solid. <S> On the other hand if you edited it to, "To be, or not to be, that's the point under debate", and if that's the case throughout the story -- a sentence here, a paragraph there, half a sentence over there -- than you'd be on shaky ground. <S> If the other person sued for copyright infringement, a court would have to compare the two texts and make a subjective judgement. <S> Morally, if you borrowed heavily from the other person (or he borrowed from you, I'm not sure which player you are in this game), then I think you owe him something. <S> It's pretty common to include credits in a creative work like, "based on a short story by ..." or "based on characters created by ...". <S> If there's cash involved, I'd see if I could come to an agreement with the other person, preferably in writing, and so prevent problems before they happen. <S> Say, Hey, I think the final story is 80% mine and 20% yours, so how about we split any profits 80/20? <S> Or whatever details. <A> I see two related issues here: <S> derivative works writing credits <S> The script could be consider a derivative work since the second writer started with the the first writers script. <S> If the second script is changed substantially it could be considered a new work; but if enough of the original story remains it could still be considered a derivative work. <S> With screenplays, however, the first writer will usually either get a story by, a based on a story by or an original story by credit, and at minimum a shared story credit. <S> This is especially true when the second writer is hired to do the rewrite. <S> In fact the WGA garuntees that for screenplays the original writer (a team is consider one writer) <S> will get at minimum a shared story by credit. <S> If the second writer doesn't change enough, the first writer may get a shared writing credit. <S> N.b. <S> writing teams are separated with an '&' writers who worked separately on the same script are separated by an 'and' in the writing credit. <S> Copyright attaches as soon as it is affixed to a medium, paper, electronic, or otherwise. <S> No formal/written agreement needs to be made for this to occur. <A> I take it <S> you are the 'rewriter'. <S> What you have to work out is: have you 'completely rewritten' a text. <S> If you have, there is no problem. <S> If 'not a single was untouched' is true <S> then it is essentially an original work. <S> However, if you have, by whatever method, someone else deserves the credit.
| So without an agreement that the first writer abandoned their interest in the work, or ceded interest to the second it is possible that the first writer could claim the work as derivative of their own. Copyright protects the actual words (or sounds or pictures) used to express an idea. Copyright doesn't protect the idea, just the expression of the idea.
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What are some good writing analyzing software programs? What are some good writing analyzing software programs? I'm on a trial right now of something called EffectCheck which seems to give you the overall tone of your work and provide charts and bar graphs of how heavy that is. For example, happiness vs anxiety. It also has suggestive words to replace certain tones. Are there any other good programs out there? I'm curious to see how others may use these and what they find helpful (or lack thereof). I'm looking for software that can pick up POV errors, passive voice, filters, overall tone of the work, odd wording. Not just a simple grammar checker and spell checker, but things that editors might look for. <Q> https://prowritingaid.com is the best editing software I know <S> of - artificial intelligence can't replace a human eye, but this does wonders to prepare your work before you show it to a human. <A> The Writer's store has a variety of software for writing support and analysis. <S> They have software targeted at other fields of writing as well, screenplay, scripts, and so forth. <A> I personally use AutoCrit . <S> It is more expensive than some competitors (such as ProWritingAid that others mentioned), but from what I have read it more exhaustive and easier to understand. <S> It does everything you would expect from software to analyze fiction. <S> Next, there is Hemmingway . <S> I haven't done any serious work on it, but it is free which makes it a good option even if its reports aren't as good as AutoCrit's. <S> Finally, if you need some help wit grammar, Grammarly is a great tool.
| I've used the Writer's Dreamkit (the more or less stripped down version of Dramatica Pro ) and found it quite useful and insightful.
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How to find authenticity in a character of color I am working on a book. I am aware that, being a white guy, I always perceive characters as white men. I want to push myself into building a character that is black. My problem is that most of the people in my world are white. The blacks friends that I have live in white communities and have adapted that culture. I do have a really good Chinese friend, but don't "feel" a Chinese character in the world I created. My concern is that I don't want to write someone with black skin who has a white character. I want to create a character who is black and has worked hard and is accomplished in their career. How do I find this character's voice? Making black friends just to create this character seems shallow as does searching for a friend based on their color. <Q> Is your black character living in a world like the one your black friends live in, or a more immersively black culture, or...? <S> I think it's definitely a mistake to assume the character will be different just because of skin colour (unless you're talking about frequency of sunscreen application or something). <S> If you're writing a historical, race will probably have even more of an influence than it does most places today. <S> So part of writing the character will definitely be figuring out how that character fits into his setting. <S> If you're writing a contemporary novel with a character whose racial identity is a big part of his life (for better or worse), you'll need to do some research. <S> Don't think of black culture as a monolith - figure out where your character is from, how he was raised, and who he spends time with, and then do some reading (fiction or non-fiction, poetry, lyrics, whatever) produced by people with similar backgrounds. <S> What influenced those people, and how will those same influences affect your character. <S> Writing from a different POV needs a bit more thought, but I think it's really rewarding and worthwhile when done right. <S> Good luck with it! <A> I really appreciate this question, because as a black person who reads a lot of writing by white authors, I've found that very few do a good job with their black characters, and many do a very poor job. <S> Michael Chabon is the only well-known white author who easily comes to mind as creating black characters that read as authentic (to me). <S> I'm not sure there's a shortcut to writing characters that will read as authentic to someone of that culture other than to actually take the time to get to know someone of that culture AND to try to see the world from his or her viewpoint. <S> The key problem is that many people --writers included --are heavily (although usually not consciously) invested in NOT seeing the world from the minority viewpoint. <S> With that said, being forced to adapt to majority-white cultural setting is a typical experience for most American and European black people. <S> I think if you took the time to try to really understand the experience of even your seemingly assimilated black friends, you would find that their world and experience is very different from yours, even though you might expect it to be the same. <S> For instance, you both might be at the same party, but if he is the only black person there, it is a different party for him than for you. <A> Note: <S> By complete coincidence, I recently had a chance to attend a Q & A session with author Michael Chabon --who <S> I referenced in my prior answer as a white author who does a good job writing black characters-- <S> and I took the opportunity to ask him this question. <S> I had originally edited this into my original answer, but it's really a separate answer, from a difference source. <S> Chabon said that (in addition to having grown up in an well-integrated community) the biggest prep work he did for writing the black characters in Telegraph Avenue was to read a lot of work by black authors, and to imitate the way they approached their black characters (in preference to the way white authors typically approach black characters). <S> One of the biggest "lessons learned" he cited (and I'm really paraphrasing and interpreting here!) <S> is that being black is normalized in black authors' works, problematized in white authors' works. <S> In other words, the black character in the black author's book is not thinking about being black unless there is some specific reason to do so (because to her it is not an intrinsically exceptional condition of existence). <S> She is also not thinking about race in general, or about white people in particular, unless there is some valid reason for her to do so. <A> I think you need to be more specific about your character. <S> Simply being black does not give someone a certain personality. <S> Instead of focusing on the color of their skin, you should think about their childhood, the environment in which they were raised, and the environment in which they now reside. <S> Then their ethnicity would play a more important role than just seeming like "I needed a black guy for this story". <S> Developing this background of the character will also allow you to more easily see the world through their eyes. <S> Then, all you need to do is reveal that world to the reader. <S> If you do this for all of your characters, I would imagine the authenticity would handle itself. <A> Maybe this will help: I, a middle-aged white man, once wrote a story narrated by a 24-yr-old woman. <S> I did that by writing her as just a person. <S> My readers pointed out things that made her sound male, and I tweaked those, but I didn't go to any great effort to make her sound like a young woman <S> , I just wrote her as a person. <A> Find a black person that is similar to the character that you want to create, or alternatively, create a character that's similar to someone you actually know. <S> I did the latter, and asked the person what he would say in such-and-such a situation, and the character was quite "authentic." <S> African Americans won't necessarily feel differently than other people in a given situation. <S> But they may act or express themselves differently, because they are a part of a different subculture.
| You can't just write "a black character", you have to write a black character in a certain culture and context. If you're writing optimistic scifi, the character's race may not have any effect whatsoever on how he sees the world or himself or how others see him.
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How To Write An Unreliable Narrator? So in my latest works I've decided to make my narrator, whom is my main character as well, pretty unreliable. How do I get this across to readers? I read a few short stories online that were pretty convincing but I'm not sure I can milk it for a whole novel. Any ideas? <Q> The readers only know what you tell them. <S> Your narrator can be caught in an outright lie by another character, and has to eitheradmit to it or weasel out of it. <S> An event or series of events occur (the narrator gives a note to agirl he has a crush on, he spends all day thinking about her) and thenarrator is confronted about them, and then lies (he says he doesn'thave a crush). <S> The readers see that he's lying, but the othercharacters don't. <S> An event or series of events occur and the narrator lies to himself about them. <S> ("Just because I thought he was handsome didn't mean I was gay. <S> I can admire all the effort he puts into his workout and it doesn't mean I'm into him like that.") <S> An event or series of events occur (the narrator steals her sister'sshirt, wears it, and ruins it), and the narrator lies to the reader about it. <S> "I deserved that shirt because I lent her my skirt lastyear and she never lent me anything back. <S> I gave her the money to buythe shirt and she won't let me wear it." <S> The narrator perceives reality in a way which is obviously not theway the rest of us do. <S> ("The sun's rays pierced my skull and begancooking the dendrites between my brain cells. <S> It was all I could doto put on my yellow hat, which reflected the UVQ rays back out intospace.") <A> I know this topic is over two years old <S> but I feel the need to address it anyway. <S> The major difference between fiction and non-fiction is that in fiction all narrators are to a greater or lesser extent - unreliable. <S> Fiction is not about facts. <S> By definition fiction is one person recollection, the way one person sees things. <S> It is literally 'a point of view'. <S> We're telling stories. <S> This has happened to me <S> so I assume others have experienced the same thing. <S> You're at a family reunion telling some mildly amusing story from childhood and your mother says, "That's not the way happened." <S> Forrest Gump (film) is a masterclass in narration. <S> Tom Hanks sits on the bench telling his life story to a series of strangers. <S> Every time the story gets ridiculous and listener departs Tom provides proof that he was telling the truth. <S> Unfortunately, many peers will identify nuanced unreliable narration as 'plot holes' or 'errors'. <S> Unreliable narration is easily picked up by readers because readers (as opposed to other writers) assume you know what you are doing. <S> e.g. <S> The narrator says his father was a Racing car driver who died in a crash during the Indy 500. <S> Later during a scene his mother is heard on the telephone cursing the narrator's father because the maintenance check is late. <S> Readers will catch on very quickly. <S> If you write using scenes and transitions you can SHOW one version of events in scene which is at odds with the narration during a transition. <A> You might try reading 'The Girl on the Train.' <S> It is told in the perspective of a woman who can't quite remember details correctly, frequently lies, and ultimately is unreliable. <S> Perhaps take the approach that the narrator/main character lies to themselves in order to cope with situations in their life.
| If you want the reader to realize your narrator isn't telling the truth, the truth must get to the reader around your narrator.
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Using colons and semi-colons in dialogue I've often heard writers say they don't like using colons and semi-colons in dialogue specifically. I don't often see colons and semi-colons in dialogue, but sometimes it just seems like it's by far the best option. For example: "I told you: John doesn't work on Mondays." Is there any real alternative to the colon here? How about a semi-colon? "Don't worry; I only get drunk on Sundays." Is the semi-colon ok, or is it awkward in dialogue? Putting a full stop after "Don't worry" seems strange to me. Or I could expand the sentence: "I’ll do anything it takes: rehab, counseling, therapy, whatever I need to do.” What's the difference between using a colon or an em-dash? "It's an article about all the types of things you hate: the environment, animal rights, veganism, that kind of thing." Is the colon above okay in dialogue? How about something like: "Trust me; the WASPy stuff is nothing in comparison." Is a semi-colon appropriate above? Once again, it seems strange to me to put a full-stop. Or: "Those things I said--I didn't mean a word of them." Is an em dash appropriate here? I thought you weren't supposed to put a full clause after an em dash if it finishes the sentence? If so, should I use something else like a colon? How about: "I know you; that place would haunt you." Is there another way of doing this? Thanks so much for any advice! Please note the question is specifically about dialogue. <Q> Is using colons and/or semicolons in dialogue awkward? <S> No. <S> Using them is fine. <S> To me at least, every one of the above quotes looks perfectly natural. <S> I agree that trying to find another way to write them would be difficult, and in some cases, may even harm the flow of writing by using something unnatural. <S> It all comes down to what works best for what you are writing. <S> Even very successful authors will sometimes bypass the rules of grammar (or widely accepted rules of writing) briefly, just because it makes their story more powerful. <S> (I regret I cannot give you any examples off the top of my head. <S> If you read closely, you should find them.) <S> Grammar is a great tool for keeping your writing in a format that is easily understood by all. <S> When you're writing though, be sure to put the words on the page before the correct way to put them there. <S> I love grammar, but sometimes making sure you have perfect punctuation will make your words lack just that: Perfection. <A> I have editors at some houses who take them out (house style), usually to replace them with em-dashes. <S> I don't think it really makes much difference <S> so I don't fight to keep the original punctuation, but if I were self-publishing, I'd leave them in. <S> I think the argument against them is based on the idea that people don't "speak" colons or semi-colons, but I think we do - punctuation is meant to represent the way we use our voices as well as to follow grammatical rules. <S> So I'll continue to use all available punctuation, in dialogue or otherwise. <S> But if I weren't going to use colons or semi-colons, I'd probably use em-dashes instead. <A> Colons are fine because they represent a stop, the same as an m-dash. <S> I would hesitate to use a semi-colon in dialogue because to me it's a bookish piece of punctuation. <S> It gives the reader a visual guide that two indepdendent clauses are connected. <S> (I would never, however, use a comma splice instead.) <A> The difference is that em-dashes are parenthetic and a semicolon indicates a continuous thought. <S> In your first three examples I would have used a comma. <S> In the things-you-hate sentence, the colon is OK because it is a list. <S> Trust me, should be a comma. <S> "Those things I said" must be a comma. <S> You can't have an incomplete sentence set off by an em dash like that. <S> Remember, the em dash is essentially an appositive, so the rest of the sentence has to be able to stand alone. <S> "I know you. <S> That place would haunt you. <S> " should be a period because they are separate thoughts, not a continuation of thought. <S> The Chicago Manual of Style (get that book) <S> describes the semicolon this way: <S> "In regular prose, a semicolon is most commonly used between two independent clauses not joined by a conjunction to signal a closer connection between them than a period would." She spent much of her free time immersed in the ocean; no mere water-resistant watch would do. <S> Here the semicolon is correct because the second sentence follows from the first. <S> In other words, you could also write it this way: She spent much of her free time immersed in the ocean, so no mere water-resistant watch would do. <S> A better example: We could crack the safe or pick the safe; you need to decide. <S> Here, a conjunction would be awkward, so the semicolon is definitely indicated. <S> Even though each clause is an independent sentence, they cannot be separated by a period, because they are part of the same thought. <A> I think colons are used for expanding on a particular word before it while semi colons add additional info relating the sentence before it. <S> Example 1 : I bought some vegetables: carrots and spinach. <S> Example 2 : I bought some vegetables; I am planning to be a vegetarian. <A> user11233 is correct in their assessment of the grammar. <S> Thus, in the things you hate sentence, I would go with an m-dash. <S> It's much cleaner. <S> Dialogue doesn't have to be grammatically correct either. <S> People talk in incomplete sentences all the time. <S> Punctuation should be used as an indicator of the cadence and rhythms of speech in dialogue; it's for revealing character and progressing action not showing your command of the nuances of the English language. <S> In other words, dialogue should flow like natural speech. <S> Semicolons and colons are distracting. <S> I can imagine certain instances where either might be appropriate — say you have a character who actually does talk in semicolons. <S> But then you're using them to draw attention to something specific about a character, and I would think you'd want to even note this in the introduction to them: "With wispy hair, dark glasses resting on a sharp nose, and always in a well-tailored suit, he was a punctilious man, the type who used semicolons even in speech." <S> So, to use user11233's last example, while a semicolon is technically correct, in dialogue, I would use a comma, period, or m-dash. <S> It depends on how the character talks: <S> "We could crack the safe or pick the safe. <S> You need to decide." <S> "We could crack the safe or pick the safe, you need to decide." <S> "We could crack the safe or pick the safe — you need to decide." <S> "We could crack the safe. <S> Or pick the safe. <S> You need to decide." <S> I include the last one because it suggests the speaker is taking their time, thinking as they talk. <S> It's the best way to write this — if that's what the character is doing. <S> The story should drive these decisions, but I can see no reason why adding a semicolon to any of the above clarifies anything.
| I use colons and semi-colons in dialogue. You don't see colons or semicolons in dialogue in current fiction because they don't work for stylistic reasons.
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How do I write about something which can only be felt with closed eyes? When I try to write something on paper, no thoughts or dialogues come to my mind. I just go blank and stare at the paper without writing anything. Once I close my eyes, I start to feel the things and I can imagine everything. How do I tackle this situation? <Q> It sounds to me like you are trying to go to a first draft of your piece before you are ready. <S> Perhaps you should spend some time capturing the thoughts from "when your eyes are closed" in a notebook, just jotting down scraps of ideas and feelings and so on. <S> Then, with your eyes "open", start outlining a story from the raw material you have daydreamed. <S> Only once you have an outline, should you think about trying to write a first draft. <S> If you don't know how to turn your raw thoughts into an outline, there are many good books on this. <S> I've just read Scarlett Thomas's Monkeys With Typewriters which is very good on plotting, but I'm sure other posters will have other suggestions. <A> I have just been reading a short article about 'blind writing'. <S> You either turn off the screen on your computer or close your eyes when you are handwriting. <S> Then you just get on with it. <A> If you recite the story out loud with your eyes closed it may become sufficiently fixed in your mind to write down after you open your eyes. <S> You may need a few tries to get the gist of this method, though. <A> There are programs like Dragon that will type as you speak to it.
| I have heard the recommendation that you close your eyes and record yourself speaking out loud what you want to write. You could try recording yourself and just speaking your ideas then listen to it and write out what you say. College students often record their professors during lectures then go back and write down their notes.
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How do I write dialogue to evoke a historical setting? I want to write a novel set in the 12th century. I can learn about the platform for the story, like city life and culture of people at that time, by googling on the internet. But I don't know how to write the dialogues of characters at that time. I am unable to get the words to express the feeling of 12th-century people. I know it depends on the place of my novel. Suppose it's Greece. It's all fiction. But I want to show the feel. <Q> I personally think the best strategy is to "translate" the speech of the past into the speech of the present. <S> As far as I can tell, few readers want to struggle with realistic depictions of languages <S> they have no interest in learning. <S> Instead, they like placeholder words to imply historicity (e.g. "thou" and "thine"), which give the vaguest feel for the time as well as a quick reminder that the narrative is taking place in the past. <S> Another technique (often used in movies) is to apply a common regional dialect/accent to analogous social positions in your historical setting (think of how many times Germans in American war films had British accents). <S> It's not necessarily a fair way to do things (in fact, I don't know if I can even recommend it <S> , I hadn't really thought about it before), but it seems (or seemed) to resonate with people. <S> Several decent paragons of English literature did the above with frequency: Shakespeare, who didn't bother much with dialectical veracity (see:everything he wrote that wasn't set in Britain) <S> Virginia Woolf (in Orlando ), who also didn't bother Robert Graves (in I, Claudius ), who likewise didn't bother Ultimately, choose a strategy that doesn't involve so much research that you never write that book. <A> This is primarily a stylistic choice. <S> The situation is this: accurately reflecting the speech patterns of the time is virtually impossible, would require absurd amounts of research, and would drive away any readers who don't have academic background in the period. <S> Realistically, what you want to do is evoke <S> the speech patterns of the period, without mimicking them perfectly. <S> The correct way to do this varies by your writing style, the genre and tone of your story, and the readers you hope to attract. <S> Most importantly, it depends on what you feel comfortable writing. <S> The bottom line: historical fiction is, by definition, a synthesis of the period it depicts and the period it was written in. <S> This is not a bug, but a feature. <S> How far you diverge from common usage will reflect how ' alien ' <S> you want the story to feel for a modern reader. <A> Cultural and location has a big impact on language. <S> In Greece in the 12th century they definitely were not speaking English, which is what I assume you are writing in. <S> If you want to capture the English style at this time from 1100 to 1300 is the period of Middle English. <S> This is the period where you see the dropping from the various forms of ‘the’ and Old English word endings such as ‘es’ are tapering off and becoming more condensed and clear. <S> The Oxford English dictionary has a very detailed explanation and section on Middle English and explains the cultures that impacted the style at the time if you want to start there.
| I think if you really want to capture the tone of that century in dialogue you’ll have to put some research into Middle English. It may seem counter-intuitive to say that the amount of research you should do is determined by what you're comfortable writing, but at the end of the day it's your story and only you know what level of verisimilitude is right for it.
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Should I have my work edited by a freelance editor before seeking publication? I have a friend who is a freelance editor and I was planning on employing her to look over my novel before shopping it out to publishers. However, I don't know if publishers like this or not. Do they hear freelance editor and cringe? Do they get weird about editing something that has already been edited? Or is it a boon that makes their job easier? Should I have my work edited by a freelance editor before seeking publication? <Q> If you do hire the editor, I wouldn't mention it to your prospective publishers. <S> There's also a financial issue - a good editor will cost thousands of dollars for a standard-length novel, and that could be a significant expenditure with no guarantee of return. <S> If you can afford it, great, but if you can't afford it, don't go into debt with the expectation of a fast return on your money. <S> My impression is that most published writers hire editors for their self-published work, but not for their work that they place with publishers. <S> That's definitely the model that I follow. <S> That said, I've learned a lot about writing by working with my publishers' editors, so quite possible you could learn a lot about writing by working with an editor you paid yourself. <S> So, no, it's not a requirement, or even a cross-the-board recommendation, but if you can afford it <S> and you think you need some help, it might not be a terrible idea. <S> But I wouldn't mention it when you query. <S> Let them think you did it all on your own! <A> I don't know what publishers like and don't like, but when you submit work, it should be as clean as it can be. <S> So absolutely edit it many times yourself, have your readers and your writing group edit it, hire an editor. <S> I can't imagine a publisher would care who edited your manuscript, as long as it's edited well. <A> I think I'll second @KateS on a lot of what she says. <S> I don't know if hiring an editor for submission or querying is beneficial. <S> And even if your friend wouldn't charge you much, Kate's also right in that you shouldn't put that forward in any of your query submissions. <S> A lot of writers have workshopped manuscripts with groups online or in person and feel they've grown a great deal as writers in so doing. <S> You can actually check your local library for local writing groups, depending on where you are, or you can Google for the online groups. <S> Many of them have strict membership requirements, though, and I even heard of one with a waiting list for new members. <S> So bear that in mind. <S> As one more alternative, you can check out the KBoards yellow pages listing for editors. <S> You could save a lot of money that way, though most or all of those people charge for their services. <S> You still pay, just a more reasonable amount, IMO. <S> You also could look for an editor who will give you a sample edit for free. <S> You get a feel for what the editor will do for you, and it might give you a guide you can follow to self-edit. <S> Additionally, there is this thread on KBoards , in which someone who trained under editor Sol Stein offers to give an overview of your writing and how to improve it. <S> It's not a full edit, but offers insights into where your writing might improve. <S> A large number of indie authors have used, and acclaim, the editor's service, and for the money she's asking, it's worth investigating. <S> Last, the legendary book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King is highly recommended. <S> It might give you a basis from which you learn to edit your own work. <S> Hopefully this will help you in your choice. <S> Good luck with your manuscript whatever you decide.
| There are probably some who don't care, but to some it's seen as a bit of an amateur move - the general theory is that an author should be able to get their work to a high enough level to attract a publisher on their own, and then work with the publisher's editor. As an alternative to potentially going into debt on the book before submission, maybe you could find a critique partner or group you could work with.
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How to make horror events more interesting in daytime In a book I'm writing at the moment I have created a world with a day and night cycle. I have created a veil of mystery over this madman and this machine he's made, however, every event to do with the machine has happened at night. This machine is meant to be utterly horrible, but it's more of a psychological machine than one that physically does something. How can I create horror events about this machine in the day with increased effectivity? During the morning and afternoon my characters are awake and ready, but at night they get nightmares. Furthermore, at night it is dark and my characters cannot concentrate well. <Q> The scariest thing I've ever read occurred in the daytime. <S> In Stephen King's The Shining, there is a scene where the dad is out in the hotel's garden, and another where the son is out in the playground, and they both get separately stalked by the garden's hedge animals (which only move when the character isn't looking at them). <S> The reason that it is scary is because the characters cannot rely on their sight to help them. <S> They understand what is happening but the fear comes from the unknown, and not being able to see the animals moving. <S> They know the hedge animals are moving behind them, and in their peripheral vision, but when looking directly at them they are stationary again. <S> These include being in places alone as fewer people are awake, and not being able to see things clearly in darkness. <S> The scene from The Shining recreates these conditions (loneliness, sensory deprivation) <S> but in the daytime. <S> Put into simple terms, seeing an axe murderer at the end of a hallway is scary, but not seeing them and knowing they're somewhere nearby , maybe round the corner, or maybe behind you, is much scarier. <S> Therefore if you're wanting to build fear in a reader, you need to recreate these conditions, but in the daytime. <S> There are the obvious cliched scenarios like being alone in a forest in the fog, but you can also be creative, like the protagonist is trying to look outside a window through some shutters in late afternoon, so they have the double obscured vision of having the sun in their eyes, and also only being able to partially see through the shutters. <S> If they can see a figure moving about but can't make out who (or what) it is, you can create tension this way. <S> Other than that, the previous answer covers that fact that the character should be scared in order for the reader to be scared. <A> Your goal with any tale of horror is to inspire just that in your readers: horror. <S> In order for them to feel it though, the people they care about - the protagonist and main characters - must also experience that horror. <S> Are your events frightening to your protagonist, regardless of when they occur? <S> Good. <S> Focus on what makes them frightening, why the protagonist is scared. <S> Don't rely on the time of day to inspire fear. <S> Rely on your characters. <S> Explore why your characters are frightened; convey what they think and feel, and your reader will think and feel the same thing. <A> There's a common pattern in storytelling where you get to see the terrifying thing in action before your hero has to face it. <S> For example (in Return of the Jedi), Jabba the Hutt drops a slave into the monster pit - so we can see how horrible and powerful the thing is - before Luke gets thrown in.
| If you can convey what makes your hero frightened, your reader will be too. The reason most scary things happen at night is not because it is night, but because of the things that happen at night.
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Forming The Perfect Inspirational Character I would like to know what cues I can use to make a character inspirational. What are some of the traits of characters like Albus Dumbledore, Peeta Melark or Gandalf, that are quoted often in popular culture? What is common of such characters that makes them memorable and allows many people to admire them over other characters? In other words, what can I do to ensure that certain characters are remembered in the eyes of the readers? <Q> And yes, that sounds like I am messing with you, but actually what I am saying is that you are thinking about it upside down. <S> Do not think about what makes a character inspirational. <S> Instead create issues and conflicts for other characters that require some inspiration. <S> Then have the "inspirational character" provide that extra cue by his own example. <S> Do that several times along the story so that it becomes a pattern <S> and you have successfully created an inspirational character. <S> And yes being an inspirational character is somewhat dependent on circumstances. <S> It can be seen as being a bit ahead of your time compared to your peers. <S> Alternately you can be in some way more mature than your peers. <S> Generally there is also a factor of not being afraid to be different so that others can easily learn from your example. <S> So an inspirational character would generally at least look like being confident. <S> People usually pay more attention to confident people as well. <S> But it is possible to be only confident in silent or partial fashion. <S> You do can be insecure about some things and inspirational about others. <S> And the confidence can be in form of simple understated competence. <S> An example would be a mother who tirelessly works to raise her children. <S> No glamour, no prestige, just simple emotional maturity of really understanding <S> she loves her children and putting them first is not really giving up anything. <A> A well-done inspirational character: <S> represents a high moral standard at great cost and personal sacrifice despite significant flaws and/or challenges <S> Here's why these three things are necessary. <S> With no moral standard, it isn't admirable. <S> With no cost and sacrifice, it isn't inspirational. <S> And with no flaws or challenges, it isn't believable. <A> The protagonist should have done something unexpectedly awesome or worse filled with strong/empty emotions. <S> E.g. <S> The king desperately failed to save the queen. <A> I like Ville's answer, but I'll add a few things: <S> The inspirational character takes risks for the benefits of others . <S> It can be like Gandalf who turns and tells the demon, "You shall not pass!" <S> C'mon <S> , that was totally bad-ass. <S> It can be a cop that goes undercover or a doctor standing up to hospital hierarchy, etc. <S> The inspirational character continues to hold true to their values despite great odds (and perhaps even derision amongst others close to the scene). <S> , The inspirational character always seems to know how to get the best out of their companions. <S> The inspirational character never gives up.
| Inspirational character is anyone who inspires others...
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Is trying to write an entire novel in one month possible? Lately I've been thinking about trying to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where the idea (at least I think it is) to write an entire novel in one month. Is this even possible? <Q> Check out Dean Wesley Smith's blog posts on "Pulp Speed" writing, and the number of words possible for some people. <S> A million words a year? <S> Wow. <S> Heck, Michael Moorcock can write a 60K word novel in three days . <S> The use of Lester Dent's Master Plot is blown out from 1500 words per section to 15K words per section, IIRC, and planning is key. <S> NaNoWriMo says to complete an average of 1667 words a day to make it. <S> But that's the average. <S> You can do more when you have a chance, and do what you can when you can on days <S> when...well, you can't. <S> :) <S> In the end, it's all BIC* time. <S> The more you have, the more you'll do. <S> Is it doable? <S> Yeah, it is. <S> But prep is key. <S> *- BIC = <S> "Butt in Chair" <A> Yes. <S> Here are some NaNoWriMo success stories: http://www.tor.com/2014/11/06/nanowrimo-success-stories-published-novels/ Edit, Additional: <S> I personally know someone who's finished the NaNo sprint, and it's tough, but definitely possible. <S> At the very least, NaNoWriMo may not be the novel you want, but it can serve as a first draft that you can later rewrite and expound upon. <A> I once heard an entertaining lecture by the British pulp-SF author Lionel Fanthorpe about how he managed to produce at his peak an average of a 158 page book every 12 days . <S> If Badger Books wanted a rush job, he could do a novel over a long weekend. <S> Taking time off to watch the cricket if there was a Test Match on, obviously. <A> It's important to understand what NaNoWriMo is, and what it isn't. <S> One of the things that it is, is a powerful demonstration that <S> yes, it is possible . <S> If you write your words every day, they will add up. <S> If you stick at it, you will reach novel-length. <S> If you let the words flow, they will come , even if they won't all be perfect. <S> It can be a liberating experience. <S> Liberating, because it's a vivid demonstration that writing a novel is an attainable goal. <S> And liberating, because in order to get that kind of wordcount (particularly for a relative novice), you need to let go of your inhibitions, of your self-doubt, of your internal critic and editor, and allow yourself to write for length , rather than perfection. <S> That's one of the huge stumbling blocks that beginners have -- they want to be writing fantastic, exhilarating prose (like the stories they love so much! ), but they don't know that prose underwent multiple drafts, that those writers had years of experience, that those authors might have a trunkload of unpublished novels. <S> Writing for length short-circuits that -- and <S> so NaNoWriMo gives you a quick way to build up bulk, which may not be a finished product, but it can be a lot easier to work with than a blank page! <S> All that being said, NaNoWriMo isn't a quick path to producing excellent fiction. <S> That novel is a first draft -- and often, it's a first draft that was very rushed, by a beginning writer, without even much of a sense of direction. <S> There's no reason to expect it to be very good -- not until you start editing and rewriting it. <S> So, in summary: NaNoWriMo's quick, quick writing is totally doable, but you need to understand that the product will be a quick first draft, not a polished product. <S> A quick first draft can be a huge thing for a writer, and I wouldn't dismiss it in a hurry -- <S> but if, for whatever reason, that isn't what you want right now, then NaNoWriMo may not be for you. <S> (More broadly speaking, there are certainly some authors who write very quickly, and that works for them <S> well professionally. <S> Whether or not you're one of these is something you'll have to discover for yourself :) ) <A> NaNoWriMo isn't there for professional writers who can easily complete a book in less than a month (they are still allowed to compete, but most don't). <S> NaNoWriMo was created so that people who have always thought that they couldn't write would have encouragement to write. <S> The goal, 50,000 words, was deliberately chosen to be a doable goal by somebody who has a full-time job and a life. <S> There are a lot of success stories. <S> Now, most of what is written during that month is first-draft material. <S> When I tried to do this several years ago, the information supplied to the writers said as much. <S> They also said to write and not to edit. <S> Once written, don't go back and change it. <S> Now, several years later, I can easily do 2-3 thousand words per day, more if I'm willing to put in the time. <S> They aren't great words, but they are on the screen. <S> I'm also still learning the need to outline. <S> Once I finish my current first draft, the first thing I've written that I like, I will write an outline and figure out what I need to do to write it properly (increase the dramatic tension and make things matter to my protagonist).
| It takes dedication, but it is doable.
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How practical and feasible is it to work on more than one novel / story at one time? Lets say you are working on one novel / short story. As you work you suddenly get an inspiration for another piece of fiction. You feel it's a brilliant idea and you should start working on it right away. Your brain tells you to focus and finish your first story, but your heart goads you to go ahead and develop the idea while it is still fresh. How practical and feasible is it? Are you doing justice to your first story? Has anybody been through this? What should I do in such a case? <Q> Block and outline it in a writer's diary or even in a new word-processor document, so you have the idea to come back to once you've reached a good stopping point with your existing novel. <S> It's not a bad thing to be inspired to do something new. <S> The danger, in writing at least, is that if you follow your inspirations you could end up never finishing anything, being forever pulled off-task by yet another new idea and eventually losing track of or motivation to finish your original work. <S> Another point; your publisher, if/when you get that far, is unlikely to want to initiate the editing/publishing/distribution process on more than one book at a time, and you're not going to want to try to promote two books at once unless there's some sort of overarching glue like a story arch or a storytelling series (and even then you'll want to get one title out there being read before you follow up <S> so you establish a progression for reading them). <A> To further what KeithS said, I agree. <S> I would continue your first work, but write the idea down somewhere <S> so you have it for later. <S> I keep a notebook dedicated specifically to book ideas, so when I come up with one, I write everything down about that idea in the notebook, then get back to my current WIP knowing that I can come back to the other one. <S> I would be sure to write everything about that idea down - every little speck of an idea - because that will help you get back into the excitement later. <S> That said, I think it also depends on what stage you're in with your current WIP. <S> I've been told by several authors that they keep three works going at all times. <S> One in the plotting stage, one in the writing, and one in the editing. <S> I haven't yet been able to master three, but I do have two going pretty much all the time. <S> It's easier to shift focus to another project when you're not having to put the same efforts into it as the other one (i.e. if you're stuck on writing, you can always switch to editing to clear your head). <A> I think user KeithS has a great point about finishing what you start. <S> That being said, Ray Bradbury used to have 19 (I believe) typewriters, all with different stories going on each one. <S> He'd move from one to another and write whatever story motivated him at the time. <S> On a side note, I'd LOVE to be able to do this. <S> So, is it practical and feasible? <S> Sure is. <S> If Bradbury could do it with typewriters, how much easier is it with software. <S> If you're the right kind of person to do it, you should do so. <S> Could be a lot of fun. :) <A> On my computer I have a folder called "books". <S> In that folder are about 30 other folders, each one containing the draft of an unfinished book. <S> In addition, in the main "books" directory, there are about 50 text documents each of which is a treatment or other material which might serve to get a book started. <S> My plan is to direct the executor of my will to print all that crap out and bury it with me when I die. <S> Does that answer your question? <A> Piers Anthony described that in "authors notes", and how his style changed as technology improved. <S> To make a long story short, when an idea intrudes log it in another file for that purpose and then return to the current job. <S> By "log" <S> I mean append a note to a log file, as opposed to editing the new information into the body of notes. <S> A different task will be to go over new logged notes and work them into the organized structure, musing and giving the whole attention to this story. <S> An intrusive idea is like a sneeze. <S> Get it out, wipe up, and don't get your current work pushed out of your mind.
| This is the reasoning behind the creative diary; anything you're not actively working on or that doesn't fit in your current story can be set down in a scratch-pad format to come back to when you need new ideas.
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Is it necessary for an article about a problem to address solutions as well? I am writing an article which deals with some of the problems of the city. Since I have a word limit, is it necessary that I have to include the solutions of the problems too? Is it advisable? Or can I just tell the problems and leave it there? <Q> Basically, if your article prompts the question "why isn't anybody fixing this?" or "can't anything be done," then by omitting solutions you'll be giving an incomplete picture - possibly an actually misleading one, if e.g. the city is actively working on solutions, but your article gives the impression that nothing is being done. <S> But if your article is more on a different focus, e.g. "What is life like in a city with problem X?" <S> or "What challenging issues is the city facing? <S> ", then detailed solutions aren't required - to a certain extent, they're beside the point. <S> Basically, you should be able to give a nutshell-summary of your article - just a couple of sentences. <S> Look at that summary. <S> Is detailing solutions crucial to fleshing that summary out? <S> Or would that be moving away from your core focus? <S> That's your answer. <S> If you're having trouble deciding, I'd suggest you try to write a single quick line saying what the status of solutions are. <S> "The city is working hard to solve these problems, but it will take time to have an effect." <S> Or "Solutions exist in theory, but nobody is implementing them." <S> You can be very vague and general. <S> See where you can fit that line into your article. <S> See what effect it has. <S> That'll let you judge whether, in context, it's a line that needs to be expanded on, or one that can be omitted entirely. <A> It depends on what your purpose for writing the article is or the intended outcome. <S> (If you don't have one yet, then consider creating one, so your article is more powerful.) <S> Are you: trying to highlight problems so that people rally around creating solutions, or are you trying to make someone look bad (e.g. a mud slinging campaign against a politician), or are you trying to get people to take specific actions, or pressure people in charge to take specific actions <S> (i.e. adopt the solutions), or is this part of a series of articles where you cover different aspects of the issue? <S> If you are focusing on evoking emotion (rallying people or drawing attention to a scapegoat), then you don't really need to give a solution, since the whole point is to get people upset or concerned. <S> On the other hand, if you want people to take specific actions (items 3 & 4 above), then outlining a solution would be most effective, especially if you tie it to what people can do (or what leaders must do) to solve the issue. <S> If this is part of a series, you may want to mention that you will cover possible solutions in future articles. <S> (If you have a word limit, suggest to your editor that you create a series of articles.) <S> Whether you include a solution or not in your article really hinges on whether people feel complete when finishing your article, or whether they start looking for the rest of the column on another page. <S> I personally like mentioning possible solutions in articles I write, <S> but I typically concentrate on problem-solving. <S> But there are many example of articles that simply report what the issues are without proposing a solution. <S> The choice usually comes down to the intended outcome of the article. <A> It would be a good idea to use a structure in your writing. <S> -Topic sentence <S> -Problem <S> -Your opinion <S> -Resoloution <S> When writing a newspaper article you should keep things formal and precise. <S> In newspaper's journalists often exaggerate so it doesn't matter if you exaggerate things too much. <S> Furthermore, stories in a newspaper are placed in order of importance. <S> Most important stories at the front and less important stories at the back. <S> Details are given in order of importance, with the least important details at the end of the article, this allows readers to skim over the start of the article to gain the essential facts before deciding to read on. <S> At the end of the article you should summarise the facts and opinions of the events. <S> When writing a newspaper use quotes. <S> When writing a headline consider using the following. <S> Stereotypes/ArchetypesIncomplete SentencesFigurative langaugeExaggeration. <S> The language features of a newspaper article often use clear and concise writing are in 3rd person. <S> You should definitely provide your own opinion on the solution of your cities problems, and maybe get some quotes from other people about their thoughts. <S> I hope this helps.
| It depends on a lot on what you're trying to say; what structure and focus you give your article.
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Can the title of a book be slightly modified on the cover? For example, the real title is "Cooking vegetables: Beans, carrots and spinach".But on the cover that would be graphically punchier as: Cooking vegetables: Beans Carrots Spinach No comma and no "and". I would want the full title - "Cooking vegetables: Beans, carrots and spinach" - on the title page and in everything else that refers to the book, page headings, ISBN title, publicity. <Q> The title may appear differently on the cover, title page, spine and other places. <S> Resource Discovery and Access (RDA), the standard for Anglo-American library cataloging, provides instructions for dealing with each of these when cataloging a work. <S> See http://resourcedescriptionandaccess.blogspot.com/search/label/TITLES-PARALLEL%20TITLE#.VoMtTo-cFMs <A> Yes. <S> It is not unheard of for a book to have a shortened title on the cover. <S> The full title should be on the spine of the book though, as this is professional. <A> When you have your cover designed, you can determine the layout, font, positioning, or any other factor that you want. <S> Regardless of whether you go through Amazon, Nook, Kobo, or any other, they will generally accept your cover without any input on how it is designed. <S> However, when you list the title, you will need to determine how it should appear in a textual listing. <S> Whether your book is listed in a search result, as part of a catalog, on a details page, or on the spine of the book, it is going to be displayed as simple text, and you will be much more limited there. <A> What is the title of a book? <S> Since you're free to decide, pick what is most useful to your intended audience. <S> Also, why not look at the onix for books specifications for some widely agreed conventions used in the book trade and more or less universally adopted by online catalogues. <S> Disclaimer : as already mentioned,every catalog will have its own take even on standards and its own house styles.
| It is not unusual for a work to have a variety of titles. Assuming you are self-publishing and have full control over the actual cover, then absolutely!
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What kind of paper do novels use and why? I have a couple of translated Japanese light novels from Seven Seas, and the paper used feels different and is a darker color that that of the white office paper that I am commonly exposed to. I also seem to vaguely remember the paper in these novels being the same in the Harry Potter books I used to read a kid. I am wondering if this paper is different from the general white office paper I normally see. Why it is used? Is it cheaper or does it have special qualities suited for book printing? Bellow are some photos I have taken though I'm not sure if the differences are really as noticeable in digital form compared to real life. The one of the left is from one of the Japanese light novels who's paper seems to be the same used in the Harry Potter books I used to read. The right one is just a piece of paper that was printed off. As you might be able to see in the left one the paper is darker that the white office paper. There is also a grain effect in the paper on the left (which I don't believe is a style thing) that isn't on the white paper; though this might be hard to see because of the fact these are photos. <Q> Depends on the market's target audience, pricing, and expectations of durability. <S> If you self-publish a novel using an American print-on-demand service, you may be offered a choice of two papers. <S> One of them is white, generally used in non-fiction. <S> The other is off-white ("creme") and is generally used in fiction. <S> The white paper is better for books containing images (which non-fiction often has) and also projects a feeling of authority. <S> The off-white is easier on the eye, when read for a long time, and projects a casual feel. <S> Other papers are possible. <S> A book printed in Asia, especially if it is intended to be inexpensive, may be printed on a less-expensive version of "rice paper" (not actually made from rice plant). <S> Such pages are noticeably thin and light. <S> Books anywhere may be printed on very expensive paper if they are intended for the book-as-art market. <S> The papers currently in use in the U.S.A. for a novel, even for print-on-demand, are likely to be acid-free archival paper, perhaps 80lb weight. <S> This gives a nice feel to the pages, and is durable. <S> It's not worth saving money with cheaper paper. <S> If a book is very image-intensive, it may be printed on a kind of paper that is specially coated for better image reproduction. <S> The paper (cellulose) is relatively light-weight, but the coating makes it much heavier (which is why college textbooks, with images, are so heavy). <S> If a book is the kind of memoir that has a few photographs, then the flowing text may be printed on ordinary archival paper, while the images are separately printed on coated paper. <A> Every paper is different. <S> Different manufacturers make paper differently. <S> International paper has a stock book that describes their current lines. <S> It may give you a feel for the different papers available commercially. <A> The most commonly used paper is (arguably) Newsprint. <S> Pretty much every paperback in the west uses it for mass market paperbacks. <S> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsprint <S> They will tend to use acid-free paper that is usually white. <S> It tends to have higher gsm, and is designed to be more durable.
| Other papers may be used; especially for large-format books that need to maintain their shape. There is no single paper used. Because it's cheap, very easy to get hold of, and is non-archival (i.e.: it breaks down easily). The composition of the paper, how the fibers are macerated and felted or woven, what coating or sizing is used; all of these will affect the quality and feel of the paper.
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In what parts of a newspaper/magazine one could get an article published? If you have an article and you want to get it published in newspapers or magazines, what are the parts you could do that? I know guest column is place like that, but any other idea? If you think my question in broad, please answer it specifically about New York times or Washington post. <Q> I think it's important to know more about the type of article <S> you're hoping to write. <S> The Washington Post sums it up nicely in this doc <S> --even <S> the majority of words written by their full-time staff never make it to print. <S> However, as @Tave pointed out, there are a number of "smaller" publications that are more willing to work with newer freelancers, and are often just as reputable as the NYT or WaPo. <S> Personally, I got my start by writing buying guides for a small start-up. <S> It wasn't exactly the kind of writing I wanted to be doing, but a funny thing happened: those guides ended up getting syndicated by Yahoo's Canadian site. <S> The point is, it's great to be shooting for such a high bar, but being published by a lesser-known magazine is also a really, really good thing. <S> That being said, before you even approach a smaller mag, you should also be aware that a simple "I'd like to write for you" won't get any editors' attention. <S> Here are a few elements of a really good magazine pitch: <S> 2-3 short paragraphs (2-3 sentences each, tops) <S> Answer these questions: <S> Why this topic? <S> Why are you the right person to write it? <S> Why is this important now? <S> Your bio (don't worry if you don't have too many credentials, but make sure you give the editor a bit of background) <S> I might have gone overboard here, but hope this helps. <A> I would suggest you read your target publications to see where your article might fit. <S> In the UK, a lot of copy is produced in-house, but there are slots for freelancers. <S> Again, in the UK, the 'bible' for such information is The Writers and Artists Yearbook. <S> I presume there is a US version? <A> What sort of article are you hoping to publish? <S> Newspapers rarely print unsolicited articles from freelancers. <S> Other than the editorial pages, they normally print news, i.e. accounts of current events based on the reporters eye-witness experience or interviews with eye-witnesses. <S> Other than the editorial page, newspapers don't normally print essays, and I've never seen a newspaper print a short story. <S> There are freelance reporters who travel around looking for news and writing up stories. <S> If that's what you're up to, you could try to submit those kind of stories. <S> You could try to get picked up as a columnist for the editorial page. <S> As Rich Moy and Tave point out, if you're just starting out as a writer, the New York Times and the Washington Post are probably not your best bets. <S> These are very big publications that lots of people want to write for. <S> I don't mean this to sound snide or mean, but it's like asking, "I just graduated high school. <S> How do I go about applying for a job as president of General Motors. <S> " <S> Yes, if you're very good and/or have the right connections and/or are very lucky, you might manage it. <S> But it makes way more sense to start with more humble objectives and work your way up. <S> Start with a small local publication. <S> Magazines are much more likely to accept freelance submissions. <S> The trick here is to read the magazine and find out what sort of articles they publish, then write something that fits. <S> Most magazines accept freelance articles. <S> Though some don't: you'd be wise to check out the magazine and their web site if they have one to see if they give a clue on this. <S> I got my start in writing by publishing in computer magazines. <A> Because you are asking this quesitong <S> I assume you are not a well-known journalist. <S> If you are an unknown freelancer I would have thought that the New York Times and Washington Post are the wrong publications to aim at. <S> Local newspapers, or at least smaller publications, are more likely to take unsolicited articles. <A> This is an open-to-all-comers features, which runs submissions without payment and expressly without the endorsement of the paper. <S> These are usually informal, amateur epistles, but occasionally you'll see a letter published that reads like a brief essay or article, sometimes by a well-known person. <S> The selection process is entirely at the whim of the editor of the feature, but it's often used as a place to give voice to complaints or to opinions that contradict the official positions of the newspaper. <S> If money is no barrier, your other option is an advertorial. <S> This is an editorial article presented in space that has been purchased at advertising rates (which are typically very very high). <S> It will be clearly marked as "ADVERTISEMENT" and no endorsement of any sort by the publication will be implied.
| Traditionally, the place for a non-journalist who is not hired by a magazine or newspaper to be published in that publication is the "Letters to the Editor" department.
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Websites for free feedback on stories? Are there any websites or anything similar where we can get feedback from online readers (without paying for a membership or anything of the sort) for stories and other writings that are not quite finished, but are rather WIPs? As I understand, Writing.StackExchange does not encourage questions asking for (general) feedback on given excerpts, so where can I go to get such feedback? <Q> Critique Circle is great. <S> I highly recommend it. <S> It's "free" but requires to critique the work of others to earn the points needed to submit work. <S> The interface is really ugly, but the feedback is great. <S> Scribophile is a similar site, and while its inexpensive premium accounts are nice, the free version is fine. <S> Its looks are a bit more polished. <S> You do have to have picked you pen name first. <A> Critique Circle has been mentioned <S> so I'll try to suggest a few new ideas. <S> First of all, there is Wattpad and its forum. <S> There are a lot of good editors and writers there, but it requires some work to find them as there are even more users you'll prefer not to meet. <S> Also, Twitter- There are different tags which you can use to find people interested in writing, editing, critiquing, etcetera. <S> Just try to make conversations with them introducing yourself and asking for the help you need. <S> And lastly, NaNoWriMo - a large online meeting of writers. <S> Even if you don't agree with the challenge itself, there are many experienced writers there who can gladly help you. <S> Just try it out. <S> Good luck with your writing :) <A> I haven't posted much as of yet but it seems like friendly, pressure free community. <S> And they make it crystal clear that you retain the copyright and ownership of your work. <S> That's important because there are sites where that's not the case and by uploading something you're basically saying "Do whatever you want with it. <S> "I'd <S> also second <S> NaNoWriMo. <S> Very supportive and encouraging community, especially in November. <A> I started using http://www.legendfire.com/ <S> and I like it. <S> It is entirely free and simple in a good way. <S> It is a relatively small community but you don't really need a whole lot of people if the people that are present are helpful. <A> YoungWritersSociety is a great place. <S> It's got a really active community, but it's geared toward younger and less experienced writers - <S> but it still works for the better, elder writers, too.
| There's an app called Prose that's based around sharing your work and chatting about it with fellow writers.
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In a formal writing, does having a paragraph rewritten by another person make the style change noticablely? I am writing a personal statement to apply to a grad school. At first, I thought that because the role of this statement is to show an image of me as a person, using the tone I usually use when blogging - which uses a lot of idiom and rhetoric - is acceptable (even preferable). However, when I asked about styling to make sure about that, the answer is that it is advisable to keep it professional and formal as if I'm writing to a teacher I respect. So two-thirds of my statement is using an improper tone, not to mention the errors in English. My English native friend has decided to rewrite them, and fix the other third on the fly (this third is not in a bad tone). Q : Since the rewritten paragraphs are of course perfect, should I use them without worrying about the conflict in writing styles? I think that in a formal article, there is not much in styles because you don't have much room to use idiom and rhetoric, so my friend's style and my style are not really different, or at least different enough to be noticed. Is that correct? What tone to use in the personal statement? in Academia <Q> Chris is right in saying that a formal tone/neutral voice minimizes individual stylistic differences, but I want to caution you that the difference between the writing of a native English speaker and a non-native speaker can sometimes be fairly obvious. <S> It's in part because non-native speakers tend to have learned grammar and style in classes, whereas native speakers pick it up naturally. <S> The result is a difference in fluidity and construction of the sentences. <S> Just to clarify, are you saying that your statement combines some sections that are totally rewritten by your friend with some sections that were not rewritten, but were edited for smaller errors? <S> You may be fine, but it is hard to say without looking at the whole thing. <S> I used to proofread papers for non-native students, and I was careful to never rewrite sections of their papers because a) <S> that's kind of plagiarism depending on how one looks at it but also b) my formal writing usually sounds different from their formal writing. <S> I would recommend that you have a third party look at it. <A> Of course, a gifted writer can still manage to convey a distinctive authorial voice, even in a formal register, but unless you've striven for that, you probably won't have it. <S> Therefore my best guess, sight unseen, is that the difference between your friend's paragraphs and yours won't be noticeable (unless his are much better written than yours). <A> Regardless of the tone you decide on, your statement should be consistent throughout. <S> So (1) figure out what tone you want to use and <S> (2) revise your piece <S> so it uses that tone from beginning to end.
| It's impossible to know for sure without seeing the paragraphs, but yes, formal writing is generally done in a "neutral voice," which tends to minimize the impact of individual stylistic differences.
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I like to write but I keep stopping myself I have this problem where I always just can't seem to be satisfied by my choice of words resulting it me never getting far in writing. Almost every sentence I would think "This isn't the kind of thing I would say.." But the other part of me is thinking "This is how I want to be portrayed". Which is effectively "I want to be this person that I imagined". While writing this I just realized I may be posting this question in the wrong place. And that I l'm only referring to writings in regards to self branding. But this is where I see to be most appropriate to ask for help. p.s. i had to force myself to minimize any edits and even submit this question. feeling extremely uncomfortable. <Q> In Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, she talks about "shitty first drafts." <S> ( Read about it here. ) <S> The point is that your first draft should be nothing more than a dump of creative ideas, disregarding spelling, grammar, consistency, and all other quality measures. <S> Then clean it up to make sense when you revise. <S> [Someone who wasn't Hemingway] said, "Write drunk, edit sober," and it echoes Lamott's advice. <A> Get up for a short break, do something other than writing, then return to the writing for a new session. <S> When you do, go back over the words you wrote in the previous session, and do any editing you'd like to do. <S> Then move forward for another 10-15 minutes (or whatever you can manage). <S> Lather, rinse, repeat. <S> I've found this helps me produce more work, with better wording, and satisfies the "internal editor" telling me to fix things. <S> Maybe that method will work for you too. <A> It's common to have a different persona in your writing than in person. <S> One of the advantages of writing is that you can appear wittier, quicker-witted, more eloquent and knowledgeable than in life, all through the magic of editing. <S> I always advise people online to present their public persona, not their private one, and to make it a kinder, calmer, more modest and moderate self, because the online record is visible to all, and never goes away. <S> As they say in the theater, realism is just another style. <S> Presenting yourself in print exactly as you are in life is arguably not even possible, let alone a moral necessity. <A> I think you're talking about strategic writing. <S> Seth Godin has advice for the mind set this needs.
| Another approach for you might be to write in sprints - say, 10-15 minutes - and do not permit yourself to edit.
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I'm shy to let my friends read my books All the books I have wrote, I've always been shy to show my friends. I don't want them to think poorly of me with what I write. Any advice that could help me? <Q> Some of this might sound cliche, but it's what I often cling to when I'm feeling insecure about letting anyone look at something I'm working on. <S> That being said, even experienced writers often have trouble letting go of their work. <S> Writers are typically predisposed to keeping everything they've created under lock-and-key until it's absolutely perfect . <S> The problem for most writers is that it's difficult (and often impossible) to ever feel as if something is good enough to be seen by anyone. <S> Personally nothing has made me feel more vulnerable than sending a Google doc off to someone, knowing that I'm bound to have dozens of comments on every little detail, most of which I hadn't even considered. <S> You've alluded to being shy about sending your books to your friends to read, and you're completely justified in feeling that way. <S> However, the reality is that unfortunately, you can't control how people react to your writing. <S> And in a lot of ways, that's really, really good news. <S> Even better, if your friends represent the audience you'd ultimately like your books to reach on a larger scale, their feedback will help you shape future drafts. <S> So, there isn't really any hard-and-fast advice I can give about how to remedy your anxiety. <S> If you have a feeling your "friends" will rip into your work just for the sake of having a bit of fun at your expense, find a different group to get feedback from. <S> Writers groups are fairly easy to find online, and because most of us are of a similarly sensitive mindset, there's a great deal of solidarity to be found when you're asking for help from people who have been (and are still) in your shoes. <A> The former can help both your skill and confidence, though they often run the risk of turning into mutual appreciation societies (which still could be useful for overcoming anxiety about showing off your work); the latter can feel really brutal, but it's not so bad when you're mostly dealing with people you don't know outside of the class and who are also having their work scrutinised. <A> You could post it online anonymously or under a pseudonym, on Reddit perhaps, and then if you don't want to, you never have to associate yourself with it. <A> It's logical to be afraid. <S> You worry of their critique, if they're going to be rude to you… Hell, if they're going to stop being your friends, just because they may feel offended! <S> (Hopefully not.) <S> What I think is that you have to trust that they––no matter how they choose to regard your work, because let's face it, to each their own––will stay your friends and keep their professional opinion apart from their friendly recognition of who you are anyway. <S> You'll be fine. <S> No worries––keep happy that you have something to show at all. <S> -.. .- <A> Nobody else has mentioned it, so I'll be the bad guy. <S> Your grammar is problematic, if this post is any indication. <S> You may benefit from a patient editor. <S> Your profile places you as high school aged. <S> If you have a rapport with any of your teachers, you might ask him or her to do a close read of five or ten pages. <S> If it comes back heavily marked up, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White is clear and brief. <S> Kids can be horrible. <S> How mortified would you be if someone in your circle leaked your writing to an unsympathetic audience, such as the school at large? <S> Find an on-line writers group so that you can solicit insightful critiques without the risk. <S> Feedback helps. <S> The positive gives you confidence. <S> The negative thickens your skin and helps you improve. <A> Here's the thing. <S> You don't write to be admired. <S> You write because there is something burning inside you to be said. <S> The question to your friends is not, do you like it? <S> Do you think it's good? <S> Did I do a good job? <S> The question is, do you get it yet? <S> Do you understand what I am saying? <S> If not, that does not mean there is anything wrong with you. <S> I just means you have not learned enough about writing and storytelling yet to get your message across. <S> Yes, you may feel frustrated that you have not managed to get your idea across to them yet. <S> But that is beside the point. <S> The point is that the thing inside you is still burning to be said, so time to get to work and figure out how to say it. <S> Because if you are really going to be a writer, it will keep burning until you actually get people to hear it. <S> If there isn't something inside you burning to be said, though, don't write. <S> Or at least, don't write for the public. <S> Writing is not an efficient means to get people to like you or admire you. <S> In fact, it is a lonely profession. <S> Everyone loves a musician. <S> Don't write. <S> It is a stupid way to make a living and a stupid way to have a social life. <S> Don't write unless the thing burning in your head to be said cannot be snuffed out in any other way. <S> And if you can't snuff it out in any other way, then it does not matter what your friends think of you. <S> It only matters that they hear you.
| But, I'd encourage you to be brave and send it off for review, especially if you have a group of friends you trust with giving you constructive feedback (even if it's not what you want to hear). If you're shy about showing your friends, that's not necessarily a bad thing. You could try finding a local writing group or a writing class. If you want an artistic accomplishment that will help your social life, learn to play the guitar.
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How do publishers expect authors to use social media to promote their books? I am new to the world of writing, and was initially surprised to read on some publishing advice website (eek) that authors should use social media to interact with readers and promote their books. How does this really play out in practice? Do publishers see more potential in you if you maintain a blog or have an active online presence? Is this essential for success? <Q> It varies. <S> Some don't. <S> But having social presence helps. <S> It attracts a specific audience that may or may not be reachable through traditional means. <S> It also garners feedback that usually is absent in traditional one-way communication. <S> But for certain categories, not being "social" kills sales. <S> It doesn't take too much energy and time to be "social" unless you have thousands of views and if you reach those numbers - you could probably contract someone to handle the social presence. <S> I suggest that writers create a Facebook page (or a Linked In article, depending on the published material), and share it with friends and family. <S> If you have an accessible marketing team with a publisher, they might share some of the book's graphics to be used on the Facebook page (else get ahold of some local graphics designer). <S> Either build a story line in the posts or parallel-plot. <S> Engage the visitors with comments or online events. <S> It takes a bit of time. <S> Alternately, outsourcing it to a local social media expert saves time. <S> (P.S. Facebook is just an example here.) <A> I'd say that it's in your best interests to be social. <S> If you're writing for a niche, then find where this niche hang out and observe. <S> If the opportunity arises (or you can encourage it to), hold a Q&A session. <S> Any fan likes a little attention. <S> Failing that, use Twitter to monitor people discussing you or your work. <S> Get involved in conversations. <S> Don't argue, be decent and take feedback on the chin. <S> Good luck <A> Social media is a powerful weapon when yielded correctly. <S> From monitoring trends to creating a network of potential readers, it is truly a necessary evil. <S> Introverts and creatives may find it difficult or nonsensical to utilize social media. <S> It is my belief that it should be utilized whether or not your publisher requires or recommends.
| Some publishers really require you to be "social".
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A self-absorbed female character: key words and pet phrases needed I'm stumped. I can't come up with anything beyond "You're hurting my feelings" and "I'm not in a good place right now." Suggestions? <Q> Is she meant to be someone the reader/ audience sympathizes with? <S> If no, then try, "You wouldn't understand", and passive aggressive phrases like, "Do whatever/ what you want". <A> For instance, in my screen play, she takes a cruise with the hero, then decides what the two of them should do and what they should see. <S> She does this while pretending to play "tour guide," but is actually monopolizing the "conversation." <A> "You listen to MY words first; then I'll listen to your words." <S> "Well, ..." [trailing off] " <S> But, but, but ..." [until I get my way, I'm just going to stand here muttering] <S> "Would you prefer to sleep alone?" <S> Blank stare when being asked a question followed by "Did you say something?" <A> body language (as direction maybe if not outright dialog) would be indicative as well - eye rollingsighing / huffing impatiently if someone else is speaking to theminterruptingnot listening (either poking at phone or knitting without looking up, simply walking away, etc...) <S> being generally dismissive / demeaning of other opinions <A> This is an interesting subject. <S> I have an idea in my head, but it might come across as sloppy as I try to write it down. <S> Selfishness is a single character trait, which plays off of other traits, so of course there's no specific set of phrases you can use. <S> As adressed by other answers, dialogue should not be the only thing that proves her selfishness. <S> Body language, decision-making, opinions and thought process are all affected by this trait. <S> If this isn't done, her self-centeredness becomes an informed attribute. <S> For example, if she thinks her opinion is more important than other people's, she should speak as if her authority is a given. <S> This can result in her being blunt or indignant when people disagree with her. <S> Some of the best things to say are voicing exactly what she's thinking. <S> Extending on that last point, she thinks she's always justified. <S> Her thought process should paint her as the victim when things go awry. <S> Just a few suggestions. <S> I'm sure there's someone out there who can say it better.
| A female character can show that she is self absorbed by her actions. For dialogue in particular, you should consider what your character is thinking as she speaks.
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How can I write acronyms in fiction? I'm wondering whether I can use acronyms without the period between each letter in fiction writing. Adding the period seems kind of clunky and stops the flow of the sentence a little but I don't want to remove it if it's a mistake to. E.g. would the following be acceptable in fiction: "I'll be there ASAP." Is this ok or does it have to be "A.S.A.P."? I'm guessing doing it lower case, asap , is not an option. Similarly to the example above, I guess the answer will also apply to: I'm going to meet my mother-in-law, AKA the witch of Orange County. You need to get an STD test before I go near you again. How about WASP-y?/WASPY? I have an urge to reference "WASP-y" wives.Is it ok to write it "WASP-y"? Is there a better way such as "WASPY"? I can't find it in the dictionary and am debating whether to use it but it fits my sentence perfectly. I'm guessing "waspy" is a no-no. Maybe some of these things are preferences rather than hard rules? <Q> In fiction, you can do anything you like, so long as you do it consistently. <S> In general, though, ASAP is written without any periods, as is STD. <S> ASAP is trite, don't use it. <S> The only way to abbreviate "also known as" is "a.k.a." <S> Anything that's NOT capitalized should have periods. <S> "WASPy" is correct, although why you'd use it is beyond me. <S> It's been overdone. <S> If you write "wAsPy," make sure you don't change it to "WASpY" <S> three pages later. <A> Many acronyms can be found in Webster's or Oxford dictionaries. <S> Start with your dictionary. <S> If the acronym is a company or organization, it is typically capitals without punctuation. <S> Lower case <S> s <S> after capitals or numbers don't require apostrophes. <S> Chicago has nothing to say on the matter. <A> There is a distinction between an Acronym and an Initialism. <S> Acronyms tend to have no periods and be pronounced as a single word (SCUBA, LASER). <S> Initialisms may or may not have periods, but each letter is pronounced separately (I.R.S., I.B.M., AT & T). <S> So WASP and ASAP are acronyns. <S> AKA and STD are initialisms. <S> How do you know which is which? <S> Consult a dictionary to see what the pronunciation is and to see if it includes periods or not. <S> Consult more than one dictionary to see if the usage is firmly established, or if it varies by source. <S> See <S> http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/05/the-difference-between-an-acronym-and-an-initialism/ <S> Finally, keep in mind that some company names that started out as abbreviations (AT & T for American Telegraph and Telephone) were later incorporated as the formal name of the company. <S> For example, AT & T is no longer the abbreviation for American Telegraph and Telephone. <S> The formal, legal name of the company is "AT & T." <S> So for names of organizations, you'll need to see how the organization itself presents its name.
| Still, as I may have mentioned earlier, in fiction you can do anything you like, just be consistent. AP style guide recommends not using hyphens with acronyms in narrative or dialogue.
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How can one establish a discipline of sticking to a writing schedule? I currently have three stageplays, a comic strip, one screenplay and posts on writing blogs (not to mention NaNoWriMo) that I have to stay on top of, and yet my mind gets scattered, although I find reading these links help. http://goodinaroom.com/blog/poking-a-dead-frog-career-advice-from-top-tv-comedy-writers/?omhide=true&inf_contact_key=dd94ed359982b8856932076f05b23f7f1c265860fed8a5110e858bbcbf7280bb https://screencraft.org/2015/09/27/17-must-read-screenwriting-lessons-from-stephen-king/ <Q> no excuses no rationalizations, no ill write twice as much tomorrow, for 30 days find the most convenient time during your day that you are not going to get interrupted, then spend the first 5-15 minutes getting into the right mindset, read your last paragraph or your outline, fill your mind with your characters and their plight, be in your writing space, not bed. <S> and write for 30 minutes without editing , it is very important that you DO NOT EDIT, <S> just write, if you say the same thing three times, its fine just keep going. <S> then take a break for a few minutes, grab some coffee or tea, then do it again. <S> no editing, just get your thoughts or your characters thoughts down on the page, tell their story, action, dialogue, movement. <S> don't get caught up in the details. <S> Once you have done an hour of just writing, then relax, continue writing, do a little editing of what you've written, rearrange some things, but DON'T delete it all, you can do that the next day if you need to <S> but you should never delete anything without taking a break from it first. <A> One way to help yourself develop a writing schedule is to write down everything you do, what time you start and finish, and then finding the gaps in those times. <S> Actually doing the writing? <S> Well, I agree with Illyena's answer: You just have to do it. <S> Finding butt-in-chair-fingers-on-keys time is half the battle. <S> The other half is getting BICFOK. <A> I was struggling /stuck on my first book when I found inspiration - it came from this movie <S> "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" <S> Based on a true story - this is about the editor of Elle magazine who is paralyzed in a car accident. <S> But despite all that, he writes a book. <S> It's amazing / true determination + one of the most inspiring movies I have watched. <S> Now, every time I get stuck, I remember this and it helps me to get back in rhythm. <S> And yes, my book is now published, 400+ pages & even completed my second book and published it. <A> I find it is best to make your writing part of your daily routine the same as you would taking out the garbage, doing the dishes, perhaps even going to work. <S> Simply delegate a time of day that you will sit down and shut everything out.
| When you see how much "dead" or unused time you have, you can locate the common places and set up a schedule. The only real answer here is just doing it.
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Writing figures in novels I believe that most of the time, it is advised to write out figures as words in novels, rather than writing the actual figure.E.g. He's twenty years old. He lives on the fourth floor. However, are there times when writing the actual figure is best? For example, telling the time. Is it better to write: 4 p.m. or Four p.m. The latter just looks weird to me, but I believe it would be better to write it like that. How about if you wrote something referencing the actual digital numbers you see: I glance at the alarm clock: 3.30 a.m. Would that be acceptable? I imagine heights should be written out? E.g. They're both about six foot two. Once again, it feels more natural to me to write They're both about 6'2" , but I think the former is better in a novel or perhaps I'm mistaken? What about in the following example where you actually reference a number: We arrive at the door with the number 45 carved into it. (should it be forty five or is either okay?) Should all the following be written out in words: His 1970's Jaguar (his nineteen-seventies Jaguar) 80's pop music (eighties pop music) Once again, I feel like the figures look better, but perhaps that is just not the done thing in novels. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! <Q> The usual convention is that numbers up to twenty are written out - as I just did with the word "twenty". <S> The same is true for numbers that are said as a single phrase like "fifteen" or "five hundred" or "forty thousand". <S> Other than that, use figures. <S> 1970's, not "Nineteen-seventies". <S> 3.30pm, not "three-thirty p.m.". <S> However "I'll see you at three", not "I'll see you at 3". <S> Decade names such as "the sixties" or "the 50's" could go either way. <S> The rule of thumb would be, does it feel natural to say the number in a single breath? <S> If so, write it out. <S> Having the numbers written out means that the continuous flow of text is not disrupted. <S> If, however, the numbers are longer so that you would need a great long string of text to write them out, it's much more convenient to use numerals. <S> There are exceptions and borderline cases. <S> " <S> That number wasn't 549, you twit. <S> It was 594. <S> Five-nine-four ." <A> I would recommend using a style guide and being consistent. <S> I use THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE which Is very different from AP on this subject. <S> Also, I would have differences in narrative versus dialogue: <S> There was a 150-ton truck blocking the path <S> but, "Did you know that there is a hundred-and-fifty-ton truck in our path?" <S> Certain things should be ordinals in either case (brands and whatnot): <S> The 747 is the largest passenger airplane. <S> It holds 850 passengers. <S> but, "Dude, that 747 is huge! <S> It holds, like, eight fifty!" <A> Basically agree with Lostinfrance (and upvoted). <S> My copy of MLA Handbook says to write out numbers that can be expressed in one or two words, and use numerals for those that require more. <S> So "fifteen" and "twenty-one" but "102" and "3 1/2". <S> They further state to always use numerals with a symbol or abbreviation, <S> so "$10" and "4 p.m." and "8 kg". <S> Also use numerals in addresses -- "14 Elm Street" -- and dates. <S> I've also heard the "up to twenty" rule frequently cited. <S> It would give similar results, though exceptions would be "twenty-one" and "two thousand". <S> Personally I'll normally write "a thousand" or "one thousand" rather than "1,000" in most cases. <S> Another common rule is that if you give several numbers, and some of them are big enough to call for numerals, then you should use numerals for all. <S> That is, it is inconsistent to write something like, "The results of our counts were sixteen, 124, and one hundred. <S> " Once you resort to numerals, make everything related numerals.
| Sometimes text that would usually be in numerals can be written out for emphasis.
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What should you do if the events in your story happen in real life just when you finish writing it? I was finishing my novella when I heard about the terrorist attacks in Paris (I pray for the souls of the victims) . I was surprised to know that circumstances revolving around the violent attacks were somehow similar to those in my novella. In my story, there were also eight attackers who each had a specific target and killed almost one hundred fifty civilians. The only thing that made my story different was that my terrorists were communist rebels, not Muslims. Should I change the plot line? <Q> Your story is fiction, don't sweat it. <S> As far as bad taste, I write for a living. <S> Life happens. <S> I don't consider it bad taste. <S> If anything, it is showing concern for the actual events in question and being thoughtful about implications. <S> The typical time frame from manuscript to publication is a year, unless you're REALLY lucky or already established, in which case you can cut in half. <S> May God help all those tragically affected, but don't let it stop you from doing your job. <S> It beats the crap out of working for Target. <A> I've heard of a few cases of TV shows and movie releases being delayed because the fictional events paralleled unpleasant real life events too closely, and so they felt it would be in bad taste. <S> But they don't throw the story away, they just sit on it for a little while. <S> Because human nature is that when something terrible happens, we are all horrified for a few days or weeks, but then we tend to forget about it and get on with our lives. <S> If you wrote, say, a novel about a country launching a sneak attack on another country that closely paralleled Pearl Harbor today, few would find this offensive or in poor taste. <S> Writers are often praised for being insightful and prophetic when events in their book happen in real life. <S> Of course that doesn't work if the book isn't published until after the event, even if written before. <S> I'm suddenly reminded of a lecture I heard years ago by a writer who had written a magazine article back in the 1950s explaining why he thought Mount Everest would never be climbed. <S> In between when he wrote the article and when it was scheduled to be published, Sir Edmund Hillary succeeded in climbing Mount Everest. <S> As the author described it, "This presented the magazine with a difficult ethical dilemma: Should they cancel the article and forfeit the $10 they had paid me for it, or should they go ahead and print it and make me look like a complete idiot. <S> It took them about a second and a quarter to decide. <S> And so I became the only person in history to predict that Mount Everest would never be climbed, six months after ..." <A> This has the added benefit that you're implicitly denying that you had taken advantage of the event for your story. <S> If you decide to change the story in any way based on the event, you could use an afterword to (briefly) describe what you changed and why. <A> While not exactly the same this sort of thing happens in creative fields. <S> Tom Clancy's novel Debt of Honor had a terrorist deliberately flying an airplane into the capital. <S> The film SpaceCamp, in which an accident on the launch pad endangers children by sending them to space was to be released after the launch of Challenger in 1986 - the film was of course delayed after the Challenger explosion. <S> Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.
| Use the opportunity to write a preface or afterward that describes how you heard about the true event and the impact it had on you.
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What is the purpose of using Roman numerals as page numbers? I'm in the process of writing a dissertation for my university degree. I have looked at examples online where people have used Roman numerals as page numbers for the preliminary pages of the dissertation and then Arabic numbers for the main text pages. Why does this happen? Does it not cause confusion having two different sets of numbers? I've seen this in a couple of books and not just in university dissertations. <Q> Translator's notes, prefaces, and introductions are numbered using Roman numerals so those pages can be safely cited without duplication or ambiguity. <S> It is customary to number the primary text with Arabic numbers starting at 1. <S> But as the front matter is clearly 'before' page 1, you have to make accommodations for it in your numbering scheme. <S> A new set of independently numbered Roman numerals are used to differentiate the two groups of pages. <S> This allows both sets to 'start' at 1 (or i ) without duplication. <S> Also note that Roman numerals are always italicized . <S> In contrast, end matter tends to continue the numbering of the primary text. <S> Sometimes end matter is not numbered because it is short, rarely cited, or can be referenced in another way (i.e. 'footnote 31', or 'appendix A', or 'postscript'). <S> There are some quite old standards for the ordering of front and back matter: Book design | Wikipedia . <S> This Wikipedia page is the most comprehensive list of these rules that I've found online. <S> However, some of these rules are more rigid than others so you can stray from them if you have a compelling reason specific to your project. <S> An excellent guide to print design is Bringhurst's book The Elements of Typographic Style . <S> It is an authority for designers and commonly recommended as an introduction. <S> It has a fair bit of history and explanation as to why these rules exist, but is mostly for designers and typographers. <S> If you just want formatting 'rules' beyond the Wikipedia page , then see Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Eighth Edition: <S> Chicago Style for Students and Researchers . <S> (Affectionately shortened as 'Turabian'.) <S> The book itself is a greatly condensed version of the monolithic Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS). <S> Note that while 'Chicago' style citations are standard for most humanities and social sciences, some disciplines (mostly scientific) use other style guides like APA or MLA. <S> All this is covered in Turabian. <A> (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_design ) <S> "The front matter of a book is paginated with lowercase roman numerals (see 1.4). <S> This traditional practice prevents renumbering the remainder of a book when, for example, a dedication page or additional acknowledgments are added at the last moment." <S> (Source: <S> The Chicago manual of style . <S> 17th ed. <S> London;Chicago <S> ;: The University of Chicago Press; 2017.) <S> My opinion: <S> the emphasis is on 'traditional'; it is an old (outdated, but not by usage) practice which makes no sense anymore, when works are published as PDFs using word or latex, where page numbering is automatically adjusted after including new front matter. <S> -- I never used it in my these <S> s so far <S> and I will try my best to avoid it in the future; <S> because so far I found it only confusing and not helpful, rather detrimental when dealing with non-fiction. <S> (I often asked myself: if intro or preface are not numbered, are they not important for the work? <S> and often, the work starting from '1' makes only good sense <S> when the preface or intro from III-XI e.g. is read/included. <S> so why exclude it from the main body of work/text by using roman numerals? <S> and why lowercase numerals? <S> makes it even worse. <S> -- I only see reason in using roman numerals for the pages by the publisher, which are not part of the author's actually work. <S> but if I put contents and a quote and a preface there, carrying important 'intro-info' for my work, then I want them part of the work, thus using Arabic numerals.) <A> Roman numerals are usually used for the preface, introducion, contents page, etc. <S> Arabic numbers are used for the actual text of the book. <S> One is used for extras and the other is used for the actual text.
| Answer on the purpose: "Front-matter pages are traditionally numbered in lower-case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.), which prevents renumbering the remainder of a book when front-matter content is added at the last moment, such as a dedication page or additional acknowledgments."
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Which one and why: (alphabets and integers sets) OR (alphabets set and integers set)? Consider the two phrases: alphabets and integers sets alphabets set and integers set Are both grammatically correct? If so, which one is a better style and why? <Q> Why "Alphabet and Integer Sets"... <S> A set of alphabets, aka " alphabet sets ", is a container of alphabets. <S> It's a grouping, or collection, that holds only alphabets and can contain any number of alphabet sets including zero and approaching infinity. <S> Logically, it would look something like this: And the integer set would look like: <S> However... <S> If you mean to pluralize the alphabets and integers, then you're probably looking at something like this: <S> A set of alphabet sets <S> A set of integer sets <A> The use of "alphabets" is a bit odd. <S> You likely mean "letters" [A, B, C...], unless you literally mean sets of alphabets, as in [Latin, Cyrillic...]. <S> Then you're distinguishing between:letter sets and integer sets [a,b,c] and [1,2,3]ORletter and integer sets [a,1,b,2,c,3] <A> Speaking as a mathematician, if you mean a set of some, but not all integers, I would say "a subset of the Integers". <S> If however, you mean the set of all the integers, then say "the set of Integers".
| My first impression is that both are wrong and that what you want to say is " alphabet and integer sets ".
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Two perspectives in a non-fiction book My daughter and I thought it was a good idea to write a book about our experiences throughout her casting for a movie that she did. Her view on the journey and My view as her mother. Not sure how to structure it so that it's clear to the reader. So far we've been writing it entirely as her with her just stating things like my mother thought blah blah blah but I feel it would be better if it was first person from each perspective. Sort of the way the showtime drama 'The Affair' is done. Any suggestions or examples? <Q> Intriguing. <S> No immediate examples come to mind <S> so I'm probably way out on a limb with this one. <A> I'd say that splitting it by chapter would be the most logical approach. <S> However I think that only works if you are telling a story in your own right. <S> So the reader reads a chapter from her on one aspect, then gets another chapter on your views on that event. <S> You would need to be quite careful how you choreographed them, you wouldn't want to bore the reader by repeating everything. <S> It would certainly be a challenging thing to write, but I imagine quite fulfilling. <S> If you are simply providing a commentary on her story, then maybe footnotes, or occasionally interspersed pages might be better (with a big 'mother's thoughts' at the top!) <S> The first step is probably to sit down and decide what you want to write, what you both want to contribute to it, and what you want the end product to be. <S> Once you've got that, create a story plan between you, with a concrete idea of who is saying what. <S> Other than that <S> , it sounds an interesting idea, I wish you luck! <A> One approach is to write separate chapters (maybe alternating, but maybe in this case more from her?) <S> with the writer identified at the beginning of each. <S> A similar approach was taken in the Jumper novels by Stephen Gould; each chapter is "titled" with the name of the point-of-view character for that chapter. <S> I once read a novel, I think by Spider Robinson <S> but I might be mistaken, where two characters alternated chapters in first person; that would be similar to what you're describing. <S> In both of these cases the change in point of view didn't impede the story; that's really important. <S> What you talk about in one of your chapters should follow naturally from whatever she talked about in the one right before it. <S> Don't jump around; that'll confuse your readers. <S> (Consider how confusing it is to read a comment thread where people posted out of order. <S> You don't want to cause that kind of reaction in your readers.) <S> Remember, as the two of you plan this, that not all chapters need to be of equal length and you don't need equal numbers. <S> If it seems more natural for her to have more of the text, do that. <S> If it ends up being closer to 50-50, consider alternating.
| You'd need to divy out the crucial story points and decide which one's furthered each character's story the best. You could write it as almost like a screenplay with the speaker listed flush left--but then also do paragraphs of prose, probably from your daughter's perspective, outside of the dialogue.
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How to collect my ideas in one story? I start to feel that I'm mad. I make stories from everything that I see on the street. A dialogue, an interesting personality, a funny couple, a hard question or a perfect view to write about. Words and sentences are buzzing in my mind all the time. My only and biggest problem is that I don't have the main storyline. I need something that collects these ideas and what my story is about but I throw all my ideas out of the window because I think they are too mainstream. I think I haven't found yet MY story. <Q> It sounds like you are letting your inner critic get in the way of your inner writer. <S> Otherwise you'll never get anything completed. <S> Remember, all writers tend to start out writing things that are cliched --it takes a while to find an original voice. <S> Also, many great stories and novels have explored "mainstream" ideas. <S> Most of Shakespeare's plays were based on old stories, and the more original ones were not always the more successful ones. <S> And Harry Potter is a mass of fantasy tropes, but JK Rowling is rich and famous. <S> In terms of pulling your ideas into a larger plotline --maybe <S> you are more of a short story writer. <S> There's a market and an audience today for very brief fiction , a story of just a few paragraphs that vividly explores an experience can be a success. <A> Maybe YOU are the main storyline you are looking for. <S> Perhaps you could write about the thoughts, emotions, feelings of a writer flooded with ideas without a coherent unifying theme. <S> Kind of sounds like real life. <S> We could all relate to that. <S> Be it. <S> Embrace it. <S> Write about it. <S> Good luck! <S> JB <A> Now just start with the beginning. <S> As soon as you begin pushing all your ideas onto the pages, a story will appear. <S> Trust your instincts. <S> Take days that it's just not happening to edit (both scene editing and line editing). <S> Make sure you write every day. <S> Many will tell you to read within your genre for ideas, but I've been doing just fine with only imagination. <S> I do a lot of nonfiction research (say, with a medical drama, I'll spend 100 hours or so trying to figure out the way a good doctor would do something versus a poor one). <S> Scenes will start to just appear in your head. <S> (Some may choose to see a psychiatrist at this point, but to each their own.) <A> Keep those random thoughts and favorite words / ideas / sentences in a journal or binder, etc... <S> then when you have a story you can use them as needed. <A> I know in my case that the initial draft of anything is very scattered and has an almost episodic feel to it. <S> It's also full of cliches. <S> I think they serve a function almost like connective tissue. <S> They can help me bridge gaps in the story until I can come up with something that fits better. <S> I'm on my third draft of a novel right now <S> and it's nearly unrecognizable to the story I started out telling. <S> You'll refine and replace as you go but the important thing is that you keep at it. <S> Build up some momentum. <A> This seems to be a problem for a lot of writer. <S> My advice is to incorporate as many as you can with the story still making sense. <S> The rest just need to be discarded, or put into another that story. <S> Hope this helped!
| Find a common theme in what you have so far and explore it for the rest of this draft while you figure out exactly what story you are telling. It's very important to turn off the inner voice that criticizes your writing until all the writing is finished. You have everything you need.
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Term for stereotype stories Is there any term to describe stories where the "evil" characters are extremely evil, and the good characters are extremely good? <Q> The answer depends on the work's intent. <S> If the characters are thinly characterized and stereotyped because the work's main attraction is a sensationalist plot crammed with dramatic events, then we call this a melodrama. <S> Wikipedia reports that a Professor Ben Singer has identified "moral polarization" as one of the key elements of melodrama. <S> On the other hand, if the characters are presented as contrasting moral opposites because they are intended to illustrate some larger philosophical idea, we call this an allegory . <S> A famous example is John Bunyon's Pilgrim's Progress , where nearly every character personifies some virtue or sin. <S> EDIT: <S> Based on your comments to your original post, I would note that Star Wars is basically a fairy tale, populated with archetypal characters. <S> This style is sometimes called mythopoeic (sometimes rendered as "mythopoetic"). <S> As far as Indiana Jones , I'm not sure it matches the request <S> --the bad characters may be extremely villainous, but the good characters aren't exactly saintly... <A> A neutral term: black and white morality . <S> Good and evil are unambiguously defined and, while a character can have faults, we never doubt its moral standing. <S> Typical example is The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit. <S> The Silmarillion would be a bit of a stretch, especially when it comes to The Children of Húrin. <A> I don't know of a general, well-accepted term for such stories. <S> But I would say that "boring" and "simplistic" may or may not apply. <S> There are many reasons why a story could be boring or simplistic other than having characters who are all good or all evil. <S> And the converse is also true. <S> A story whose emphasis is on plot development or the solving of a mystery may have simple characters because the author does not want to devote time to developing the characters, but rather to presenting and solving the mystery. <S> Also, you have to say which characters. <S> Many stories have just one or two or three main characters who are complex and well-developed, and many peripheral characters who only appear briefly or sporadically in the story and so are not well developed. <S> To take an extreme example, suppose in our story the hero has some valuable object, and for the story to work it is necessary for this object to be stolen and never be seen again. <S> The thief may well just show up, hit the hero over the head, steal the object, and disappear. <S> We would not be at all surprised if the thief is left as a simple, purely evil character, and his motivations and personal history are not explored at all. <S> "Extremely good" and "extremely evil" do not necessarily mean "simple". <S> A character could be all good but still have a complex history and many conflicting motivations. <S> Like, a good person could be torn between doing what is best for his children and doing what is best for society as a whole. <S> Or, a story could discuss how this person came to be so good. <S> How did he overcome temptations to do evil: to take revenge on people who wronged him, to cut corners on the road to success, etc. <S> In short: don't be simplistic in what you declare to be simplistic! <A> (Plain old unsophisticated works too, or broad or simplistic. ) <S> If you're referring to current stories, or your own, where you're aware of such stereotypes and you're parodying them, you might say you're being "ironic." <S> That only works if you actually are being ironic and you're mocking the stereotypes by overplaying them rather than writing as though it's correct.
| If you're referring to older, unsophisticated stories, where the author was being quite straightforward, then "clichéd" is probably what you want.
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How to describe pain in first person? (Made up character) Farrel jumps from his rambler house roof but lands horizontally and on his left arm. His left arms ulna snaps and pierces out of his skin. This is just an example because I'm having trouble with my real story (where the main character gets impaled on rebar) but having trouble explaining it in first person. <Q> Welcome to the site, Bruce! <S> In this case, describing pain in the first is no different than doing it in the third person. <S> The only difference would be that you would use 'I' rather than third person pronouns. <S> Therefore, what it looks like you're really after is how to describe pain in general. <S> As far as being impaled on re-bar goes... well, I think we can scratch first-person accounts of how it felt. <S> What you need to do is imagine how it would feel, and write that down, ignoring how it sounds at first. <S> Once the idea is there, go back and rewrite it, describing it using adjectives, adverbs, and verbs that compliment the experience. <S> You want your reader to feel the pain the way your character does. <S> For example: Farrel's forward momentum came to an abrupt halt as he slammed into the re-bar. <S> He felt the rough metal slice through his body, plunging through organs, ripping through skin, and shattering bones. <S> A second later his face collided with the hard concrete the re-bar was buried in, smashing his nose. <S> He could feel the vibration of it shudder all the way through his body, which only made the pain ten times worse. <S> Note the descriptive verbs I use: <S> slammed, plunging, ripping, shattering, collided, etc. <S> I wouldn't, for example, use such words as arrive, land, connect, etc. <S> because they aren't as vivid. <S> The words I used help to convey the feeling of the pain to the reader. <S> Hopefully this is what you were looking for. <A> The writing of this passage depends on what you intend to underline; is the character under a lot of stress or would he rather describe the scene factually, as though detached from what he's experiencing ? <S> If the scene intends to underline the horror of the moment, stick as closely as you can to what the character might be thinking/ <S> feeling at the time; at this level of pain, perception dwindles down to the most basic form of sensation : Searing pain, and my vision goes blind. <S> I can't breathe. <S> I can't move, and my head is spinning, threatening to shut down althogether. <S> (...) If you intend to focus on what happens next, a more detached approach might be useful. <S> I looked down. <S> There was a rebar sticking out of my stomach. <S> And then move on directly, as though it were just an offhand comment. <S> On many occasions characters (as well as real people) don't react to trauma the 'natural' way; it's an interesting thing to play on, especially since you're writing in first person. <A> I agree with Tommy in that visualization is key in describing anything from a first person point of view. <S> He was also correct with the words: it's all about the adjectives and adverbs you choose to use. <S> Some other good ones to describe pain are surging, tearing, wracking, burning, smoldering, piercing, unbearable, searing, etc. <S> Using first person is also great in situations like this because it allows you to go much deeper into the thought process of that person. <S> A simple way to think of it is "what would be going through my mind if this was happening to me?" <S> Example for the scene: <S> The bone snapped with a crack so loud it echoed through the silence of the night. <S> My head spun violently, and looking back, I could see white bone gouging out from the bloodied mess that was my arm. <S> For some reason, my brain refused to believe it. <S> Everything was spinning by now, spiraling into a black nothingness, until... <A> I often describe the reaction to the pain and the action causing the pain more than the pain itself. <S> You can say that it's agony, anguish, a tribulation, but it won't have an impact unless you focus specifically on what causes it. <S> Focus on the sound of the words. <S> Surge, gouge, sear, smolder, snap, plunge, slice, saw, splatter. <S> I would also use thrust, but that has a completely different meaning that you probably don't want to touch here. <S> You don't want passive words, you want words with a connotation of destruction. <S> This type of pain won't be silent, either, and immediately extreme pain probably won't register. <S> Describe the wet crunch <S> and then the surge of pain as 'your' bone plunges through flesh. ' <S> You' grapple for the injury (people hold onto broken limbs somewhat instinctively) and blood splatters all over 'you', smearing when 'you' try to stop it. ' <S> You' strangle a cry in 'your' throat when the limb shifts unnaturally under 'your' desperate grip, <S> pain slicing through twitching, torn muscles. <S> For me, there was an uncanny valley effect. <S> When I broke my arm, I didn't feel pain until I looked down at my two wrists, where there was only supposed to be one. <S> The second 'wrist' contorted unnaturally, bent shards of bone scraping over muscles. <S> When it started to hurt, I couldn't see anything anymore, but the pain wasn't going away after my brain registered the horror of what had happened. <S> I'm just glad it wasn't a compound fracture. <S> Depending on 'your' persona, maybe add a few swear words. <S> Don't hurt yourself, but the next time you do, write it down, or at least think up some words for it. <S> If you can't think of anything <S> more than $#!%, that's okay, because your character probably won't be able to think much more than $#! <S> % once the pain really starts.
| If you want to really give depth to the pain, getting pretty graphic with some specifics as to what's going on is also a great idea, as long as it's not so much detail that it becomes tedious.
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Is it possible for characters to get stuck reacting the same way to everything? Alright so I am new here so I'm not sure if it's okay to ask this type of question, but I am wondering if it is possible for characters to get stuck in a sort of 'rut' where they react to things with the same basic physical and emotional reactions. For example, my main character is a twenty something male with anxiety, and every time something doesn't go his way he gets panicky, sweaty, his heart starts racing, he feels nauseous, and his mind begins to spin out endless worst -case scenarios. This makes sense coming from his character, but it is boring to read this sort of a reaction over and over and over again in my writing, whenever someone does or says something to freak out my MC. So TLDR; is there any way to spice up character's reactions without straying from the character profile based reactions that make sense for them? Thanks for reading and responding if you do. <Q> If the _story has movement <S> _ and the _character is somehow forced to change_ within the story, then reading about the character responding the same way can be okay. <S> Magic Number: <S> Three Times <S> However, since you the author know it could be boring, then to a reader it will probably be extremely boring. <S> But, there's even way out of that. <S> Make sure you limit the number of times that you show the character go through these panic attacks to (at most) three. <S> Spice : Possibly Humor <S> It is also possible to make these scenes quite good if you cause the character to suffer hyperbolically as he trips over himself, crashes into doors and slips and slides as he attempts to get out of these situations. <S> Change: <S> The Ultimate Point <S> Finally, as long as the character is finally forced to change, most readers will get into seeing your character transform. <S> Seeing a character transform from a bumbling fearing wimp into some who is truly courageous (taking action even when they are panicking) can be a great story. <S> However, if you plan on keeping your milk-toast character the same throughout, I doubt she is a main character. <S> Good luck. <A> Saberwriter makes good points, so I'll address another way to address your concerns. <S> Your character has anxiety, but there can be a lot of variety in that. <S> At any one moment it could be a general feeling of unease, twinge of fear, distracting panic, or mind-numbing inability to focus on anything else. <S> If you vary the reactions, their levels, and most importantly the words you use, it will address your concerns. <S> The Emotion Thesaurus (good book) lists a lot of reactions. <S> Some are: touching the face shaking of various limbs twiddling thumbs, watch, rings, etc swallowing and shifting feeling hot or cold dizziness nauseated tingling in limbs chest tightening difficulty breathing worrying about worst-case scenarios <S> heart palpitations hyperventilating <S> Many of the above can be found in medical descriptions of panic disorders. <S> As long as the reactions you focus on shift each time <S> you're fine. <S> It helps if you focus showing the physical rather than mental response (which will always be fear). <S> Dizziness and breathing one time, heart racing and sweating the next, nausea and him noticing his limbs shaking another. <S> Once you've varied the reactions focused on, you can then vary the exact way to present the symptoms you choose. <S> A quick search will turn up a lot of ways to describe the feeling of being nauseated (bad taste in mouth, stomach cramping, saliva in mouth, rapid swallowing, sensitivity to smell, etc). <S> Then you can put some "pretty" spins on it by varying phrasing. <S> Similes and metaphors will help a ton here <S> - they are usually more "literary" than adjectives. <S> He can feel the acid churning in his stomach, his gut was filled with lava, his insides turned to liquid doubt, his anxiety turned the burrito he had eaten for lunch into molten lead, he had to swallow to not retch all over the table. <S> Fun stuff. <A> Ok (I'm trying hard to ignore "Alright" rather than "All right," but it's giving me a panic attack, so <S> I just have to say something; please forgive me), you're describing panic attacks, which have a definitive set of signs and symptoms. <S> You may benefit by reviewing those in the DSM-III and beyond (up to V now). <S> You can use different symptom subsets to each attack to decrease redundancy. <S> Interaction with a therapist or psychiatrist may add a depth to your character and can be humorous in and of itself. <S> It can also give you a platform regarding what interventions may be helpful in your character and express what kind of insight your character has to his discomfort. <S> A medication trial might even be successful but create its own problems so that the character chooses his neurosis. <S> In his 20s, especially, Zoloft might decrease his anxiety but make erection or orgasm impossible. <S> You can take it from there! <A> When you're in the middle of a panic attack you become incredibly reactive to everything. <S> So give him a variety of things to react to. <S> For example, pair him with different characters and let their reactions be the variable. <S> If it's a common thing, maybe there's a family member who is so experienced with it that they can anticipate what he needs and help bring him down. <S> Put him with another high strung person and they can play off each other's panic. <S> Maybe he has an attack near someone who isn't taking it seriously and even screwing with him a little. <S> Maybe he's with a heavily medicated person and suddenly they give him a handful of tranquilizers to take. <S> Here's one from personal experience. <S> He's having a panic attack but before he can excuse himself for a breath of air a birthday cake is wheeled out along with a bunch of waiters. <S> Now he's panicking to the tune of happy birthday but doesn't want to show it and is just trying to hold it together while he waits for a five year old to think of her wish so she'll blow out her damn candles and the wait staff will go back to the kitchen and get out of his way. <S> I don't know your story <S> so I'm not sure what will and won't work <S> but something needs to change to keep it from feeling stagnant. <S> Just play around with things <S> and I'm sure you'll figure it out.
| One big thing you can do is change the circumstances as much as possible whenever he's having one of these events.
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Writing an overempowered antagonist? I have the principal antagonist for my modern fantasy alternate world setting. Unlike the typical antagonist, this particular character, whom I named Vritra. He weilds the exaltation of a goddess, which granted him a slow aging, stronger than average magical capabilities and fast healing far beyond what the main characters can access. He used to be a very respected member of the magic association, and once destroyed the incarnation of a chaos god, saving thousands of lives, however he was deeply contaminated by chaos. Short time after that he found out how that particular incident was because the neglect and corruption from the magic association. He also found that the only way available under the circumstances to prevent more incidents like that one would end up cutting the ties that the people had with magic, however the association wasn't particularly happy about it. When he tried to bring the issue to the public, the association labeled him as a traitor, and conspirator and tried to kill him. From then and onward he fought alone, externally against the bounty hunters from the magic association and against the forces that threatened the world (which the mage's guild were neglecting, for fear of loosing their monopoly on the magic and overestimating their ability to solve the issue without giving up on the magic). And internally against the chaos that was corrupting his essence. After several years he has come close to finally cutting the ties to the mana, but has become so corrupted that he's loosing his sanity. He kills not only to defend himself but also for pleasure, and since long ago stoped caring about the consequences of his deeds, no matter how high the price, he will accept it in order to accomplish his objective. My problems comes in his impact to the plot. I fear that he might be bordering on marty stu territories. He is not the strongest mage, nor he has a particularly wide array of spells to use, but the few he has are versatile and strong. So far he has meteor swarm (deadly, and can be spammed to some degree); a limited, non spammable flashstep, that he uses to cut distances and blast someone pointblank; a strong chaos emanation (the one that gives me headaches) that easily disrupts mana, breaks spells and deals severe damage to magic casters, but using it propagates his own corruption; strong, telepathically controlled fire chains (but require him to focus on controlling) and a partial dragon transformation that puts him near the level of the stronger physical fighters, but limits his spell to fire and lightning blast. He is also skilled in close combat, posses a great magical resistance, and on his more sane moments is a great tactician (but easily gets carried away when he's exited in a fight) So far I use his corruption to limit him, even tho the exaltation grants fast healing and a demigod stamina, the mental straint of containing the chaos limits how long he can fight, also all of his spell requiere huge amounts of mana and can't be cast together lest he risk loosing control of the chaos. I also had him loose one of his dragon wings at the end of book 1 (cutting his sky superiority, for flying here is rare and unique), and during book 2 he sustains severe wounds fighting a demigod while off camera that impair for the remaining of the series, but also gained a manadrain spell that gave him a huge edge on a fight that would have killed him before the climax (and somewhat solved the issue of his spells requiring huge amounts of mana). What else could I do to limit him? or are the limitations imposed on him fair enough. He's supposed to win in the end, accomplishing his objective of cutting everyone's ties with the magic, causing a global catastrophe, but ultimately saving the planet, but he also has to die just after that, in a post climax fight against the protagonist (that ends just as they are loosing their cuts to the mana). I have already planned the climax, but I feel that he needed a bit of deus ex machina to get there alive, and I want his victory to feel real, not just because I, the writer, said so P.D.: He is the "protagonist" of the global story, my main character is the protagonist of her personal story, and serves to narrate Vritra's story (besides a few, particular chapters, I don't want to have him as the narrator, mainly for the Marty Stu issues, and mainly for I want to make the point that the story resolves around a LOT more characters than just the protagonist) <Q> Which for important characters such as the antagonist in your story pretty much kills the story. <S> So just show how he is tested. <S> Show how he sometimes fails those tests. <S> Show how he suffers when tested. <S> Show how he regrets the cost of his success. <S> Show how he resents having to bear this burden. <S> Show how he is ashamed of his weakness and resentment. <S> This will make him grow as character. <S> Both in the eyes of the readers and in relation to the main character. <S> I'd recommend using the main character as a mirror for such development, so that she doesn't get sidelined and overshadowed. <S> The MC should regret killing the the antagonist. <S> She should regret not making it before. <S> She should resent having to make that choice. <S> She should resent the antagonist for dying. <S> For making her kill him. <S> For making the choices he made. <S> She should resent the people who forced him to make those choices. <S> She should miss him. <S> Not sure how concrete I should get with advice on how to actually do this. <S> It is your story and all that. <S> But basically with this set up the focus should be in the internal struggles of the characters. <S> You really screwed over the antagonist and the story should show that in his actions. <S> He should be conflicted. <S> He should sometimes mess up because he can't really focus. <S> Sometimes the conflict comes out as frustration, arrogance, and overconfidence. <S> So he makes dumb mistakes and has to recover by doing things that don't reflect well on him. <S> He might be ruthless or simply look embarrassingly incompetent while running from opponents he really should have dealt with easily. <S> Sometimes it comes out as kindness, tolerance, and understanding. <S> He might just back off or even help out his enemies in a chivalrous fashion if it doesn't compromise his ultimate goal. <A> Given the story arc you outlined, I would start him out as much less powerful and let him gradually gain strength throughout the series. <S> It would seem like the obvious way to do this would be to emphasize the fact that he's fighting to hold on to his humanity, and that the stronger powers come with a high cost. <S> It strains credibility to have your protagonist continually prevailing from the beginning against such a strong opponent. <A> Consider other types of vulnerability. <S> Does he have a loved one? <S> A woman, a kid, a dog? <S> When characters love something it humanizes them for the reader, but also makes them more vulnerable. <S> Their feelings for their kid conflict with their duties as savior of the world. <S> (Then there's the overdone trope where the villain kidnaps their family.) <S> Let's try an example: He loved his dragon and he mourns it at every opportunity. <S> The loss clouds his judgment. <S> He flies into rage at the wrong times, and tears blind him during fights. <S> He can't sleep, so he's exhausted easily. <S> He's vulnerable, not because of curses and contaminations, but by normal emotions.
| Show how he regrets the cost of his failure. The problem with Marty Stu and similar types is not their power or competence, it is that since they are never really tested, they never grow as characters beyond cardboard silhouettes. He might even occasionally have doubts about his goal being justified and back off until he regains his resolve.
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How to replace overuse of "I" in a short story, fiction, written in the first person I am trying to edit a short story, written in the first person. I have used "I" way too many times, it stands out too much at the beginning of a sentence, but I can't seen to change it without loosing the meaning/tone of the sentence. Please help. Thank you. <Q> A technical term for this is "filtering," meaning you're often reminding the reader what POV or filter rather than the context of the situation allowing the filter to be implicit and unwritten. <S> Get inside the character's head, tight enough that your inside his body, and then write that. <S> Ex of filtering : I found the envelope in the supermarket. <S> I reached passed the butter squash <S> and I grasped it, and pulled. <S> I noticed the envelope smelled like crayons fresh from the box. <S> I twisted it a little and whatever was inside was stiff and unbending.(Lots of "I" filtering, explicitly written at the front of many sentences.) <S> Ex of <S> less filtering <S> : The envelope came from the supermarket, hidden among the butter squash. <S> After pulling it out and examining it, the smell of crayons, fresh from the box, teased me to discover more. <S> Cautious twisting indicated the contents as stiff and unbending. <S> (Who's doing the activities is implied.) <A> Lance's example is excellent. <S> It may also help to vary sentence structure (you may already be doing this). <S> I'll give an example that retains the "I" but improves variation. <S> From <S> I ran from the minotaur, and he chased me down the darkened, stone hallway. <S> I grasped for my sword only to remember I had dropped it running from the goblins the day before. <S> If only I had saved my flying potion, I could get out of this dungeon alive! <S> To <S> The minotaur ran towards me, so I fled down the darkened, stone hallway. <S> Grasping for my sword, I sadly recalled that it was lost during yesterday's flight from the goblins. <S> The flying potion that I had needlessly consumed was what I really needed, but without it, escape seemed impossible. <A> Nick tells Gatsby's story. <S> John tells Owen Meany's story. <S> In effect then, your narrator is not who the story is about, but they tell us the story of the main character, providing an interesting point of view.
| Consider switching the narrator to someone other than the primary character.
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How do I bring my readers closer to my characters when using the third person? I've chosen to write my story in the third person due to the scope of it, but by doing so I have made it harder for the reader to feel 'close' to my characters. The narration seems to be, unintentionally, creating distance. Is there a way to solve this? <Q> I like to use a lot of dialogue. <S> It draws the reader in. <S> Narrative: <S> Joel didn't like riding the school bus. <S> He was the last one on in the morning, and the seats were always filled. <S> Because he wasn't one of the popular kids, no one made an effort to make room for him. <S> Invariably, the bus driver would yell for him to sit down and the other kids would laugh. <S> Occasionally, Megan would scoot over to make space, but Joel was usually too shy to ask. <S> Dialogue: <S> Joel looked at the boy in the third seat and asked, "Can I sit here?" <S> "In your dreams, twerp. <S> " Everyone within listening distance laughed. <S> Typical. <S> Two seats later, it was "Try using deodorant. <S> Don't your parents love you?" <S> After a few more inquiries, the bus driver yelled, "It's like this every day, kid! <S> Now find a seat; we're running late!" <S> Finally, blessedly, he reached Megan, his eyes pleading. <S> She moved her backpack and iPad and patted the seat next to her. <S> "It's OK, Joel. <S> You can sit here." <A> I like to write in past-tense very close 3rd person. <S> It's almost like 1st person mentally, but the action is viewed as if from a camera. <S> There are several ways to increase closeness: <S> Repeatedly using them as a (or THE) POV character. <S> Having two makes it closer than if you have 5 POV's. <S> Strictly limiting what is perceived to that character, and not going into omniscient style narration. <S> No narrative info-dumps, just what they see, hear, or remember. <S> That helps improve your writing too. <S> Focusing heavily on the character's thoughts. <S> Italics is better than using 'he thought' . <S> Make them real-time thoughts, not summaries or naming of emotions. <S> Including not just a lot of sensory information (which helps ground us in the scene), but perceived senses. <S> Muscles burn, bones aching, heart pounding, eyes stinging, fear rips through him. <S> The narration of the scenes with my teenage gutter rat is very different from that of the elderly educator. <S> The narration takes on the style, prejudices, and vocabulary of the thoughts of the POV character. <A> The names make a huge difference. <S> Titles create the most distance (Officer, Detective), last names less so, and first names are the closest you can come to "he" and "she". <S> 2) <S> This depends on how close your third person is. <S> Is it third limited or third omniscient? <S> Limited allows you to tell the story from one person's (or one person per scene) point of view. <S> The narrator can feel like the person is actually talking to them because the entire section is told through their eyes so, by default, it includes their perceptions, which will bridge a good chunk of a gap between your characters and your reader. <A> Don't label the emotions characters feel, rather describe what they do or physically feel that are consequence of the emotion. <S> For example, Bob was frustrated. <S> Does not convey emotion as well as a simple Bob sighed. <S> Look out though, because it's easy to get lazy and use something like sighing too much. <S> To help, a great reference is The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression by Ackerman and Puglisi. <S> The book is organized by emotion, one per chapter. <S> For each emotion, it lists things someone feeling that emotion might do (sigh, hold their head) and might feel (pounding in their head, difficulty swallowing). <S> It also lists physical symptoms of particularly acute or chronic feeling of that emotion, and which emotions an emotion might escalate into.
| Use "he" and "she" as much as possible without causing confusion because the reader can imagine themselves as that more so than a name. In my experience, not feeling close to characters often comes from inadequately describing what characters are feeling. Shift the narrative voice when you shift POV. Two things: 1) Be aware of how you refer to your main character.
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What is the best use of perspective for works with multiple authors? If you have multiple authors writing an article, what is the best use of perspective when recounting experiences from different views? For example, I am writing an article with a colleague about our experience starting an organization. When recounting individual experiences, it seems best to use third person (Tom felt this way). However, when recounting shared experiences, it seems best to use first person plural (we did this together). These feel like the best approaches, though there is some friction. The friction is especially apparent when an individual experiences leads into a shared experience (Tom discovered he wasn't the only one; that is when we met and started working on this concept). Are there best practices or standard methodologies that address these types of situations? <Q> Example: One of us (Smith) had a patient who... <A> You may consider using 'the authors' to represent the two of you in the third person. <S> I have often seen this in more formal papers. <S> Using your examples from above: Tom discovered he wasn't the only one; that is when the authors met and started working on this concept. <S> and Tom felt this way[, and so] the authors did this together. <A> Read a couple of academic journals as they are peer reviewed. <S> The aim is to communicate to the reader new knowledge that flows and <S> I've interpret your questions as multiple authors and multiple participants. <S> Your academic references should be second and third person for example, Bourke et al (2008, <S> p.67), suggest.... third person. <S> That's my sort of understanding, approach and two cents worth, off the top of my head. <A> I have seen both used. <S> It does depend on the topic. <S> Most academic articles I have read use the third person because the researcher isn't actually the topic. <S> More popular texts tend to use first person more often. <S> If you do use first person, make it clear who is talking. <S> I recently read a book where the authors kept changing, but it wasn't clear who it was until the other person's name was used.
| In many scholarly texts, including scientific papers, the solution I have seen is to use the expression "one of us", with or without the person's name (it is not always important for the reader to know which one of the authors had a certain experience or did something. With referencing yourself, first person is probably preferred while team members will be second and third person.
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Where can I find a professional publisher who will accept my book? I started writing a book at the end of my 5th grade year. My 6th grade teacher is totally against teen authors, so I stopped for a while. Then my 7th grade teacher inspired me to start again. I'm 13 and I wrote many short stories (all turned down by my teacher last year) but this is my first chapter book ever. I need a publisher but I don't know where to find one. <Q> For the UK and Commonwealth countries a similar guide is the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2016 . <S> These two annual guides for authors are the most well known but there are other good books on the same lines as well, and I expect the same is true for other countries. <S> Be warned that it is very difficult for a first time author of fiction to be published. <S> There is intense competition. <S> However the internet has made it far easier than before to find an audience if you don't mind not getting paid. <S> It is also possible to publish your own book electronically, although doing this does cost quite a lot. <S> If you search this site using the tags "self-publishing" and "ebook" you will find more information on that subject. <S> I hope you don't mind that I made an edit to your post, correcting a word that was used wrongly. <S> That does bring up an important point: in order to be taken seriously by a publisher it is very important to thoroughly check your work for incorrect use of English. <A> I would suggest submitting your book to young author competitions, both locally and nationally. <S> And win. <S> Otherwise, don't give up and keep doing it. <S> You have a tiny chance at a commercial publication if you win an award--unless your dad owns Random House--in which case you're golden. <S> Can I get his number? <A> Try looking at http://agentquery.com/ . <S> You can search for agents that handle your genre, then write up a query and send it to them. <S> For fiction you need to have a finished work before you start shopping for an agent generally. <S> Also make sure you get your work edited. <S> Worst comes to worst you can just self-publish through lulu.com or amazon or a dozen other sources. <A> Most publishers only accept manuscripts from agents.. <S> I would expend my energy on trying to get the attention of one of those critters.
| You really need an agent first, very view publishing houses will even look at unsolicited manuscripts that an agent hasn't recommended to them. If you are in the US you could consult Writer's Market 2016 for names and addresses of publishers and advice to authors.
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How can I avoid using the first person in a report when directly referring to work and experiences I have had? I have been asked to write a report on the company I am working at during a placement from University (I am on an engineering programme). There was not much guidance given on what the content of the report is supposed to be, this is what I've been told: First Report – this is informally known as the “Company” report and is submitted in December of your placement year. It is a 3,000 word report that should give an overview of the Company: its place within its industry sector and your place within it. I have had no trouble writing most of this without using first person, as I don't really need to refer to myself during this, however, when discussing the style of the review, this requirement is added: Reports should incorporate some element of review and self-reflection, indicating what you have learnt from the placement and how it is likely to shape your future career choices. I am of the opinion that writing a section of self reflection in anything but first person serves absolutely no purpose but to make the whole thing much more confusing and less precise. The only way I can think of is more or less to simply change all instances of "I" to "The authour". Perhaps I am wrong (please correct me if so) but I feel this won't make a clear piece of writing. With this in mind, I included a short self review at the end of my report in first person. My Tutor has informed me that if I don't change this I shall lose marks, no question. Now comes my actual question. Is there any way I can actually write directly about experiences and learned skills without using first person, other than the way I have described above? Does anyone have any tips on how I can tackle this without writing a confusing and frankly odd sounding report? <Q> One way out of this problem is to use the passive voice. <S> It's the bane of fiction but it might be exactly what you need here. <S> Present yourself has the object of the experience, instead of the subject. <S> For instance: Lessons Learned. <S> In order to work efficiently at the company, one has to increase their communication skills to the point where they can communicate across technical domains. <S> The organisational structure of the company is rigid and generates compartments which makes studying its culture difficult <S> but, conversely, helps the operational analysis of each department. <S> The production process is made opaque by the lack of a global production schedule. <S> In the last example, your own experience is even implied, not stated, but it still remains clear that it's your personal viewpoint. <A> The rationale is that most documentation in industry or research contains information that will (ideally) be instructive, transferable, and/or reproducible. <S> However, you should generally avoid the ambiguous "one should do this..." and other uses of "one" as a generic pronoun unless the situation really calls for it. <S> "One" is often used as an awkward substitute for a better sentence structure. <S> That being said, definitely check with your instructor to see if they allow first person in your reflection. <S> Different instructors have different opinions and there is unfortunately not one convention on person and voice in engineering student writing assignments. <S> If you get confirmation that you must avoid first person, the second excerpt from the assignment is a little more difficult but still possible to write. <S> You can follow and expand a template similar to "Challenges confronted in this position include [challenges encountered]. <S> This position provides the opportunity to develop [these skills], which in the future can be transferable to [a future role or career goal]." <A> There is one other trick that I and many others have used. <S> Make a character with a name or title, and have that person observe the action. <S> Clearly, it's still you, but it depersonalizes it somewhat. <S> The writing enthusiast read over his answer, and decided it could use more information. <S> But he was reluctant to give too many details. <S> He thought that each writing project was unique, and didn't want to force his opinion on the person who had asked the question. <S> At the least, he thought, it avoids drowning in the passive voice. <S> Maybe that will be enough to help the frustrated writer to get started.
| I am a graduate from an an engineering program, and I often was taught that passive voice in technical and scientific writing can be preferred for cases like this. In your first excerpt from the assignment, make sure you describe the position you're holding and its place in the company with an emphasis on how the position interfaces with the company and the company values/goals , not how you interface with the position.
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When is passive voice acceptable? I am working on a fiction novel and have had difficulties with the passive voice. I feel that in this case the sentence is stronger when the passive voice is used. "Born in a land without justice, sodden with the blood and tears of earlier generations, he lived........" <Q> But it's not passive voice, not really. <S> You've just elided the subject because it's the subject of multiple clauses. <S> Let's say your original sentence is: <S> Born in a land without justice, sodden with the blood and tears of earlier generations, he lived a typical brutal peasant's life. <S> If you invert the clauses and spell them out, you have: <S> He lived a typical brutal peasant's life. <S> He was born in a land without justice. <S> The land was sodden with the blood and tears of earlier generations. <S> What you do have is an ambiguously dangling modifier — you have to read carefully to make sure you see that sodden with the blood and tears of earlier generations <S> is modifying "a land" and not "him." <S> Passive voice has no actor, no subject. <S> Mistakes were made. <A> Passive voice weakens your writing. <S> So you use passive voice when you want your writing weakened. <S> It is not a thing to be avoided, but utilized correctly. <S> Perhaps after an explosive anger scene where someone threw some books, you could end the scene by saying "The books lay quietly on the floor" as a transition out of the anger without dispelling any of it's energy. <A> Use the passive voice when you don't want to implicate anyone directly. <S> For example: A person must always be alert so he doesn't cause problems for others. <S> Contrast <S> that to: Bill didn't consider the implications of his actions so he pushed the lever up and the rest of the group plummeted into the abyss. <S> A famous example of passive writing is the cliche: <S> A fun time was had by all. <S> That sentence actually says very little that is specific and the "fun time" seems to fall upon people, instead of them doing anything to cause the fun. <S> The ball was caught. <S> Bill caught the ball. <S> The first one has no subject who is taking action. <S> This keeps Bill safe, in case catching the ball is an improper thing to do. <A> Rarely, but this is not really passive voice <S> As Lauren points out, what you have is not really passive voice. <S> Your sentence is: Born in a land without justice, sodden with the blood and tears of earlier generations <S> Written in full with the subject in place, this might be: <S> Dave was Born in a land without justice, sodden with the blood and tears of earlier generations <S> In passive voice, you would have: A land without justice, sodden with the blood and tears of earlier generations was the place of Dave's birth. <S> Your sentence is active voice, but you've omitted the subject to make it more punchy. <S> ... <S> but to answer your question <S> When is passive voice acceptable? <S> It weakens your statements, enabling counter-argument. <S> If you're writing a novel this is usually not the effect you are going for. <S> It's uncommon to find a case where the passive voice is an improvement. <S> An exception to this might be dialog if you have a scientific character, or a character who talks in riddles.
| If you are writing an academic paper, passive voice is de rigueur.
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Should I write something I don't care about first? When I was 14, I had an idea for a novel but never wrote anything. I'm now 24 and just finished participating in National Novel Writing Month ( nanowrimo.org ) where I wrote a 25k word "long outline" of my novel. I'm now expanding and editing my novel. I'm very pleased with my plot and would like to do a good job with it. However, I lack experience writing and would hate to ruin an idea I've become so fond of by making it the first thing I write (and therefore terrible). Should I write something I don't care about in order to "train"? Will writing my novel ruin it? I am interested in much advice. <Q> 1) <S> Mercedes Lackey famously rewrote her first trilogy seventeen times before it was published. <S> You will not ruin your idea by writing it. <S> 2) <S> Even if you get your "first million terrible words" out of the way first, almost every first draft of every novel needs work. <S> Your novel will still need editing whether your have experience or not. <S> 3) <S> Having an idea you love may keep you more motivated than "this crap thing I'm writing just to write." <S> 4) You can write other things in the universe of your novel (short stories, backstories, character diaries) to get more experience, which will contribute to your novel before your start it. <A> Your dilemma reminds me of Bernard Cornwell's tips for success. <S> If you don't know Cornwell, he is an international best selling author, with almost 50 books in print. <S> Read the genre you want to write. <S> Dissect those books to see how they are crafted. <S> Don't second-guess yourself. <S> It is natural to lack confidence when you start out, but don't let that defeat you- stay positive and keepmoving forward. <S> Trust your own instincts and write for your own satisfaction, not for an audience. <S> Don't worry about your final draft when you are writing your first. <S> Get your story right first, then work on the details ofdialogue and descriptions. <S> Be daring - take the plunge. <S> Write. <S> You might fail, but you will never know unless you dare to write. <S> And finally, the one I like best: Write only what you would love to read. <S> Good luck! <A> I once felt the same way about my ideas, and actually didn't write the ones I liked best, telling myself I would "save them till I am ready." <S> Looking back, here's how I feel about them now: <S> I can't really write them the same way now because I am in a different phase of my life - I can't properly write a story about my experiences in high school or university, because they're just fading memories now. <S> I am not as interested in those ideas as I once was - <S> new ideas have come in and replaced them, and when I look back, they don't seem as good as they did at the time. <S> So my advice would be that there's no better time to write the story then when you're passionate about it. <A> Dibs to Al Xavier and his Bernard Cornwell quotes. <S> I was thinking something similar. <S> For one, an inexperienced writer shouldn't be expected to boot out a classic first go. <S> The way your answer is written, though, seems to imply that a beginning writer is only capable of writing crap. <S> This is the opposite extreme and still a lie. <S> Many writers do write one or two "throwaway" novels before publishing. <S> Give yourself some slack. <S> Enjoy your story, write like you mean it, and keep it as remembrance.
| I myself am writing a story I'm truly invested in, but don't expect to go too far.
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Should you emphasise text within quotation marks? e.g. Bold : Click "Setting" then click "Options" . Italic : Click "Setting" then click "Options" . Or even underline? Or none quotation marks? Click Setting then click Options . Which is better/correct/preferred? <Q> Underlines are only for links; don't use them in copy for anything else (outside certain legal contexts). <S> Either use bold/italic or quotes, but not both. <S> It's redundant. <S> Which one you choose will depend on what's easiest to read. <S> If you have many of these steps and commands, I would go with a bold or italic, as too many quotes gets visually exhausting. <A> According to the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications , for commands on menus and buttons: Bold in procedures; capitalization follows that of user interface. <S> This is the convention we use for technical documentation in my company, as well, and correlates to your last example: <S> Click <S> Setting then click Options . <A> I have seen bold and I have seen inverted commas. <S> I haven't seen combinations. <S> Simply say which you are going to use at the beginning. <S> For example, I just found this in 'Beginning Android Application Development': "Code is presented in two different ways: We use a monofont type with no highlighting for most code examples. <S> (I haven't included their formatting.) <S> I realise that this code rather than which menu item to choose, but I think there are a lot of similarities.
| We use bolding to emphasize code that is of particular importance in the present context."
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An online resource where writers can get quick answers to questions about the real world? Detailed research is all very well, but quite honestly there are times when it would just be a better use of your time to fire off a quick question and get a quick reply from the bounteous well of Helpful People On The Internet . To pay the good deed forward you could give a little of your time to answering the questions of others. I'm primarily talking about things that can be answered in a flash by someone who knows an area (which could be a literal area or an area of knowledge), but which I would have to spend quite a lot of time delving into to even find out which forum, Stack Exchange or otherwise, would be best place to get an answer. To illustrate, here are two questions of the sort I mean: Female pet names that a Londoner might use? - asked on Writing.SE How to stay true to a Welsh setting - asked in EnglishLanguage.SE I was very happy to offer answers to both questions, but many people do not approve of this sort of question appearing on StackExchange. One of the questions above was closed, and the other got votes to close. Similar questions on Worldbuilding.StackExchange have had a similar mixed reception. My main question is whether there is a forum where writers are unquestionably welcome to ask and answer questions of this sort. (Lurking in the wings I have a potential second question as to whether Writing.StackExchange should be such a forum. But perhaps that would be better asked in meta - and in any case if somewhere else is already open to such questions, there is no need to start a controversy here.) There are also types of questions that I would like to ask in this "Research Exchange for Writers" forum (if it exists) that would probably be rejected as idea generation here. Things like suggestions for plausible names of characters, places or institutions in foreign countries, requests for little snatches of dialogue in foreign languages, suggestions as to advice on convincing little details to add to the dialogue of characters from backgrounds or places unfamiliar to me. In the hope of heading off criticism for being slapdash, I would like to emphasize that I'm a great believer in detailed research for the core of your story. However the level of research suggested in this excellent answer would be just too time consuming when all you want to do is have a secondary character throw out a few words about his job or her hometown. For me, spending too much time on that is an addictive temptation I must avoid. This is why I'm looking for a place where I can get answers quickly, if anyone knows of one. <Q> You might have a look at the Little Details community on LiveJournal. <S> The administrators describe the purpose of the site as follows: <S> We have a large, diverse membership that can answer questions such as: <S> "If I hit my character on the head like so, what will happen?" <S> "Will this destroy the Earth?" <S> All types of fiction writers--professional, amateur, fanfiction,original--are welcome to post questions. <S> Our focus is on factualaccuracy rather than general writing advice. <S> There are a few rules regarding posting that can be found listed on the community's profile page , the most pertinent of which are listed below: <S> At least attempt to research your question before posting. <S> This means a Google search, at the very least. <S> If your question isn't thetype that can be googled or you need help coming up with fruitfulsearch terms, no worries; just say so. <S> If someone asks for a translation of a word or phrase into another language, don't refer them to Google Translate or another automatictranslation site. <S> Automatic translation has gotten a lot better sincethis community was founded back in 2004, but it can still give resultsthat are nothing like what a native speaker would say. <S> Avoid giving the impression of reliability where there is none. <S> Most of the writers who ask questions here are looking for accurateinformation. <S> If you're only offering speculation or information froman unreliable source, then let the poster know. <A> I can suggest reddit.com/r/[country/city name] - it will get you answers from any half-civilized moderately populated part of the world. <S> Just take the answers with a grain of salt. <S> You're likely to get some regional inside joke answers and the likes among them. <S> You really shouldn't ask the locals for "Wpierdol" when visiting Nowa Huta . <A> I don't think it's productive to look for one web site that would answer any question you might have as a writer. <S> The expertise required would be too broad. <S> I think it would make more sense to go to web sites specifically targeted to your question. <S> A writer might well have questions ranging from "what are common names that people give to pets in London" to "how do women in Afghanistan greet each other" to "how much fuel would be required for a space ship containing ten people to travel to Mars" to ... etc. <S> A site geared to writers would presumably attract writers. <S> There is no reason to believe that other writers would be knowledgeable about any conceivable subject that you might be writing about. <S> If you want to know about rice farming in Bangladesh, you're better to go to a site about Bangladesh or about farming than to a site for writers. <S> Personally, I don't mind if you want to post such questions here and see if anyone has a useful answer. <S> But I think the moderators will shoot you down. <A> It looks like they've reorganized things since I've participated, but the Reference Desk forum is probably where you can ask stuff like that. <S> Of course, it's most populated during NaNoWriMo (November), but the site's up all year.
| Check out the forums at National Novel Writing Month 's site.
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How to make travel stories interesting? I have some good, true travel stories. Things that involve guns, explosions, and all kinds of other good stuff. I want to write them down, but I'm having trouble envisioning how to present the stories. I don't want to embellish, and it would go against my ethics to stray into creative writing in a non-fiction account (eg. "the sun illuminated his eyes as he looked down his gun sight" is stretching into the realm of creative writing to me, instead of staying in non-fiction land.) On the other hand, simply stating what happened: "Then I did this. Then that guy did that. Then we all had a good laugh." is boring. So, how can I present my true travel stories in a way that is both interesting to someone on the Internet who had no association with the events the stories talk about, and that does not take too much creative license? <Q> You have travel stories that sound like they could be interesting, but it doesn't follow that seeing or doing interesting things will make interesting stories unless you tell them as a story, with beginnings, middles, endings, etc. <S> A lot of this depends on who your audience is. <S> If you're giving an after action report to an Incident Commander after spending the day fighting a wildfire, the type of writing you'll use is completely different than the type of writing you'd use as you describe to your friends how you were driving through the forest road escaping from a flareup and the stupid bear wouldn't get out of your way. <S> You say that it's against your ethics to make stuff up, and that would be appropriate in an after action report or other kinds of reporting, where the facts of what happened rule over emotional impact and enjoyment, but in a story you can't use dry factual reporting and keep people's attention. <S> This isn't making things up, it's being true to the essence of what happened and helping your readers feel as if they're in your shoes experiencing the things you're telling them. <S> So the question is, are you writing a story or a report, and who is your audience? <S> If your audience is expecting a story and you give them a report, then you'll lose your audience. <S> If your commanding officer, or your editor is expecting a report and you give them a story, they might enjoy it, but still be unhappy because they had to dig through your writing to find the facts. <A> I like to use a lot of dialogue. <S> It allows you to avoid narrative information dumps and will prevent you from being too opinionated compared to simply being selective about presented material. <S> Narrative: <S> Ben-Yaden relaxed his grip on the trigger. <S> He couldn't be sure if the man within his sites was Jew or Palestinian. <S> He knew his orders, but he was a human being, after all. <S> Even if there was a shred of doubt ... <S> He didn't complete the thought before an explosion rocked the ground and shrapnel flew in all direction. <S> Ben-Yaden didn't even take cover, awaiting his marks next move. <S> Dialogue: <S> Ben-Yaden yelled in Hebrew, "Show me a Star of David or you're a dead man!" <S> His adversary stood silent. <S> Ben-Yaden tried again in Arabic--he could swear better than speak. " <S> Listen to me, motherf--ker! <S> Show me your fu--ing hands!" <S> BOOM! <S> Ben-Yaden didn't even flinch. <S> He knew what had just happened. <S> He looked his mark square in the eye and demanded in Arabic, "Don't you move. <S> Don't you fu-- <S> ing move." <A> I don't want to embellish, and it would go against my ethics to stray into creative writing in a non-fiction account <S> I think you're off-base here. <S> Memoirs (which is what you're writing) are not transcripts of history. <S> Yes, they are recitations of actual facts and events which occurred to the writer, but nobody remembers every detail of first grade with photographic precision (unless you happen to have eidetic memory). <S> The writer is going to add, trim, and edit to make it work as a story. <S> That's not embellishment or what you dismiss as "creative writing. <S> " That's editing. <S> If the dry fact is "I caught two trout," <S> embellishment is "I caught four monstrous trout!" and creative writing is "After two days at sea, with no power, no GPS, and diminishing supplies <S> , I finally sighted the great white shark. <S> He reared out of the water and fixed me with one fathomless black eye. <S> I took aim with my trusty flare gun..." <A> Travel stories are about the longing for something with a counterpoint of fear of the unknown and its dangers. <S> To make your story interesting, find the object of longing and find the the source of peril. <S> The longing and the peril may be great or small, but they are always at the heart of the story. <S> Since you have guns and explosions, the perils are pretty clear. <S> What is the longing that drives the traveller to brave these perils? <A> Although the following might seem obvious, some of the things I tell my students include: don't use 'then'. <S> If you have written it well one thing follows from another. <S> Secondly, avoid starting sentences in the same way. <S> Particularly avoid starting with 'I' or a similar pronoun. <S> Thirdly, vary the structure of your sentences for effect. <S> Use simple sentences for pace, etc. <S> Fourthly, try to use some similes and metaphors to make your writing more interesting. <S> Fifthly, vary your vocabulary and definitely avoid repeating most words. <S> Sixthly, include more details. <S> For example, what did the explosives smell like? <A> From what I can see, there seems to be no way of writing an interesting account, without violating your ethics. <S> But I would bet my bottom dollar that at least 50% of "non-fiction" accounts embellish on the facts. <S> Sure, maybe you don't want to add whole paragraphs of made-up details, but without some details (e.g, "My hand held tightly to the cold metal of the gun...") <S> your story will be as dry as dust. <S> Non-fiction is taking the things that you remember happening, and telling them in an interesting, way, that accurately portray the emotions that you felt while going through the events. <A> I have written 2 narrative travel books. <A> You can use internal monologue in between the action beats. <S> Show reaction beats: "I did this. <S> He flinched. <S> Then he did that".
| My advice is - use lots of dialogue, look into the monomyth structure, increase drama where possible and try to build an emotional connection between the reader and characters by embellishing the ups and downs the character is facing. There's nothing wrong with smoothing out the dry facts of your narrative into something readable and interesting.
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What aspects of written dialogue are important when giving characters a unique voice? I have a project that I am working on in which I need to write quite a few fictional informal email correspondences between pairs of characters. I am not using these characters in any other context. I am working with a relatively large number of characters (12 ish) and have neither the time nor the need to fully flesh out each in great detail. I think I am doing a good job keeping the characters interesting and unique in terms of the actual content of their conversations, but I am aware that their writing styles are all a very similar. I have tried to identify some basic variables I can use to determine the character's writing style. So far I mainly have the following: Tendency to over/under comma Typical sentence length Commonly used phrases/sayings (oh god, yeah-but-no, take the world by its nipples and twist) Expressions of humour (haha, lol, :D) What are some other ways I can differentiate my characters' writing styles? Or put another way, what are some things that give away a common writer that I should try and avoid? <Q> I noticed that mails from different friends of mine vary mainly in three aspects, two of which are related to structure: One: Length of mails . <S> Scientists tend to write mails of about two or three sentences length. <S> They only put the most important information into their mail and don't bother with gossip. <S> The tl;dr -principle is their basis for writing mails. <S> Two: Structure . <S> Depending on the writer's personal disposition towards structure, paragraphs are used more or less extensively to structure their thoughts. <S> Same goes for lists of bullet points or numbering. <S> Three: Salutation . <S> I think everybody has a preferred way to salute their friends: " <S> Dear so-and-so", "Hiya","Hi", etc. <S> Note that this can change, but it tends to be constant for a certain amount of time. <S> The salutation can also reflect the relationship between the writer and the addressee. <S> A last thought: Try to get your friends to write some of the mails for you. <S> That way, each character's mail will have a distinct voice. <A> Personally, I think you're overanalyzing. <S> Look at some blog posts, even from this website. <S> The structure tends to be close in all or at least most elements. <S> There are a few differences that I have found in general: <S> (My stupid, male brain) notices that women use a lot more exclamation points with interjections. <S> Wow! , Congratulations! , or, Hi there! . <S> Foreign speakers will often misuse for or to or other prepoositions every once in a while. <S> Friends will begin to use each other's idioms over time <S> I imagine other posters will come up with additional ideas. <S> But I think most people, fictional or otherwise, will talk about common interests, plans, gossip, or conflict. <S> If your concern is with the emotional and psychological nuances of the characters compared to their grammar, the reader will get it. <S> What's more, if your grammatical changes were more than subtle, I would be distracted. <A> You could use different spellings and punctuation depending on where the email originates from: favor vs favour; and inclusion, or not, of the oxford comma. <S> Some people write 'try and' instead of the more technically correct 'try to'. <S> Often Americans use an extraneous preposition 'off of' when 'off' alone does the job. <S> A sloppy writer might write 'would of' instead of 'would've'. <S> Many writers use 'there's' as a plural dummy element: 'There's seven people coming for dinner' when 'There are seven people coming for dinner' would be used by the more careful writer. <S> Although you don't have the space or need to flesh out these characters, you should use their emails to say as much as you can to show their levels of education and the tone of what they're writing. <S> I'd be using every trick in the book to make each one sound unique. <S> The last thing you want is for all the emails to sound as though they were written by you. <A> Few readers will notice difference of style between different characters. <S> Perhaps for one or two of them, but not for a dozen. <S> What distinguished people much more than their style is what they want and the kinds of things they are willing to say. <S> One may be kind to a fault while another is cruel. <S> The kindness or cruelty will distinguish them far more than the style with which each is expressed. <S> One person may be after money, another fame, another friendship, another forgiveness. <S> The focus on these things in their correspondence will distinguish them even if they all use similar styles. <A> One of the first things I thought of was temperament. <S> Have you given each of these characters a very basic template for their temperament? <S> This also has the added benefit of providing a tangible lead on which to express their backstory through their actions and dialogue. <S> For example, if one of the characters was a "typically grumpy tough guy who was reluctant but ready to take the lead on things if it came to it", this would greatly influence how you would write his dialogue now that you have placed a general temperament on his character. <S> He would be loath to express gratitude and humour, for example, and this would be something the other characters wouldn't expect and could joke about in a scene when he did. <S> Some would simply smile and perhaps the reckless, funny guy would throw a line in. <S> Alternatively, one of the characters might be the "wreckless, funny guy"... <A> Serif and sans serif for example. <S> It could indicate a shift of perspective from the writer's voice, to the electronic medium, as well as differentiating between multiple characters. <S> You wouldn't need to have radical changes, just a slightly different font, maybe a minor shift in point size as well. <S> In addition to the different written styles of the characters, it could work well. <S> Maybe include an email header, or <S> 'Written on my iPad' style footer if they aren't going to distract too much. <A> Key factors for conveying different characters in their written communications (specifically email.) <S> Native language, especially if it's NOT the language of the emails. <S> Cultural identity/political outlook. <S> Education: level and emphasis.
| You could try using different fonts for each character.
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In English non-fiction, should I try to place the important parts at the beginning of the sentence? Main question There is a claim that I heard from a few persons (none of which were native speakers of English), which goes as follows: In English non-fictional writing, the most important aspects of a sentence should preferably be placed in front. Is this statement correct, and if yes, to what extent? I prefer credible sources to back this up but this may be difficult in the case of refuting the statement, so if you have read bazillions of writing guides and never found something along the lines of this, that would be a helpful answer for me. Details on the claim Example 1: Consider the following two sentences: Even with a discombobulator, we failed to transmogrify bananas in a frombolastic environment. In a frombolastic environment, we failed to transmogrify bananas even with a discombobulator. The claim says that if discombobulators are more relevant to your writing, the first order of sentence components is preferrable (and vice versa).In particular, this is claimed to hold even if the previous sentence was about frombolastic environments and you could use the second word order to make a bridge between the sentences and improve the text flow, e.g.: In such an environment, we failed to transmogrify bananas even with a discombobulator. Example 2: Consider the following two sentences: Possible explanations include comtorsognation, palamnesis, and sample impurities due to an uneven opularseny of the Earth’s magnetic field. Possible explanations include sample impurities due to an uneven opularseny of the Earth’s magnetic field, comtorsognation, and palamnesis. (Assume that it is clear to every reader that comtorsognation and palamnesis cannot arise from an uneven opularseny of the Earth’s magnetic field.) If the impurities are the most plausible explanation, the claim is that the second sentence is preferrable, even if though this sentence is much harder to parse. This is not about obtaining emphasis by deviating from the default grammatical word order ( inversion ). In case it matters, I am primarily concerned with academic writing. <Q> No. <S> The familiar information should be placed first, and the important new information should be placed last. <S> These two positions are the most prominent places in a sentence. <S> And placing familiar information first creates a connection from one sentence to another that greatly improves the readability of prose. <S> This article , The Science of Scientific Writing by Gopen and Swan, shows how to take impenetrable scientific prose and, using a few guidelines like the one I give above, make it much more readable. <S> I quote from the article: <S> It is a linguistic commonplace that readers naturally emphasize the material that arrives at the end of a sentence. <S> We refer to that location as a "stress position." <S> There are several good reasons that you usually don't want to put the important information in the other prominent position, at the beginning of the sentence. <S> One reason given by the article: Beginning with the exciting material and ending with a lack of luster often leaves us disappointed and destroys our sense of momentum. <S> The authors call the start of a sentence the topic position : The information that begins a sentence establishes for the reader a perspective for viewing the sentence as a unit: Readers expect a unit of discourse to be a story about whoever shows up first. <S> And here is their advice about what should be in these two positions: <S> Put in the topic position the old information that links backward; put in the stress position the new information you want the reader to emphasize. <S> So the new, important information in a sentence should be at the end. <S> However, if the sentence ends with a list, the "stress position" would start at the beginning of the list, and my intuition says the start of a list is the most prominent place in it. <S> So your second sentence with "sample impurities due to an uneven opularseny of the Earth’s magnetic field, comtorsognation, and palamnesis" may be preferable. <S> But the best way to phrase that sentence might be to add words that move the stress position to the end of the list: <S> Possible explanations include comtorsognation, palamnesis and, in the authors' opinions the most plausible, sample impurities due to an uneven opularseny of the Earth’s magnetic field. <A> No, that's not a valid rule. <S> Real life is more complicated than that. <S> Sometimes we deliberately leave the most important element in the sentence until the end to build tension. <S> Like the classic style of line in a mystery novel, "And so, the murderers is the man who had the most to gain by the victim's death, the only man who could have entered the room that night without raising suspicion, the man with the brown shoes, the man with the fake British accent, that man is ... you, Fred Jones! <S> " If we started the sentence with, "The murderer is Fred Jones", the rest would all be boring side notes rather than building tension. <S> Of course it doesn't have to be as dramatic as revealing the name of the killer. <S> Even in a technical paper you might write, "We tried three approaches and only the last one worked: radiometrics, stratigraphy, and seriation". <S> Even if the final revelation is not surprising in the sense of open-mouthed astonishment, you create a little build up. <S> In many sentences, when there is flexibility in the word order in a grammatical sense, i.e. the sentence would still be grammatically correct with several different possible orderings, we still choose the order based on real-world logic. <S> For example, we often express ideas in chronological order. <S> If I said, "Today I had breakfast, got a haircut, went to the grocery store, and took a nap", listeners would generally assume that I did them in that order, barring some reason to believe otherwise. <S> Often we start with the information that provides the background to what follows. <S> Like I might say, "There are three routes to Detroit from here: You can go through Toledo, Chicago, or Montreal. <S> We decided to go via Chicago. <S> " I'd be less likely to say, "We decided to travel via Chicago. <S> It is one of three routes to get where we were going, the others being through Toledo and Montreal. <S> We were headed to Detroit. <S> " The second paragraph is confusing because it's not clear where you're going -- geographically or linguistically -- until you get to the end. <S> The first is more logical. <S> Et cetera. <S> There are lots of considerations. <S> Give the sentence a logical flow rather than worrying about some arbitrary rule like "put the most important thing first". <A> I would say it's dependent on context. <S> For your example 2, you could arrange those items in any order. <S> If item 3 is your most important, it could go first (in a straightforward reading) or at the end (if you were going for humor or silly emphasis).
| There are times when you cannot "bury the lede," to borrow a term from journalism (and that is the correct spelling), and there are times when it's okay to put certain items later in the sentence for the sake of readability.
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How many errata are too many? I'm not sure this is the right Stack Exchange Community for this question, but here I go. I bought a book on Machine Learning from a (I believe) popular publisher a few days ago. It's a first edition and it was first published on September 2015 (4 months ago). The point is, in the first 50 pages I found around 5 errata . Not huge ones, but errata nonetheless. Even though the book is quite good, finding that many errata made me a bit uneasy. Could this be considered normal, as it is a "just born" book? Or should I be concerned in any way? <Q> That's not acceptable for a $29-$59 book on an established subject from an established publisher. <S> It indicates that the publisher and author are not performing adequate editorial and technical reviews. <S> However, if this was an inexpensive self-published e-book on Amazon, your expectations for quality should be much lower. <A> I think you mean "errors" rather than "errata". <S> A book's errata is usually a list of errors that have been noted and are corrected on a separate page. <S> You don't see errata so much these days—it's cheaper to correct the error and reprint it, and there's less of a financial inducement to print the errors on a separate sheet. <S> If it's a book on programming, and the errors mean that most of the programs don't work as printed, this is unacceptable. <S> But if it's a missing comma here or there, then it sounds normal, and possibly better than average. <S> Some people's "errors" are issues of style—for example, the so-called Oxford comma. <A> Annoying as it is, I have often found at least this number of errors. <S> I usually expect most code samples to be correct and work -- expect is different to finding they actually will run. <S> However, I have found numerous errors in explanatory text. <S> Often books will have online errata lists that you can consult. <S> If you try it yourself, you will find it is incredibly hard to get books like this perfect. <S> Second and third editions (if they make it that far, which most coding books don't) should have less errors. <A> But from there, one can only say, <S> So what? <S> Are you going to report the author to the Library Police? <S> If by errata you mean simply typos -- mis-spellings, punctuation errors, that sort of thing -- and otherwise it's a good book <S> , I'd say " <S> oh well" and ignore them. <S> If by errata you mean errors of fact, and these errors really matter, if they render the book unreliable, then I'd say to give up on this book and find a better source of information. <S> You say the errors aren't "huge" so, etc. <S> If you were involved in publishing this book, I'd say this would be evidence that you need better proof-reading. <S> But if you're simply a reader, there's nothing you can do about it, so I wouldn't worry about it. <A> If the errors make the book unusable — for example, switching "row" and "column" makes what you're reading unworkable — I'd look for a way to contact the publisher and inform it about the errors. <S> Then find another book to use as a backup or cross-reference. <S> If they're just spelling mistakes or the word switching is really obvious, then you're probably okay. <A> The number of errors you describe are a lot for a technical manual. <S> More than needing better proofreading to check spelling, it sounds like this book really needed better copyediting to catch the errors in code and word reversals. <S> I would contact the publisher with a list of the errors found. <S> While you may not be able to return the book, you will be providing a service to the publisher (and to those who will benefit by corrections in a later edition) by reporting the problems.
| Yes, it's a lot by almost any standard, and is a sign of inadequate proof-reading. 5 errors in 50 pages might be acceptable, depending on the nature of the errors.
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How to avoid plotholes when writing stories with dense mythologies? I've been brainstorming and working on worldbuilding, structure, characters and overall story development stuff for about 4 years now. Basically spending a lot of time brainstorming strong, well developed self contained ideas, only lightly juxtaposing ideas here and there. Now, I've written my outline, my story involves stuff about a civilization in the sky and an a city below. There was a war that occurred involving the creation of a certain type of species as well as a time machine a scientist created (though at the time writing it, there was no real discernable reason why the time machine was created or what it would have been for... I was thinking or working that out later...) Originally in the island below, there was also a civil conflict, which is part of the main premise of the story, though I never found reason for it to happen so it phased out, and I juxtaposed the war from the sky with the war below, merging them together. So now, the war between those two species occurred in the island below, the island above would live the aftermath of it, as they inhabit the island afterwards... Now in the stage of outlining, this created plotholes I'm trying to repair... Is there any "order of operations" or objective rulesets I should take into account when worldbuilding to avoid plotholes or contrivances, and make sure when I write, I can make sure the plot retains a clean and organized structure? I finished the first and second act in the outline, and found the third act won't have enough material and I need to add more ideas to the story (first and second half) to expand on the plot, is this bad, or will it still work? The time machine is important to the plot, I'm just thinking about why it was originally created and what it could have been for. <Q> I believe you answered your own question <S> Your third act can pull these artifacts together into some meaningful ... talisman. <S> You will need a singular protagonist in this sort of complex world. <S> There are numerous references on this site to the Hero's Journey to help define your hero (who will solve the clues, build the talisman, win the war ...). <S> Use your protoganist's comrades to talk about "the way of things" to prevent long-winded info dumps (like this post). <A> The problems you are experiencing are problems with outlining. <S> Once you start writing your story, using your outline for initial guidance, what your characters do and <S> what happens in the story will fill in the gaps. <S> Always remember, you are a writer and you can always make something up. <S> Go without fear. <S> You're the one in charge of this world. <A> Some world-building authors base their story on real historical events; for example, A Song of Ice and Fire is basically mediaeval England. <S> And if your storyline mirrors real events closely enough, that might prevent plot holes. <S> For your purposes, the history of either evolution or technology could help.
| Make the plot-holes problems your characters have to solve. : Consider dumping artifacts onto both "continents" in earlier chapters from your time machine. Later on as you progress with the writing you find you can abandon the outline and just find ways of combining the different plot elements into a richer and more developed story.
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Will changing a protagonist into an antagonist alienate readers? It's really hard for me to write questions here without giving a complete info dump on my story. Every time I start to explain my problem, I find myself writing an entire synopsis. This is my third attempt. Basically, I have someone who starts out as a protagonist. In the first part of the story, she saves the day by force of personality. The villain did something horrible at the end and completely deserves punishment, but he escapes at the last moment. In the second part of the story, the villain comes to terms with his crimes and redeems himself. He changes his ways and starts a new life. In the third part of the story, the original protagonist has spent her time obsessed with bringing him to justice. She fears people won't see how evil he is, so she decides that the ends justifies the means. She ends up doing some very questionable and possibly evil things to make sure he's caught, arrested and executed. She eventually ends up doing things worse than he ever did, but feels justified because she needed to do those things to get him caught. It works exactly as planned. And everyone around her sees her as a hero, but she knows that she's not. Her victory is hollow and she's not happy at all. Anyway, I like the story myself. But I thought it might be off putting for readers to invest love for a character in the beginning who ends up going bad in the end. I am afraid people want clear lines between good and evil. Would they feel cheated if I slowly turned it all around? <Q> Your protagonist will still be the girl. <S> She's the "main character". <S> They can be a reluctant anti-hero, amoral, or even a villain. <S> You could write a book with Satan as the protagonist if you wanted. <S> As long as the readers have built an attachment to the character, and her actions make sense from her point of view, your readers should be okay with her getting dark or making mistakes. <S> Note that's in general. <S> but there's nothing you can do for them given your storyline. <S> Being a "puppet" (for long) isn't a great idea, as you're taking away her agency. <S> She isn't driving the plot anymore AND her actions don't really matter. <S> The villain can drive the plot for a while and the story can be fine (think of the Joker in Dark Knight). <S> You say that you're worried about turning a "good" character "evil". <S> But I'm sure she does not so good things at the beginning, and has flaws. <S> And the "evilness" of her actions can be justified by her motivations. <S> Everything turns a bit grey. <S> As I said before, as long as your character is relatable, and her choices and actions match her characterization and situation, your readers will be fine. <S> Now stop worrying about this and go write! <S> If you're hesitant, put your mental effort into making her relatable and her actions understandable. <S> Good luck. <A> Your story has only one protagonist, the "she" whose story drives the plot from the beginning of the story to the end. <S> That the protagonist becomes evil means that this story is a tragedy. <S> The antagonist is a character (or characters?) <S> who oppose or frustrate your protagonist from achieving her goals. <S> In the story structure you describe, the villain's redemption in part II seems like it would eliminate him as the antagonist for the remainder of the story. <S> Without an antagonist, part III might be less engaging. <S> If you address this structural problem by inserting a different antagonist, there's no reason for your readers to dislike the story. <S> Tragedies, such as "Gone Girl", can do well at the bookstore and the box-office. <A> I hate it when people answer a question with, "Well, it all depends". <S> But that seems like the right answer here. <S> Personally, it really annoys me when Hollywood does a remake of some old and well-loved story, but turns the hero of the original story into a villain or an idiot. <S> An example that comes to mind is "Mission: Impossible", where the Tom Cruise remake turned Mr Phelps into a villain. <S> As a viewer, I saw that as something of a betrayal: You took everything that was good about the original story and threw it out the window. <S> Not to say that you can never turn a hero into an anti-hero. <S> (Not really "antagonist", as others have pointed out, as this person is still the main character.) <S> If you write it in a way that makes sense and in general if you do it well, it can certainly be an interesting and involving story. <S> In general, readers want to like the main character. <S> I have very often decided that I don't like a story because the main character was so unlikable, and so I ultimately don't care if he succeeds or fails. <S> That is not to say that the hero can't be flawed. <S> A hero who is perfect in every way tends to be boring and unbelievable. <S> But -- again, in general -- you want your hero to be someone that the readers like and want to see succeed. <S> So I certainly would not say to not write the story this way. <S> It can be made to work. <S> But it's relatively difficult. <A> I think it depends on how you write it and who your audience is. <S> There are real life stories like that. <S> For example, think of Napoleon. <S> As a youngster, he used to read Jean Jacques Rousseau and probably dreamed of being a champion of freedom. <S> After he became powerful, it took him quite a while to become infatuated with his power, but eventually, he succumbed to that infatuation and became emperor. <S> And he ended up disappointing Beethoven. <S> There is the Star Wars prequels story of Anakin Skywalker who starts out as a nice kid and becomes the evil Vader. <S> That was poorly done and annoyed me. <S> Nonetheless, there are plenty of people who loved it for whatever reason -- I think they are under the sway of the Dark Side of the Force if you ask me. <S> There is also Citizen Kane, in which Kane starts out as an idealist, then becomes as corrupt as the people who brought him up. <S> That story was well done and it worked. <S> The conclusion is, if you built your character right, the story will work. <S> If your target audience is teenagers and you have explosions and vampires, it will also work, even if you failed at building the character. <A> I think your protagonist and antagonist have a complex and very interesting relationship; could you have the original antagonist confront the protagonist at the end and participate in her redemption? <S> Teaming up to defeat the EVIL ORGANIZATION could be a part of the motivation, but the obsession and history between those two is enough to build a captivating story on. <S> This mixing of good and evil has hundreds of examples both classical and modern. <S> You're not being weird, you're playing on storytelling expectations to keep it interesting.
| The reader may be drawn in to the tragic tale of this formerly good person being overcome by the situation in which she finds herself and gradually turning evil. A protagonist doesn't have be a hero. Some people will be turned off (they don't like grey) But I think it's relatively hard to pull off.
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How to write a scene where something devastating suddenly happens? I've always struggled with writing scenes like these. For example, imagine a situation where two characters, Steve and Alice, are walking down the road. Suddenly, somebody shoots Alice, and she dies immediately. There's absolutely no build-up or warning. There's nothing about the scene that would make the reader even suspect that Alice would die. Steve is devastated because Alice was everything to him. How do I write scenes like these without making it sound ridiculously dramatic or corny? I feel like using "all of a sudden" is too stereotypical... Any suggestions? <Q> Just have it happen. <S> Action verbs and body hits the ground. <S> That's not the important part. <S> You can have them just drop, or have a sound (bang, tires screech, flash of movement, etc) just before. <S> It's a shock, unless you've built tension by showing the other side (e.g., the hitman) before this. <S> Now you have to really work. <S> Make the reaction real. <S> Did she trip? <S> What's wrong? <S> Not sure how bad the injury is (unless her head is splattered everywhere, she's unconscious and dying, not dead). <S> Does he even notice a bullet hole? <S> What are her chances? <S> Denial - this isn't happening. <S> Calling for help. <S> Was this an accident? <S> Where did it come from? <S> Is he in danger? <S> Then full-out freakout at being powerless and unsure of what to do. <S> Focus on the confusion, not the drama. <S> Processing the loss will take time. <S> Also keep in mind the speed of things as you write:1. <S> Senses - feel, see, pain2. <S> Thought - figuring things out, internal dialog3. <S> Actions - ducking, walking4. <S> Speech Good luck. <A> My story right now starts out with two characters minding their own business, when a massive explosion erupts and it knocks them back and suddenly they are blind, deaf and completely disoriented for a few seconds before the smoke starts pouring in. <S> I tried to give it that feeling that you get in those two seconds <S> you realize that a car just ran a red light and is about to T-bone your car. <S> Those two seconds seem to last forever and everything is moving slow motion and feels almost like a dream or you're watching a movie about the experience instead of being right in the middle of it. <S> The very first second it happens , your brain sometimes gets confused and you might have thoughts that seem oddly calm for just a moment. <S> My MC just noticed that it was suddenly daytime, but everything was the wrong color and the shadows looked wrong. <S> She turned her head to say something to the person next to her, but her head was taking forever to turn in the right direction and the light kept getting brighter. <S> And then there's a snap and suddenly everything starts happening all at once <S> and there's confusion and chaos all around. <S> I've been in car accidents, some hurricanes and, few earthquakes and got mugged once. <S> Each time there was this eerie twilight between normal and total insanity. <S> I have no idea why it happens. <S> But I've heard many other people tell me that they had the exact same experience when they were in the middle of an awful surprise event. <A> Or you can put an event in the beginning that gets the readers attention and leads to the event. <S> and en the chapter with the devastating event at the end. <S> Build up to it.
| Classically, you could also just throw it in the middle some where and use the rest of the chapter to explain how it effected the rest of the characters. You could either do it in the beginning and wait to 'solve the mystery' at the end of the chapter to keep the reader in it.
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How to determine if a story would benefit from multiple first-person POVs? Originally I asked this question: What is a "methodology" I can I use/follow to determine the ideal set of protagonists for my story? , but found that it was too vague. Specifically, I'm trying to decide if my story would benefit from switching between two main characters in first-person or if I should stick with a single first-person narrative or use third-person omniscient. Things to consider in addition to the general question: Both characters have extremely different background knowledge(s) and outlooks on things. They each have a unique voice. They will primarily spend their time together, but will have segments apart from each other. At first, they will have the same plotline, but later will have complimenting roles and goals and such. <Q> I put some extra thought into it, Justin. <S> Hope I can help: <S> Does each character have their own compelling story? <S> It is not enough simply for Robin to have a story outside of Batman. <S> It seems to me that a third-person omniscient choice would be better at least for the Robin side of the story in this scenario. <S> Is each character equivalently important? <S> The reader needs a character to latch onto to feel connected with. <S> Many stories have an adventuring party with individual characters being more or less important based on the scene. <S> These stories are told third person precisely so that the narrative can focus on the moment, regardless of which characters are involved. <S> But in order to pull off two first-person accounts, their two stories have to be more important than any other character at any other time and equally important to the mission. <S> Otherwise, one character is subordinate, so why give him an equivalent voice? <S> Can you solve the "I" problem? <S> Many clever writers think they can average less than 10 a page <S> (I've been involved in my share of writer's groups; of course, this is an arbitrary number), but it's really hard to do. <S> Do you have a sample chapter or two? <S> Have you shown it to anybody? <S> Good stories don't need gimmicks. <S> What you propose is unusual. <S> Why? <S> How does telling your story in simultaneous first-person accounts rather than a first and a third, or two thirds, make it a better story? <S> Can you tell your first-person story in such a way that the reader doesn't get confused and continues to turn pages? <S> This is a marketing issue. <S> If you are not trying to publish or sell your book, then it doesn't matter. <S> If you have an answer to all the above, you're set! <S> Good luck! <A> A few years ago, I enjoyed reading the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson. <S> It has a total of nine books, I believe, and follow the adventures of a group of kids. <S> As the series progresses, we mainly follow one protagonist, but it begins to split off into many different chapters with many different POVs when the characters begin to move apart geographically and emotionally. <S> If you believe that your story will benefit from seeing situations from more than one POV, then do it. <S> I would advise against replaying the same scene twice, but allow your characters to speak frankly to one another and express opinions that way. <S> As they split up, I would feel free to explore different POVs. <S> Another way you could consider if by using different books. <S> The Divergent series by Veronica Roth did this. <S> Although I didn't read this series, I know it follows one main character's POV through three books. <S> Then, in another series that is separate but connected, she takes another one of her characters and follows him through his past and a few scenarios from the original book. <S> I wish you luck in your writing endeavors, and I hope that I'm able to help. <S> Figuring out POVs is always a hard part of the writing process. <S> If there's anything I can help with, please let me know! <A> If you decide to do this, please don't follow in the footsteps of Robert Jordan. <S> He started out with a few characters exchanging points of views, but those characters kept meeting people who became important to the story and they earned a point of view chapter. <S> And then those people met more people. <S> I quit reading his series in the sixth or seventh book. <S> There were over six hundred pages, but due to many different characters with their own story lines that I think the entire book only covered 48 hours worth of time. <S> And I've been told by his biggest fans that the pace of the story just continued to drag down slower because there were just too many characters. <A> "Both characters have extremely different background knowledge(s) and outlooks on things. <S> They each have a unique voice. <S> They will primarily spend their time together, but will have segments apart from each other. <S> At first, they will have the same plotline, but later will have complimenting roles and goals and such." <S> The factors you list above suggest to me that you are already inclining towards two points of view, and have good reasons for wanting to take that path. <S> One way to decide is to look at how you will deal with those scenes vital to the plot that the main main character (the one who will be the sole narrator if you decide to take that route) does not personally witness. <S> Does the fact that these scenes remain unseen to the reader unless and until some other character tells the protagonist what happened strengthen the story or weaken it? <S> It could be that their invisibility strengthens the story, adding tension and mystery, as the invisibility of the murderer strengthens a detective story. <S> In that case go for single POV. <S> Or it could be that the necessity to have some other character tell a story-within-a-story in order to let the narrator and hence the reader see what went on comes across as remote and contrived. <S> In that case you want two POV characters who can each experience "their" parts of the story in exciting real time, no need for boring retellings later. <S> And the differences between the perceptions of the two main characters can be another generator of interest and drama. <S> I am aware that I've addressed the question of single versus multiple points of view, but not the equally big question of first versus third person. <S> Is there any reason why you can't have two points of view each written in the third person? <S> Not that there haven't been some great stories written in the first person, but it is currently out of fashion, so getting published might be harder
| If it fits well with the story, you could develop two separate "series" of books, one from each character's POV.
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Help describing dogs' physical appearance and movement I'm writing a story about a group of dogs, mongrels mostly. I would like help finding the correct vocabulary to describe their physical appearance. Remember that, been mongrels, I can't say simply "he was a Doberman" or "he was a terrier"). All of the stories I've written have been about humans. Even if it's easy for me to describe different types of nose, mouth, etc., it's not the same with animals. We have to take into consideration that we humans are very good at visualizing humans faces, it's not the same with animals, so, in this case, my description MUST be even more accurate. Also, I want to ask you advice and help in the description of the fights: how the movements are named and that kind of stuff My thanks in advance. <Q> I would suggest dedicating time to your research. <S> Going to the dog park like the answer before me suggested is one possible idea, but that will only give you a very, very small demographic. <S> Some other ways could be: <S> Go visit your local shelter. <S> See if you can volunteer with them, and learn to play/bathe/walk the dogs. <S> Many dogs there are scared or shy, and watching their interactions could help learn how they express these emotions. <S> I know that I, for one, can read my dog very well. <S> I know when he sits on your feet, he is nervous and is asking you not to leave him. <S> This isn't something that can be very obvious to an outsider. <S> See if there are opportunities to dog-sit or walk a neighbor's dog. <S> This may sound silly, but developing a relationship with any dog will let them open up more around you, and you may see another side to them. <S> Don't limit yourself. <S> Go visit small dogs, big dogs, sick dogs, scary dogs. <S> Explore how they like to interact with different stimuli. <S> If one dog doesn't like fireworks they may cower, but another may jump and bark at them in excitement. <S> Dogs aren't too different than people, but you've had to interact with people for the majority of your lifetime. <S> Feel free to look for books, videos or experts on the subject (Fight!: <S> A Practical Guide to the Treatment of Dog-dog Aggression by Jean Donaldson may be a good place to start for fighting and aggression). <S> I wish you luck in your writing endeavors! <A> I call this a "grains of rice" problem. <S> It's from a question over on Graphic Design SE, <S> How do I draw rice grains in Photoshop? , but the idea is the same. <S> If you want to draw grains of rice, you have to observe grains of rice. <S> In design terms, you can photograph or scan some actual rice and then trace it. <S> In writing terms, if you want to describe how something or someone looks, moves, or acts, you must observe how the thing or person looks, moves, or acts. <S> Go to a dog park. <S> Bring a notebook. <S> Write down what you see. <S> Do it every day for a month. <S> See if the same dogs return. <S> See how they interact with a familiar environment, or other familiar dogs. <S> See how they interact with newcomers. <S> See how they interact with weather (snow, rain, wind). <S> You can read books on dog training as well, to make use of others' observations and to learn some of the jargon vocabulary (like "play bow"). <S> In short, this isn't something you can get from an afternoon on Stack Exchange. <S> If you're writing a book, you must invest a chunk of time into research. <A> Read or talk to dog show judges and dog breeders. <S> They can tell you all the kinds of things that distinguish dogs from each other (like coat colors, shagginess, face shape, tail length) as well as the things that are considered beautiful or remarkable about a dog. <S> He had the face of a pug with deep jowls like a Saint Bernard. <S> His fur was mostly deep russet brown and long, except for his short tail, which was surprisingly ratlike and narrow. <S> I admired the way he slathered his drool in his owner's smelly places, so boldly yet casually declaring his alpha status. <A> To jump start your observational skills before heading out to the dog park, read up on Dog Behavior and Dog Communication . <S> Studying these two topics will give you the insight to understand what you are seeing. <S> Then read descriptions of animal behavior in literature. <S> Read <S> Never Cry <S> Wolf by Farley Mowat first. <S> Then consider works by Gerald Durrell and maybe Call of the Wild by Jack London. <S> Hey folks, can you think of any other good dog stories?
| Talk to other dog owners.
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Can anyone think of books that contain two separate stories or two very different perspectives on the same story being told together? I fear that the question sounds vague and confusing, but I can't conjure up the words I need to say exactly what I mean without going into detail. I thought it would be interesting to have two stories going on at the same time. The main story would be the events as they actually happened. It would be fairly straight forward stock fantasy style. The second story would be someone several hundreds of years later in a modern time trying to tell someone else the same story. There are several things that were lost, added to or changed in in the telling. The story teller believes that the characters may have been based on real historic people, but it is likely the events were greatly exaggerated or never even happened at all. The story teller also believes that good and evil were very obvious and, simple and complete. In the "real" version, it's much more ambiguous. No one is really good or evil. The second story would be very short. Perhaps it is only a sentence or two long at the beginning of each chapter. I think I've read a book or watched a movie set up like this. But I can't think of what it could have been. I'd like to know if anyone else might be able to think of an example of this situation so that I could find it. I'd like to read or watch it again to see how it was done. <Q> There are lots of books that are written with two stories interwoven. <S> For example, Cyrptonomicon features the story of Lawrence Waterhouse in WWII and his grandson Randy in present day. <S> Another example is a mystery novel, "Piece of Her Heart" by Peter Robinson, where there is one story set in 1969 and another in 2009. <S> As with Cryptonomicon, these stories end up being related. <S> Also, in other fiction, especially fantasy, it's fairly common for a story to be told about what happened in the past, but then later information reveals that truth is different from what is believed. <S> For example, in the Wheel of Time books there was a golden age 3000 years ago, but now it's just legends and little remains known for sure. <S> However a magic artifact grants certain people the ability to see the past through the eyes of their ancestors, and so some knowledge is revealed that contradicts the popular wisdom. <S> That said, what you're describing sounds somewhat different, in that you plan to retell the story twice. <S> Once accurately, once as myth. <S> The problem here is that you need to motivate the telling of the mythical version. <S> Why is anyone telling it this way, why does anyone care about this story anymore? <S> Most examples I can recall where this sort of storytelling was used, the myth serves as background for some other story that is being told in the present. <S> It's not usually relevant to reveal how accurate the myth is, or to explain just how it's inaccurate. <S> The original story is a story in its own right, but the myth version is a part of the setting of a different story. <A> The classic example of this type of story is the period drama film, Rashomon , directed by Akira Kurosawa . <S> The film is based on two short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. <S> The film focuses on one significant event, as recounted by a series of characters. <S> Each telling is starkly different, revealing the biases and intentions each character. <S> The film is widely used in academia to teach students about this phenomenon. <S> I've heard it used in discussions of law, philosophy, literature, and the social sciences as a byword for subjectivity. <S> The Man <S> In the High Castle series, recently released by Amazon and based on a story by Philip K. Dick , seems to use the shift in perspective over time that you mention in your question. <S> I haven't watched the series yet, but the trailer reveals a discrepancy between two versions of the past. <S> The contrast reveals a lot about what has happened during the intervening period, that "History is written by the victors." <A> 1) <S> A similar but not exact iteration of this is the Water! <S> trilogy by Gael Baudino. <S> It's not well-known and I found the experimental format exhausting. <S> Still, Your Mileage May Vary. <S> In the three books <S> ( O Greenest Branch, The Dove Looked <S> In, Branch and Crown ) there were three alternating narrative styles: <S> parts were standard narration (typical sword-and-sorcery fantasy), then parts were being told by a marketing guy in the present day as his career collapsed and he went from Muckety-Muck to losing his job to getting mugged, and then parts were a stone-cutting manual which was increasingly crossed out and being used as a religious text. <S> The story parts didn't really overlap; each subsequent part of the story was told in the next style. <S> 2) <S> Something closer to what you're describing happened in two Star Trek: <S> Voyager episodes, "Living Witness" and to a lesser extent "11:59. <S> " <A> The short story <S> Titanium Mike Saves the Day <S> is a series of five stories about a man named Titanium Mike, each told at a different time in human history. <S> It's free to read at the link above. <A> I think the The Sound and the Fury , by William Faulkner may be the canonical example here. <S> It has four sections in which many of the same events are related but from different — and unreliable — perspectives.
| There are "present" events and then how the characters interpret those events from a distant future. These stories end up being connected.
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Is there a way to add discovery into a short story? I'm planning on writing a short story and I'm just wondering if it'd be possible to add an element of discovery into it. I think it'd be interesting if the reader would be able to learn things about the world in the book without having it handed to them, they would need to pay attention to certain parts of the story to learn things about some characters or places. Is this possible or would it ruin the story? <Q> It is in fact positive to not overwhelm and bore the readers at the start with a lot of details about characters they feel no connection with. <S> Connection to a character comes through seeing how he acts, in the best case the reader may even impersonate himself with the character, feel so bound to it to almost feel the story on his skin. <S> I would start with a fast-paced action lasting a chapter or two. <S> Seeing what the protagonist will do when in trouble will be both more relevant to the story and interesting than a random list of qualities and characteristics. <S> After this introduction, you may stop and (briefly) explain explicitly what could not be deduced by reading the above introduction. <A> The level of inferring readers can get to with a book is infinite. <S> There are actually many books that only in the end you get a new clue that makes the story much different ( example ). <S> Sometimes you don't even get a clue, you have to understand it yourself <S> ( example - although simple one). <S> Other examples you can see are the games "Her Story", "Gone Home" and "Scratches" which have long blog posts about their hidden meanings and story-lines. <S> As a reader, love trying to figure out the hidden meanings of the story. <S> As a writer, it's a fun challenge to do. <S> So to your question: It is very possible, and as a comment say, it's much better than the infamous info-dump. <S> If you are aiming towards readers with at least basic level of connecting the dots, it would be a pleasant thing to read. <A> Depends where you want to put it. <S> James Joyce saw shirt stories as building to an epiphany, and unlocked for sudden burst of knowledge. <S> O <S> Henry was good at putting a little twist in the tale at the end. <A> If I pull off what I hope I can, I'll be very pleased. <S> I hope readers figure pieces out on their own, and once they finish the book, they immediately want to re-read the book and can better fully understand the significance of the back story. <S> And if it goes really well, I hope people on forums start arguments with each other about the specifics, because while you might get a strong gist, you can still argue about the specific details. <S> I absolutely love the element of discovery!
| I'm hoping to put elements in the story that make the reader curious, but not completely sure as to what's going on behind the scenes.
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How to write a story that spans decades I'm looking for techniques to write a fantasy story (A song of ice and fire style) but the problem is the duration of the story : The first three years there are lot of plots, and betrayals. After that a good lord rules the kingdom, in his reign nothing special happens, the plots against the king stop and everything is ok. After his death the plots and betrayals resume So the question is how can I skip the twenty years of his reign, mentioning just the important stuff without confusing readers? <Q> Skip the peaceful period. <S> If there's no conflict, there's nothing to write about. <S> Open with the characters having a party to celebrate two decades of peace. <S> In the middle of the celebratory dinner, the bad guy drops a piano on the king, and the war is back on. <A> The "goto part 2" idea doesn't take much. <S> For example, let's use the legend of King Arthur, who as a boy pulled Excalibur from the stone, etc. <S> and have him be maybe 10-11 years old. <S> Hooray Arthur, "end of chapter 8" <S> You could have Part <S> II-Ten Years later, etc. <S> but you could also simply say Chapter 9: <S> Title... <S> Ten years had passed, during which time Arthur grew from a boy to a man. <S> Merlin taught him many wise things about how to rule a kingdom, but the fact of the matter, Arthur was really king in name only, and that just in his castle with the forebearance of older and wiser men who chose not to challenge his claim. <S> Outside the castle walls, however..... ...and you're off and writing after the peaceful period when Arthur has to go create Camelot, conquer the rest of merry old England or whatever. <A> Use the first three years for Part I. Part II begins with the notation: Twenty years later... <S> Then use "flashback" scenes in Part II to catch the odd event of note that might have taken place between the two parts. <A> I second the answers that suggest skipping the peaceful years. <S> Work with book parts or sequels. <S> Part <S> I - Before King XPart II - <S> After King X <S> You just have to figure out what works best with your length of story. <A> Then flash back. <S> At least, that's what Aristotle advised in his Poetics . <S> Although it is more than 2000 years old, it still has great advice for writers today.
| Go to "Part II" of your book. Start the thing in medias res , in mid-action.
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Writing Action In A fictional Journal I have written a story in the form of a journal. It's about a man who is going through a separation/divorce, living alone in an unfurnished apartment; now lonely and longing for companionship. Anyway, I've always felt that the beginning (first 40 or so pages) was kinda slow and while interesting and informative about the guys' predicament, but not really compelling enough for the reader to continue on. A friend of mine who is reading it told me, after reading about a third of it, that it was very realistic and great writing, but then said, "Maybe there should be more action." So now I'm going through it and trying to add some "action" in there, and don't see how I can do that. There is a lot of action in the second half of the story, but if I lose my audience before they get there...Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks. <Q> Rearrange your idea sequence or change the Point Of View (POV). <S> For example, the friend comes to "the apartment", finding it empty or disheveled, but discovers the journal but not your protagonist. <S> You're now set up for a mystery, perhaps a journey type novel, but the POV is that of the investigating friend. <S> Perhaps the friend knows why the separation/divorce took place, so you can kind of gloss over that initially, but as he reads he discovers a dark side to either your protagonist (who deserved his outcome) or a poisonous side to the ex-spouse, or some yet-to-be-revealed event which caused the divorce AND the plot to be set in motion. <S> An example. <S> Let's say friend picks up the journal, flips towards the end (trying to find out why the person is gone) and reads a glum entry about how the protagonist has been alone, yada yada yada or three months now (but as an author you're not dragging me through three months, you're dragging me through about 45 seconds (a half to three quarters of a page). <S> Friend turns the pages, and half way down he <S> /she reads something like. <S> "I guess it's my own damn fault <S> , I didn't mean to kill _________. <S> " and the entry ends right there, and the rest of the journal is empty. <S> Now that you've got my interest, the POV character can bring the journal with him/her etc. <S> and you're off and running. <S> Then you can intersperse your original protagonist's journal entries in the middle of the action, and make the "original actions" move the mystery/journey story forward. <A> It may be difficult to add 'action' in that format since the journal author would be unlikely to want to write blow by blow accounts of events he has just experienced. <S> For example if he gets into a fight, would he really want to go home and write it up like a thriller? <S> Despite this you can certainly add tension, and even action in a roundabout way. <S> You can write his words as he gets himself worked up about something and plans to do something extreme (quitting his job or beating someone up). <S> It's a perfect format to explore rage, desperation or hope, and even run through fantasy versions of what he intends to do. <S> Of course we don't viscerally get to experience the action which actually follows; we'll only read about the aftermath, but that's okay. <A> Maybe something you could do is to keep in mind that while you’re writing from the perspective of the person reading it, the journal itself is written from the perspective of the person in-universe writing it. <S> And because it’s a journal, everything in it probably recently happened to him, so it’s not like he needs to remind himself. <S> You can use this to create some mystery as to what actually happens. <S> Example: let’s say his apartment gets broken into, and he comes home and catches the robber red-handed. <S> The journal-writer knows what happened, but not the reader. <S> So maybe you have the writer mentioning things like injuries sustained in the resulting fight, the damage done to his stuff, and the like, but not what actually happened. <S> The lack of information is compelling, and makes the reader want to keep reading. <S> This is just a little example, probably spanning only a few pages, but you can expand upon it with other, bigger events. <S> Also, if it’s something that the writer has negative emotions regarding, if he’s ashamed or afraid of it, then that’s a good reason why he wouldn’t explicitly mention whatever-it-was by name, and just keep alluding to it. <S> That might not be explicitly action, as of the “biff, bam, pow” sort, but if you’re just looking for a way to keep the reader involved until Act Two, then this should help do that.
| The build-up, the fantasies and that moment between entries, where we just want to know if he did it or not, should give your readers enough thrills.
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Writing a bad review in a tactful way I have a blog which sometimes features bad reviews based on my personal research and point of view. Please help me know how to say something critical without being too hurtful . For example, the object is a piece of software, but when I use it and check it, the software contains malware and I tell my readers about it. If you have a bad experience, and know about it, what are you supposed to say to your readers? <Q> Your example is a bit extreme but in general: Highlight the successes as well as the failures. <S> Try to express understanding and sympathy for how the failures might have occurred. <S> For example perhaps you point out that something is a first effort, or the budget was a little low, or some other factor out of the control of the author/developer/filmmaker. <S> Avoid attacking anyone personally, or trying to judge a person or organisation based on what you think are the product's failings. <S> If there is a serious problem, eg a software application doesn't work or contains malware, contact the person or organisation asking for their comments and assistance and and recount that exchange alongside the review. <A> Surely, by definition, contradicting someone will cause hurt to that person (even if very small). <S> However, pointing out that something contains malware is an obvious case where causing hurt to one party (the malware writers) is beneficial to the majority and therefore you should do it. <A> Even though the details of the question are off the topic of writing, I think that the question itself is sound. <S> Writing reviews is writing. <S> And if you're going to be a well respected writer, you have to be honest. <S> If you're going to be honest, you're going to have to give some bad reviews. <S> In my opinion, the best you can do is remember this: honesty without tact is brutality. <S> If you still show basic respect for someone while you are giving a negative review, they should be better able accept it than if you're just ripping them to shreds for fun. <S> You must remember, however, that there are some people that take bad reviews very personally and become deeply offended even at <S> he most objective and tactfully written opinion. <S> I can't remember the author who did this, but I was a great fan of hers up until she had a very nasty public temper tantrum on Twitter about one single negative book review. <S> It wasn't even that bad. <S> The reviewer said that it was basically a good read, but it just didn't live up to expectations. <S> Anyway, she got so furious that she posted the personal email and home telephone number of the reviewer and encouraged fans to harass the reviewer and shame them for giving a bad review. <S> That incident was entirely the fault of the author. <S> The reviewer was just doing their job. <S> If you've been fair and honest, attacking the work instead of the creator, you've done the best you can do. <S> If someone spazzes out and acts incredibly immature over it, it's their problem; not yours. <A> Funny thing, I wrote software reviews (or rather comparisions) professionally for five years. <S> To ensure a fair review and a round article four different people were involved: <S> First: Me as the writerSecond: My editor. <S> She checked my research for errors. <S> Tested the things I had tested and described, to make sure the errors I found weren't just temporary glitches, or errors on my side, and that I didn't have overlooked anything. <S> Third: The chief-editor who looked, after the article was finished and edited with a fresh and unbiased eye, if everything was smooth, logical and if we provided a good journalistic quality. <S> Fourth: the final editor that just looked after the grammar and spelling to catch any error that might have escaped three persons. <S> My editor usually liked me being very direct about the quality of the software and if a tool was bad I was allowed to write that the tool was bad. <S> Sometimes my frustration about a very rough testing-period showed in my writing <S> and then she softened my words a bit. <S> But on one ocassion she hated a tool even more than I did and she puts a harsh spotlight on the limits and errors. <S> Of course, we always kept a somewhat professional tone, like writing "the tool isn't able to keep the advertised promises" or "it worked as stable as a direction indicator: on - off - on - off" but not "the programmers are complete morons". <S> IF there were serious problems, we said so, without being extremely nice to the feelings of the programmers. <S> In the end we didn't write for the programmers. <S> We wrote for the readers and they should know which tool was worth a look and which tool just would be a waste of their time. <S> In your case: you found Malware. <S> Why on earth do you want to go easy on programmers who put their users at risk? <S> Maybe with full intent? <S> You write for your readers. <S> Put a big warning label on top of the article, that this tool contains malware. <A> Find something -- anything -- nice to say. <S> Lead with that. <S> Present your dislikes subjectively; a lot of "didn't work for me" and "not my type of fiction" etc. <S> (If you want to be nice, that is). <S> This is known as "sandwich" reviewing, for obvious reasons.
| So long as you're not mean spirited and "punch down" on the person who created the thing you're critiquing, you should be fine. Try to close with something nice.
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A good idea but I do not know how to develop it When you have a good idea for a book or screenplay, but you do not know how to develop this idea on paper, what do you do? <Q> There are some good 'from idea to finished book' guides out there. <S> I recommend for example the 10th season of the Writing Excuses podcast, that is built like a master class and leads you through the steps of story-, characters-, and world-creation. <S> http://www.writingexcuses.com/category/season/season-10/ <S> Writers Write just started an 'A novel in a year' class last week. <S> http://writerswrite.co.za/write-your-novel-in-a-year-week-1-start-strong-start-simple Hope that helps. <A> Write down your good idea. <S> Put pen to paper. <S> Get words on the page. <S> If you are not sure what to do next ... sit and think about it. <S> I think when driving or gardening -- times when I don't have to concentrate very hard on something else. <S> Plots, twists in plots, character flaws, etc. <S> often occur to me when I doing something else. <S> However, most ideas for stories occur to me when I am actually writing. <S> I start putting pen to paper and the words and ideas flow. <A> I would start by brainstorming the idea that you have. <S> It is important to develop a complete alignment of your characters outlining their main features and roles in your story. <S> Outline the development of your plot making sure high stakes are set your characters in order to have a strong conflict and resolution pattern. <A> The more I write, the more problems I discover in the story. <S> I write two or three possible changes to the characters or plot to fix the problems. <S> Then I pick the one that I like best. <S> Sometimes there's only a minor change in the book, but occasionally things need to be seriously worked on. <S> I've had characters that I needed to add in, delete, or completely change in order to fix a plot hole. <S> I've had to change the sequence of events, add events or leave them out altogether. <S> But before I started actually writing things down, I had no idea of all of the tiny little kinks and problems that would come up. <S> I didn't know there would be parts of the story I just plain didn't like. <S> I didn't know any of that until I started doing it instead of just thinking about it. <S> Basically, the answer to your question is that the only way to figure out how to work things out is to do it and work it out as you go along. <A> There are lots of tools that can help with screenplays, such as WriterDuet.com. <S> You can write screenplays with an editor like Word or Notepad, but this tool is easy because it familiarizes you with the ways real screenwriters do their job. <S> It has fade and change camera position presets that automatically type in what you selected. <S> As for books, I use Word 2016 from Microsoft. <A> I'd write it all out. <S> Then edit to death. <S> Sure, it's inefficient, and sure, you might have to spend a few extra years on it. <S> But at least you've gotten it out. <S> And maybe outline. <S> Outlining helps too. <S> Good luck! <A> John Truby has written and taught story structure for film, tv and novel for decades. <S> His book is very accessible and deeply informative. <S> He has software, audio recordings of his genre classes (thriller, detective, romance, horror, etc.). <S> Buy the book. <S> Read it. <S> That's a heck of a start. <S> Write following Truby's suggestion of figuring out who's the Main Character, what does she want? <S> Who stands in her way perfectly able to compete over the Hero's desired outcome. <S> Who are the minor characters? <S> How do they interact? <S> Read Truby. <S> Do the chapter exercises. <S> Write.
| When you have actually written something then you can develop it. Just type (or write)! You can always use an outline, but when you skip it, a better story can come out because the imagination works all throughout the book, not just in the beginning.
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If I use a real location for the setting of my book - Do I have to use existing schools or can I make them up? I'm writing a book and want to set the story in an existing location, such as Manchester, England. Does that mean that I have to use an existing school from Manchester, or can I make the school up? Other places, such as restaurants, landmarks, and parks will be real. <Q> Put simply: You can make up whatever details you want. <S> If nothing else, the names of schools change. <A> It's fiction! <S> Yes, you can make up anything you want (within reason - don't slander anyone or any location). <S> My books take place in Chicago, and I do like to use real Chicago neighborhoods, streets, and landmarks in my books to add to the realism. <S> I love to research local restaurants and use them in my books. <S> But I never hesitate to create a fictional location in my books as needed. <S> Have fun with it! <S> I always preface my novels by saying that this is a work of fiction and all locations and people are figments of my imagination. <A> TeiganJo, <S> It is your book and it is your creation . <S> You can add,create,imagine anything you want to. <S> For your realistic imagination power you can write about real places or persons but also personify them to some other names. <S> In a book/novel, names can be fine but what is more important is the characters and roles <S> every entity has and relate to. <A> It's your book, but I'd suggest using real places for the majority. <S> What if one of your readers were from that city, and become annoyed at inaccuracies? <S> However, you can still get away with making a school up, as long as it's not supposed to be a well-known school. <S> I did this in my own novel. <S> Plop it down on a nonexistent street and done give any landmarks, and voila! <S> J.K. Rowling did this in Harry Potter, if you want examples you can read. <A> Yes. <S> You can make up places. <S> Just make sure to indicate in the foreword that everything in your writing is purely a work of fiction, especially when you use the names of famous places. <S> Otherwise, you might confuse readers - especially the young ones - if such a place exists. <A> It's a good idea to invent a school name if your story presents the school in a bad light. <S> For example, if you are writing a fictional story about someone being sexually abused in class, and the school officials do nothing about it, you are moving in dangerous territory. <S> Regardless of any disclaimer at the start of your book, people may think the events are true. <S> Say you create a hypocritical teacher, Mr Jones, or a mean student named Jen White, <S> it might cause legal issues for you if, coincidentally, the names match real people, and your novel embarrasses them. <S> If your novel ever gets turned into a movie or TV series, lawyers will go through every name and check whether or not they are real. <S> If they are, they often have to be changed so the production can get insurance. <S> You don't need to be too paranoid about it. <S> There may be good reasons to use a real location—in which case, be careful what you say about it. <S> Usually, though the best practice is to drop in some neutral references to real places to set the scene, and invent a plausible sounding school.
| You can use what is there when you want to and then make things up. Another potential problem with a real school is that you then need to be extra careful with character names.
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Ways to make a character snap? I've approached a point in my story wherein one of my characters has just been broken out of a short stretch in prison (around a week). Seconds before being captured, he watched a good friend of his get killed, and spends a significant amount of the week grieving his loss. Whilst incarcerated, he was beaten, threatened with torture, and shown that he is not nearly as clever as he thinks he has been. As an originally arrogant and self-assured character, he has been sufficiently broken down that he is suffering emotionally (not entirely broken down, he is still mostly the same, but he has come to doubt himself and his abilities). At this point the villain of the story, who he had never met before, speaks to him to offer him a job. The villain presents himself as a reasonable person, and explains to him that their ultimate goals align. He sets out his particular view points and asks the character to think about joining him. After this exchange he is later broken out by his friends, and they proceed on with their original journey. He begins to feel different however, and is beginning to doubt himself and his view of the world. This character will eventually leave his friends and their pursuit of the quest. He will originally head out on his own to rediscover himself and his priorities, but he will end up after some time allying with the villain. My issue is that I can't figure out a way to instrument his departure. His friends understand what he has been through whilst in prison, so they would not be unreasonably antagonistic towards him in order to make him leave them so abruptly. I don't want him to immediately believe the villain is right and go and ally with him, I just want him to come to the conclusion that his friends might be wrong, and refuses to follow them anymore. How can I realistically create a reason for this character to eventually snap, abandon his friends and set out on his own? This would preferably come about rather quickly after being busted from jail, but if that is too unreasonable and there is a way for it to be more realistic but would take longer, that's fine. <Q> I think this part is a problem: <S> His friends understand what he has been through whilst in prison, so they would not be unreasonably antagonistic towards him in order to make him leave them so abruptly. <S> People are usually too much in their own heads to be that understanding of someone else's experiences. <S> And why make them so understanding if it just causes you problems? <S> For example, maybe... Jimmy idolizes the hero, misses him, and wants him back. <S> (Yourhero used to enjoy this adulation, but now it feels meaningless.) <S> Will K is impatient to have your hero back in the gang. <S> There are a few schemes he's had to put on hold. <S> (And your hero suddenly starts to see that he's just a pawn in Will's plans.) <S> Butterball is apprehensive about your hero getting out. <S> While your hero was in prison, Butterball has moved into the number twoposition, and he doesn't want to lose his status. <S> (Your hero used tosee Butterball as a joke, but now sees a threat from him.) <S> I don't know if this is the type of group you have in mind, but whatever it is, try to work out the details of each person's feelings. <S> I think you will then see various ways to move forward. <A> I'm assuming that after getting bust out of jail the authorities will be looking for him? <S> He could have a close call with getting caught <S> amd then tell his friends <S> it's better they split up as he doesn't want them to get caught and go to prison as well. <S> If you don't want the brush with the law he could just tell them that anyway and leave, or leave them a note and sneak off in the night. <S> It doesn't have to be complicated. <A> Perhaps something has bothered him as a unanswered question for most of his adult life. <S> It's not been life changingly significsnt, but it has bothered him to some extent. <S> Perhaps the villain knowingly or unknowingly tapped into this frustration and gave him hope for the first time that the question could be answered. <S> Maybe he didn't think that the question was that important, but having the opportunity for an answer becomes more and more tempting. <S> He may be completely unaware how badly he's starting to want what the villain has to offer him. <S> It doesn't have to literally be a question. <S> It's just somehow the villain spoke to him about something in a way no one else ever has about something that's always been in the back of his mind, waiting to be resolved. <S> I'm currently on the other end of things. <S> I have a character who is a master manipulator. <S> She dos it so well that she doesn't even realize that she's doing it. <S> She's very observant and has an uncanny knack at figuring out what motivates people. <S> She uses her knowledge to get people not only do her bidding, but be happy about it, perhaps even beg her to allow them to do what they may have refused to do otherwise. <S> I think persuasive people all do this in some level. <A> There's a thing called Stockholm syndrome, where one gains sympathy towards his/her captives. <S> Perhaps it is something in his/her backstory, or <S> maybe he/ <S> she has been kept in captivity for so long. <S> Maybe you can implement this with your character. <S> Another way to go is to have a previous truth stated by this potential-darksider or one of his/her friends that (s)he admires which gets proven false by the villain. <S> This can be a gateway revelation to help the potential-darksider start doubting his/her teammates and/or self. <S> Maybe something <S> his/her friends do gets misinterpreted, and the character, with his/her morals unclear, will challenge one of his/her friends and have small arguments with them. <S> Maybe it starts out with small doubts/ second-guessing that then get proven right after <S> something bad happens to the character and his/her friends after he/ <S> she is broken out of prison. <S> Maybe this can serve as an epiphany point for your character-- <S> that his/her morals, ideas, whatever-- aren't getting the job done. <S> However, use internal monologue to help the character logically reach his/her decision, and don't forget to use subtle foreshadowing in it. <S> Also, check out Star Wars episode I-III. <S> In them, the reasons for Anakin's turn are foreshadowed at an ever-increasing frequency. <S> Good luck, and make sure to tell us how you finally do it. <A> Why does he have to snap? <S> Secondly, I wonder if they are comrades who share a common goal or friends who support each others' goals. <S> This is kinda important, since your character is questioning the life path he is taking. <S> I think I would make them have a fight. <S> The character gets beaten in the forest, then a black arrives, his friend pushes him toward the bear, he is eaten by the black bear, and left for dead. <S> But he actually survives, minus the left underarm and his right eye. <S> He once learnt from his prison mate that you should shove your arm in the throat of a bear if he attacks you. <S> Then after recuperating three weeks in a abandoned lodge he travels his own path. <S> From there on his thoughts and feelings can go either way. <S> Have a good one! <A> Maybe the protagonist feels bitter because his friends hadn't rescued him sooner, perhaps? <S> That bitterness could turn into resentment. <S> Maybe he felt abandoned by them when he was captured.
| Also, when you have a group of people who think one thing or act in one way ("his friends understand..."), it's often a sign that you need to think more about the individuals in the group and differentiate their views. There might be something deeper than the story.
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Is translating into another language plagiarism? I'm currently writing my Masters thesis in English. If I take some (small) German text snippets from some papers (I'm German-speaking) and just translate them into English, would this be plagiarism? Secondly, if I have some English text snippet and just change most of the (specific) words, so that I didn't change the meaning, would this be plagiarism? Thirdly, if I reuse math formulas (with the same variables etc.) is this plagiarism? What about just changing the variable names? <Q> Well as most of the answers imply here, you should simply "cite" whatever that is not yours. <S> What I mean by this is you should basically include references to snippets that you did not write and ones that you took from other sources. <S> As long as you include proper citations, then you're on the safe side. <S> (This basically refers to the idea of including a reasonable amount of translations to be cited, and by reasonable I'm referring to a paragraph, or two worth of translation.) <S> As for the translation you're asking about, you should also consider some sort of footnote at the bottom of the page where the translated text is, again to be on the safe side. <S> The question is, are you going to literally translate the text you want or are you going to use an online translator for that <S> because that's an important note, check the following blog post <S> link for more info. <S> (Note: It's an APA citation example for translated texts) <S> As for the math formulas you're asking about as well <S> , again you should cite them because none of them are really yours (You're taking them from a source whether it's a research paper, or an online source, or a book for that matter). <S> Regardless of changing the variables or not, you should always include citations to avoid falling in trouble. <S> I think the following link might be of help for you. <A> You seem to be asking for permission to plagiarize. <S> Don't. <S> Cite all of your sources in your bibliography. <S> It seems likely that your thesis advisor or chairperson explained this to you at some point. <S> If you have more questions of this type, review the resources he or she gave you. <S> Then, if it isn't covered, ask them in person. <A> If you use someone else's ideas in an academic paper without giving them credit, that is plagiarism. <S> If you have some hazy case and you're unsure, just give the original writer credit. <S> It's easy to avoid committing plagiarism: just add a footnote. <S> It's not that you can't use someone else's ideas. <S> You just have to give the footnote. <S> You don't need to give credit for things that are "common knowledge". <S> For example, if you say, "France is in Europe", you don't need to give a source. <S> There are thousands of sources for that. <S> When I was in school, I was taught that if you can find it in three sources, it's "common knowledge". <S> That seems a little simplistic to me, but it might be a workable rule of thumb. <S> A math formula might or might not be common knowledge. <S> Note that plagiarism is not the same thing as copyright violation. <S> If you're not sure of the difference, that's a different question. <A> For your first question: This "translation" would likely be plagiarism. <S> In academics, most researchers have a way to write and express ideas, independently of their writing language. <S> Someone reading your paper, who is knowledgeable in your field (so most colleagues in your field), is likely to find the link between your 'translated ideas' from the original, with a resulting potential backfire on you, which would be a possibility even much later. <S> For example, a case along the lines of your was discussed here , <S> Further, when you submit your manuscript, some institutions, by default (mine is doing it), use commercial plagiarism detection software. <S> If I created this type of software, I would include features to detect translations and plagiarism. <S> Second question: Please see the previous answer. <S> Third question: In my thesis there is a load of equations. <S> I had some specificity in a context that required changing most variable names. <S> But the meaning of the terms and what the equation does will of course not change the outcome of the equation (it is expected). <S> Further, anyone reading your paper will guess, unless you are widely known to have developed yourself many of those equations, that you are a fraud, this without a software detecting plagiarism. <A> I would add another consideration when you are considering translation: copyright laws. <S> Somewhat inconveniently, these vary from one jurisdiction to the other, so you will need to check that out. <S> You may need to obtain the copyright holder's permission to translate something, depending on the length of the passage and the reason you are using it. <S> Also, don't rely solely on the brevity of a text if you want to use it without permission. <S> In poetry, for example, even a line or two may require permission. <A> I studied in Eastern Europe for a while and putting transtaled text without any references was the most popular way of cheating among students, since even Plagiarism Checkers couldn't recognize it as plagiarism. <S> But yeah, it's definitely wrong, and they could've get into real trouble if cheating was revealed. <S> A math formula might or might be considered common knowledge , but it's better to use citation just to make sure you won't get in trouble.
| Academic writing is about developing your own thougths and research, so yes, translation would probably be considered plagiarism, since it is not your own work (beside the translation part of course). In some countries, such as the USA, you are allowed certain fair use, while in other countries there is no provision for fair use as such, unless you are using a work for criticism, parody and the like.
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Is it plagiarism to use something from a nonfiction work and put it into fiction? I was reading about this Japanese dance style written by a man who taught it. He said that the style was uniquely Japanese and few outsiders could really dance in the style properly. He said that he guessed that people from ancient cultures such as ones found in China, India, and some tribal people in Africa might come close, but anyone from Europe or North America didn't do it right, because their culture has one completely different belief about power and spirituality.* He said that in Europe, people look up to find God. The power reaches up like a tree towards the heavens. European dance has people who look up, stand on tiptoes as if they were trying to fly away. European dance also focuses on beauty. In Japanese culture, power comes found from the ground. Dancers focus on planting themselves sturdily on the ground and sink down into the ground when they wish to convey spirituality. This style of dance was also deliberately "ugly." It came into being after WWII and expresses agony, loss and defeat. Anyway, in my fantasy story, I have a character who travels from a European style world to an Indian style world. He desires to study a form of magic that can only be studied in that country. He tries very hard. He's told that he's the best they've ever seen from his country, but he doesn't get it. He can't really get better than mediocre at it. Anyway, I don't recall ever seeing a citation in a work of fiction. But I LOVE this guy's opinions about about philosophies about dancing. I think it would be a perfect way for my MC to get turned down when he applies for advanced study in the magic. I don't want to copy it verbatim, but I really want to use the idea. What's the most ethical way to approach this? I'm not entirely certain that the guy is still alive. I think the article may have been written in the 80s. I could be wrong, but I can't guarantee that I could ask his permission. *Regardless of whether you agree with this guy or not, I did watch several dancers on YouTube. I couldn't stand to watch Europeans dance the style. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it was just "wrong" for some reason. After reading this article, I watched the Euro dancers, and he was exactly right. They didn't get down low enough and no matter how hard they tried to get low, they were trying to fight the urge to lift up. They also kept trying to make the dance "pretty." When it's meant to be very "ugly." <Q> You're using inspiration from a real-life character in a fictitious world, which has been done by every writer ever. <S> Of course, that doesn't mean you should copy the guy's words verbatim from the previous article, but using the concept is perfectly fine. <S> And there are tons of instances where authors will write a short blurb at the end of their novel describing which aspects of their story are based on actual events/locations or sources from whence their inspiration was drawn. <S> If you really wanted to, you could acknowledge the man/original article in a similar fashion. <A> Plagiarism is an academic violation that applies to scholarly papers. <S> It doesn't apply to works of fiction. <S> The whole point of a scholarly paper is that you're presenting something that you claim is a new and original idea or discovery. <S> Of course you may use ideas from others and build on them, hence, footnotes to distinguish what is yours and what is someone else's, and when someone else's, whose. <S> But if you talk about a scientific discovery or a cultural phenomenon in a work of fiction, readers do not normally assume that you invented it. <S> Indeed, it's very common to write fiction centered on some new cultural phenomenon. <S> Science fiction often centers around a new scientific discovery. <S> Note the difference between plagiarism and copyright violation. <S> If you read an interesting book about dance and copy sections of that book word for word into your novel, that might be copyright violation. <S> (Depending on how much you copied it might be considered "fair use".) <S> But if you copy the ideas and put them in your own words, there is no issue. <A> Fictionalizing a philosophical/cultural concept isn't illegal, uncommon, or, in my opinion, unethical. <S> Fictionalizing can actually help popularize a concept that might otherwise languish in obscurity. <S> If you are fortunate to get published, you might ask to have an author's note included at the end of the book referencing the original article --I've seen that occasionally done. <S> I can't imagine that most writers wouldn't be completely happy to gain some positive extra publicity for their ideas.
| Utilizing a mindset you notice in real life in your work isn't plagiarism any more than setting your story in a location that actually exists. If you copied it from someone else, then your paper is a fraud.
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Where do you do your writing? Do you do find you have a best place to do your writing? In the movies, writers seem to live and work in places with beautiful homes (lighthouses, windmills...) overlooking a valley or the sea. I've never found that scenery did much for me, but I had one productive stint working with a co-writer in the concrete-walled basement of an optometrist's office. Is there a location, or type of location, that makes you more productive? <Q> Maybe for some people the right setting could help put you in the mood. <S> I'm sure that wouldn't work for me. <S> I recall <S> when I was in college a teacher once gave the advice to always study in the same place, because then you quickly get to know the place, and it's boring. <S> If you work in some new and strange place, the moment you start getting bored or tired with the job you're going to look around and say, "Hey, what's that over there? ... <S> " <S> Personally, I write sitting on the sofa in my library. <S> It's comfortable, there's good light, and if I'm writing something that requires research, all my books are right there. <S> Downside: there's a TV in the room, so if I get bored <S> it's way too easy to say, hey, I'll just watch TV for a little bit. <A> I think this question may be a good one. <S> Perhaps the writer thinks that he doesn't have the proper writing space <S> and that's why he has the block. <S> Piers Anthony used to write in a storage shed with a typewriter on a card table. <S> I'd never feel comfortable there. <S> I had long writer's block until I got an iPad. <S> I do my first drafts on it because I like the freedom. <S> I can stand up, lie or sit down. <S> I can use any location because it fits in my purse. <S> There's no magic formula guaranteed to get you writing. <S> Just keep moving around until something works for you. <S> I firmly believe that writer's block can be caused simply because you're trying to write in an environment that doesn't work for you. <A> It will probably even change from day to day. <S> Some days I like silence, but most days I like music. <S> Some days I feel lonely and go to Starbucks (wishing for a more bohemian experience like when I lived in Portland!). <S> For me, exercise helps, TV doesn't. <S> My brief stints of block are solved by doing chores and blogging. <S> Computer and video games are a bad idea. <S> If you prefer structure, you can set up a space where you live, decorate as you wish, and use it as an office. <S> My imagination flows pretty freely <S> : laptop on the kitchen table, coffee, and music in the background--and I'm usually good to go for four hours. <S> But that's just me. <S> I will now stop blogging and get back to work ... <A> This question doesn't really have an answer and should probably be closed. <S> However, I'll give my own perspective on the role location can play in productivity. <S> Movies rarely depict the life of a creative in a realistic light. <S> Some people write in coffee shops or offices, sure, but I'd hazard to say just as many people end up doing their best writing while sitting on their couch in their underwear. <S> I don't think location is all that important so long as it's comfortable <S> and you can maintain focus . <S> So places that are loud or offer a wide variety of distractions are probably best avoided. <S> Personally, I write pretty frequently sitting on the floor of my bathroom. <S> No distractions, it's quiet, and it's not so comfortable that I feel the urge to take a nap. <A> Not really. <S> I'm pretty productive wherever I write. <S> I've heard that changing the location where you write can change the way you write, but I haven't tried this out.
| If you enjoy a beautiful view, then a place where there is a beautiful view is probably the WORST place to write, because you'd be constantly distracted. I just write in my room or in my office. In my opinion, any place and any tool that works is a good one. It really depends on how your brain works, and because of that, everyone's solution will be different.
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Need guidance on my writing method I have decided to take up writing as a hobby. First because I have so many ideas and like creating things. Second, because I enjoy it so far and thirdly, I like the idea that if my writing is any good, others may want to read it. So my issue right now has to do with my approach to writing. I am working on a sci-fi novel with integrate plot lines. I have been spending most of my time developing the plot lines and trying to storyboard them. I haven't worked out a climax that I like yet but I feel like I'm spending so much time preparing to write, with out having done much narrative writing yet. On the other hand, I don't feel like I can properly begin writing until I have the story clearly laid out in my mind. I'm sure everyone does things differently. I don't feel like I can write this kind of story in a free flowing create-while-you-write method. But since this is my first attempt at weighting a novel, I don't know if I'm being too perfectionist, or if I'm getting stuck in planning mode. <Q> There are plotters, and discovery writers. <S> You sound like a plotter. <S> There's nothing wrong with that. <S> Take the time you need to outline your story so you feel comfortable with it, and additionally accept that things will change as you go. <S> The Snowflake Method and the Hero's Journey are two structures/processes which I've recommended before. <S> What you should be wary of, and what happens more often to SF/F fantasy writers, is Worldbuilder's Syndrome, where you spend so much time creating the world for your story to be set in and polishing all the details that you never get around to writing your story. <A> Start writing. <S> Don't be so afraid to get it wrong. <A> Writing and World building are different. <S> It sounds to me that, even though you like the world building part, you could be postponing the writing part. <S> So let's test it. <S> Just write a small story. <S> It could be a side story, it could be the main plot of your book, it could be a story that just happens to happen in your world, it could even be something completely unrelated to your story. <S> The reason you write it is solely to confirm to yourself that you like writing and that you can finish the book. <S> If you know you like writing, it doesn't matter how long your worldbuilding takes. <S> Some stories need a good background, and that costs time. <S> This is not a bad thing. <A> Well, I just spill my heart and soul and guts onto the page, and then arrange it all into a good book afterwards. <S> I am doing this with the first book I've ever written, and although it takes a couple of years, you eventually get good enough to edit it into something great. <S> Cheerio!
| If you ever want to finish a book, it is critical that you like writing. There are many different methods to creating a plot, and none of them are wrong; you just have to figure out what works for you. A writer can get a long way by emphasizing quantity over quality.
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How should I format a point-of-view character's thoughts? Can you use italics in first person if you are showing the main character's inner thoughts even if the main character is also the narrator? I was told by someone if your whole novel is in first person you don't need italics. I wrote the sentence: Zion turned the corner into the yard, just then-huffing and puffing real loud. He began pacing in circles. I wondered where he just came from. Did he find Burns? And if so, did Zion and Burns have a fight over the ruined tank? (the asterisks sentence is in italics) <Q> If the thought interrupts the description the way a piece of dialogue does, you can italicize. <S> (Some writers use quotation marks instead, while still others capitalize the thought like a quotation, but without the quote marks.) <S> In your case, it looks like the thoughts are part of the flow of the narration, so you don't need to separate them with italics. <S> (If you get too heavy with the italics, it can get annoying for the reader.) <S> However, for added clarity, you could perhaps put the thoughts in a separate paragraph from the more descriptive passages. <S> He began pacing in circles. <S> Where had he come from? <S> Did he find Burns? <S> And if so, did Zion and Burns have a fight over the ruined tank? <S> If you don't have too many of these narrator thoughts, then by all means italicize them and run the paragraphs together. <A> You don't necessarily need the italics if it's first-person inner-monologue. <S> This is basically where the character thinks. <S> If you want to show that the character actually thought something in a specific way, then you can use italics. <A> Placing italics with thoughts in first person puts you in a difficult position because you will frequently be faced with that decision. <S> Where do you draw the line? <S> I would draw it where you have a tense change from past to present. <S> And possibly from past to past perfect, but that doesn't really alter the reader's flow. <S> Change to italics lets the reader know you have jumped time frame. <S> It's analogous to regular dialogue in a third-person, past-tense point of view. <S> However, several successful writers simply stick to roman in first person.
| The point of italics is to separate the character's thought from the rest of the text and avoid any confusion between what's going on in the character's mind and what's happening in the "real" world around him.
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Different types of "Flashbacks" In a novel, particurlarly fiction, what are the basic ways to reveal something that happened in the past? What ways, (flashback, protagonist telling, etc.) are the most used and most effective? Specifically, what is the technical distinction between the protagonist having a flashback, and a flashback that is only for the reader? <Q> Interesting question. <S> Here's my take: Dialogue <S> " <S> So in ninety-one, I was following the Grateful Dead around the country. <S> I swear, the last two minutes of 'Black-Throated Wind' from that MSG show was one of the highlights of human history." <S> Third-person omniscient information dump <S> Fans of the musical band the Grateful Dead widely regard their show from 9/10/91 at Madison Square Garden a top performance in the band's illustrious history thanks in part to a cameo appearance by renowned saxophonist Branford Marsalis. <S> A true psychedelic-style flashback (usually first person) <S> I hadn't taken LSD in 25 years. <S> One minute I was with my friends reliving our wilder days now that our kids are grown ... <S> The world spins, and lights flash all around me. <S> Confusion dominates my psychology because there is no saxophonist in the Grateful Dead, right? <S> Apparently there is tonight! <S> I can't imagine a sweeter sound. <S> Dream states <S> Either 3) or 4) have to be done extremely well not to appear sophomoric. <S> You might try the movies Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or Memento for some very interesting takes on the subject. <S> All four are common in fiction and their effectiveness varies with author and scene. <S> I tend to use mostly dialogue, but I dabble in the others. <S> Information dumps are specifically for the reader. <S> I'll add 5) <S> Third-person limited thinking about one's past. <S> This is usually done in past perfect, and it can make for confusing sentences <S> Joe thought about that time from 1991. <S> He had used drugs, to be sure, but he had known at the time it was a special moment either way. <S> Only later did he realize how special it was. <S> Would he ever feel that way again? <A> I think we should distinguish between what I would call a personality flashback and a plot flashback. <S> A plot flashback occurs when, for whatever reason, the narrative begins after the events of the story begin. <S> I think that if you are having a hard time with a plot flashback, it is most likely a symptom of not starting in the right place. <S> I think the most natural way to do them is in the case where the protagonist is not aware of the back story until some critical juncture in the story. <S> Telling it then is natural and it is what the reader wants and expects. <S> I think personality flashbacks similarly need to be used where they are critical in the development of the character's personality. <S> The key thing is, though, that they should not cause a reset of the reader's view of the person. <S> They should explain, not reset, what we have already seen of the character's behavior. <S> In both cases, timing seem to me far more important than method. <S> When I see it done badly, it always seems to me that the problem is the author's impatience to get all the pieces on the board, resulting in flashbacks as the wrong time, not the particular narrative technique that was used to convey them <A> Have you thought about giving Prince Reuben a companion, such as an older "Sergeant of the Guard," who's been behaving like the prince's adviser since the lad's been a teen? <S> The "Man-At-Arms" has been acting as a combination bodyguard, teacher, and foster-father; rather than bowing and scraping like some sycophantic subordinate "Squire." <S> When something requires a detour to an explanation, there's the crusty old duffer, who says words to the effect: "Prince Reuben, I know you were a mere child, more interested in the intricacies of a rag-teat than the obscure details found in Treaties of the Realm, when Baron Obstreppio was granted all the low-lands adjoining the so-called Marsh of Miseries, in exchange for his pledge to provide seven Legions annually to be the defenders of the Valley of Mere against the raids of the wild men of the Mountains of Woe . <S> . . <S> ." and so forth. <S> Yep! <S> I know that was hopelessly corny! <S> Just giving an example of how you might use the old man as a handy font of all knowledge, and the constant live-in teacher of Prince Reuben. <S> He has saved Prince Reuben's life on several occasions, and the lad feels affection and respect for the old soldier, which softens his attitude toward the old man, when the old gentleman occasionally loses patience with the admittedly arrogant young punk and tries to show the lad the difference between the "statesman" <S> he knows Prince Reuben can grow to be, and the arrogant punk he occasionally threatens to become. <S> And that is another old man's suggestion of a way to reveal vital facts, part-way through the third chapter, without dropping some Owlsley!
| A personality flashback occurs when there is an aspect of a character's personality that is best revealed through an anecdote from their past which illuminates who they are, but is not itself an incident in the story.
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Tips for Coming Up with a Good Portmanteau (Name Smush) In advance of the recent blizzard which struck the East Coast of the U.S., many media outlets were trying to coin a catchy name to describe the event (mainly to hashtag it on social media, let’s be honest). What struck me was that no one name really caught on — people were using repeats from previous years, like Snowmageddon and Snowpocalypse; Slate tried desperately to make “David Snowie” work; The Weather Channel labeled it “Jonas”; and there was a lot of defaulting to “blizzard2016.” Putting parts of two words together to create something new is called a portmanteau, from the French word for “suitcase”; it's also known as a name smush or a ship name. The modern, culturally relevant version started with celebrity pairings (Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were the original Bennifer ) and has exploded from there, especially names for fictional "ships" (romantic relationships which are discussed or imagined for TV or movie characters) and any brouhaha which can be combined with "-gate" (from the Watergate Hotel, the scene of a break-in which started the scandal which toppled U.S. President Nixon). No single portmanteau for this storm became popular, which makes me wonder if it was because no one could figure out a good new one. What are the criteria for a good portmanteau? What aspects should you think about when trying to coin such a term? What makes "Snowmaggedon" and "Brangelina" and "Johnlock" work but not "BeyonZ"? <Q> I have no experience <S> but here's what I came up with: 1: <S> make it flow. <S> In your examples above, Brangelina and Snowmageddon <S> both flow much better than BeyonZ. <S> Make it catchy. <S> Snowmageddon is very catchy. <S> So is Bennifer. <S> Make it relevant. <S> Calling a snowstorm Jones had no relevancy towards the subject. <S> Keep it short. <S> If someone were to call the blizzard "super-duper-snow-scare" it would have been too long to say easily. <S> Blizzard2016 is also too long. <S> Creativity. <S> I have personally never heard of "Snowmageddon" before, but it is very creative. <S> Something like "blizzard2016" is just stating the obvious without any artistic flair. <S> I hope this helps a little with explaining the aspects of a good portmanteau <A> Here are some of the qualities I came up with: Flow. <S> The two words have to flow together smoothly. <S> Brangelina is an easy combination of Brad and Angelina . <S> Syllables. <S> Swapping out the same number of syllables keeps the rhythm of the original word. <S> This is why Snowmageddon works. <S> Snowpocalypse has the same syllables but less flow because there's a slight pause where the two consonants come together. <S> Spelling. <S> The written version of flow. <S> You have to be able to spell it easily and intuitively, or people won't want to share it. <S> Bennifer works really well; while BeyonZ has flow, you have to think about how to write it so the names are recognizable. <S> Recognizable parts. <S> It's easy to pick out "John" and "Sherlock" in Johnlock or "drama" and "comedy" in dramedy . <S> New recognizable entity. <S> Obviously there's no such thing as a Sharktopus, <S> but you know exactly what that word is trying to describe. <S> A mockumentary is a parody of a documentary. <S> Brunch is the meal well after breakfast but too early for lunch. <S> Sound. <S> It has to sound like a word. <S> Jorts, a combination of "jeans" and "shorts," sounds weird and hasn't caught on. <S> Spork is silly but workable. <S> Motel has been around so long that you might not know it's a combination of "motor" and "hotel." <A> It is not easy to pin down, but I will make a stab at a partial answer. <S> Firstly, people need to be able to recognise that it is made up from two separate words. <S> Secondly, they need to know who or what the two halves are. <S> For example, I would never have worked out 'Bennifer' if you hadn't explained it. <S> The two halves need to clearly represent the phenomenon and complement each other. <S> The pairing must be seen as being clever and original. <S> However, piggybacking on an already existing portmanteau is quite popular with words like 'Grexit' and 'Brexit'.
| It helps when the two words share letters or sounds. Blizzard2016 isn't catchy.
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How do you write a good product description? Are there any rules or procedure to write a great product description. Any examples of good desciptions online? <Q> Use vivid prose to accentuate the positive, and never mention the negative. <S> You are seeking to draw buyers into wanting to but <S> the product, so you should also identify a felt need that this product will address. <S> Hope this helps! <A> Depending on the type of product, and the specific supply chain, there are even very particular standards. <S> If you could supply more detail as noted in the comment to the OP, it might be possible to suggest something very relevant. <A> If you are going to write Google Algorithm friendly product description, you have to follow the guideline like following: <S> Length of description: 300 to 500 words <S> Error free(good grammar) Good Keyword research <S> Relevant Product Description etc
| Your description will need to tell what the product is, and describe it in the best possible light.
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How do I write an emotional scene? The scene is about one of the protagonist who was until now, more a cold than a warm person. However she's not a sociopath, she just mostly hides her emotions and tends to push people she cares about away. Now the scene is very important. Her sister was kidnapped and she meets the other protagonist on a hill. How do I write a scene where she gets really emotional and sad, while not writing her out of character? <Q> I think the best example of this I've encountered is in the book/movie Remains of the Day . <S> The main character is a butler, whose chief trait is total emotional repression. <S> Nevertheless, the author skillfully portrays his emotional state. <S> If my memory serves me, there's one crucial scene where the butler learns that the housekeeper is leaving. <S> His feelings for her are deeply hidden, even from himself. <S> The only clue to how he really feels is when he goes to fetch the master of the house a bottle of wine --he <S> drops it and it shatters. <S> It's a small moment, but we've come to know this man as a consummate professional of machine-like perfection. <S> The thought of him dropping anything is absurd. <S> The breakage of the wine bottle lets the reader know how much the housekeeper means to him, even if no other character observes it. <A> One possibility is to show the character hiding her emotions in the earlier scenes. <S> So readers know she feels emotions, and has reasons not to show them. <S> Then when she feels emotions that she cannot hide, the readers will know that her outwardly emotional reaction is a big deal for her. <S> For additional ideas, listen to the "Showing Emotions" episode of Writing Excuses (season 9) . <A> The real challenge here is writing the earlier scenes. <S> A character might not express emotions, but they had better feel them, or the reader will have a hard time caring. <S> If you look at a book like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the main character is autistic and has difficulty connecting with other people; however, he feels strong emotions, and this places the reader inside the character's head. <S> Likewise, a sociopath can still experience a wide range of emotions. <S> In A Clockwork Orange, the main character is very emotional. <S> He's just completely lacking in empathy. <A> I'm more of a show-er than a teller. <S> If I'm way off base, perhaps you can extrapolate. <S> Arielle saw him coming from a quarter mile. <S> His relaxed gait and flowing hair reminded her of an innocence now lost to distant memory. <S> As he got closer, Orion smiled and waved. <S> "Does nothing bother you?" <S> Arielle pointedly asked. <S> "Well, I, I guess I was just trying to be friendly," replied Orion. <S> "I know this is a big deal; I wasn't intending to making light of the situation." <S> "Sure, but you have a tendency to not take me serious--anything serious! <S> Sometimes I don't even know why we're friends!" <S> "Listen, Arielle, I mean ..." <S> Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Arielle tried to steady herself. <S> She was doing it again. <S> She knew she was doing it again. <S> It had to stop; she needed to let someone in, and Orion was definitely the one most qualified. <S> Her lower lip quivered and she briefly sniffled. <S> She didn't even think she knew how to cry; she could never even remember doing so. <S> But suddenly, her arms were around his neck, and she wept into his shoulder. <S> "I'm sorry. <S> I'm so, so sorry." <A> The key to a believable emotional expression is the character's vulnerability, which requires sincerity and risk. <S> An insincere statement may move the story through manipulation of other characters, but it won't be seen as emotional. <S> A statement without risk isn't pivotal in any interesting way. <S> Risk creates tension, allows another character to temporarily take control, and for the story to move forward. <S> If you have an omniscient narrator, or the story is told from the first-person, you can show a conflict between the character's internal state and their external behavior. <S> When the external behavior matches the internal behavior, we have sincerity. <S> When that is accompanied by risk we have vulnerability. <S> and a credible emotional expression.
| How you can achieve vulnerability depends on in whose voice the story is told, and what access the narrator (if any) has to the internal life of the characters.
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Is the Concept of "Machine of Death" Copyrighted? I am a fan of the book "Machine of Death"; http://machineofdeath.net/pdf/MachineofDeath_FINAL.pdf PDF Page 452 of the above link details the copyright for the material contained within the book. However I cannot determine if the actual concept of a "Machine of Death", that determines your cause of death from a drop of blood, is copyrighted. So basically can someone create a "Machine of Death" story that is completely original to the stories within the book except that a "Machine of Death" as described above is within the book (and indeed is a major plot device)? <Q> Concepts are not copyrightable. <S> However, unusual similarities in story, characters, plotline, accidental or otherwise, can form the basis for a copyright infringement claim. <S> This usually only comes up when the claimant can demonstrate economic harm or is protecting valuable IP. <A> U.S. copyright law explicitly says that you do not have a copyright in an idea. <S> There's a big international treaty about copyright so most other countries would be the same. <S> You only own a copyright to the exact words, pictures, or other "tangible expression" of an idea. <S> If you're not copying someone else's exact words (or pictures or music or whatever), you're not violating their copyright. <S> Update <S> I should add, <S> I mean drawing inspiration from. <S> You can avoid any problem there by just using a different name. <S> I think that would be a good idea in any case to make your own work look more original. <S> If your intent is that you want to write stories that fit into someone else's universe, I'd heartily encourage you not to. <S> It's one thing to say, "hey, that's a cool idea, I'd like to adapt that and use it in my own stories". <S> It's quite another to take someone else's characters, settings, plot arcs, etc, and plagiarize wholesale. <S> Make up your own universe. <A> This is treading on thin ice in this case. <S> Although ideas cannot generally be copyrighted, US law does offer extra protection for a series, and the story you're a fan of is a series of stories under the conceptual umbrella of the Machine of Death. <S> So yes, it might well be a problem if you come up your own story using the "Machine of Death" label. <S> You could safely borrow the idea in a general sense—some machine, computer or other method that predicts a person's death with unerring accuracy. <S> If you're determined to write another story in the universe of the original book, you could try asking permission from whoever owns the rights. <S> If they don't plan more books, they might say yes.
| the NAME "Machine of Death" could be trademarked, if that's the actual name used in the stories you're stealing from ...
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Referencing real and fictional people/characters in novels - legal implications I've been going out of my way to avoid referencing famous people in my novel as well as fictional characters, but I keep seeing pop culture references in other books I read as well as in TV shows, songs etc., and I'm wondering if I'm being overzealous about deleting the stuff I had written. I'm wondering how other writers feel about referring to real people and places or fictional characters in a fictional work and in what situations it's best to get permission or avoid it altogether. I do know that the chances of these people/place representatives even reading the reference are very slim, but in theory, let's say you ended up writing a best-seller, what would happen in these situations: Can you reference the name of a real hotel in a novel such as the Plaza, NY. without asking for permission? Nothing negative is written about the hotel. We just know the scene takes place in front of it. Should you get permission to mention them first, or is it not necessary? Would you probably just not name the hotel? People: I see references to famous people all the time on TV shows, in songs etc, but I feel like it's riskier in a novel for some reason. If you referenced someone in a silly way, eg. to make some funny comparison, could that end up being a problem? E.g. "She looks like a 50-year-old Lady Gaga." To take it further, would you feel comfortable writing this in a novel: "She's like Rosie O'Donnell on crack." I guess in theory some famous person could sue if they thought you were depicting them negatively, but would that just be totally unrealistic or is it a real possibility? If they are in the public eye and can be picked apart on blogs, star shows etc, is it different in novels, even if it's just a passing reference? Is it best to err on the side of caution at the expense of the content of your novel? You can't put a fictional character like Chewbacca in your book obviously, but can you just reference such a character in passing?E.g. "My ex-wife looks like Chewbacca after a good shave." Or how about: "He did a Sherlock Holmes on the filing cabinet." Could the company that owns the rights to the Sherlock Holmes/Star Wars franchise have a problem with such a line or is that just extremely unrealistic? Referencing Gordon Gecko, Mary Poppins and the Terminator would allow me to inject some humorous (IMO) lines into my book. As long as they aren't actual characters in the book, is this ok? From what I understand, saying your character wears Gucci heels, or drives a BMW, or reads the NY Times or eats Rice Krispies or listens to Bon Jovi - all that type of stuff is fair game, right? I recently read a novel which referenced about 10 different singers the character liked. I can't imagine the author got permission to put those names in - I'm guessing he just went for it. I know that the chances of a book being successful enough for the parties in question to even know about the reference to them are very slim, but I'd like to know what experience other writers have with this stuff. Yes, I know it's all subjective and no one can give legal advice, but any feedback from anyone who's published/edited fictional work would be greatly appreciated. <Q> Things like Jaguar or Rice Krispies don't really date a work, either. <S> Fictional characters, however, are copyrighted for a long time. <S> So no using Luke skywalker as a character. <S> Your characters can talk about Luke, swing swords around like Luke, and watch Luke. <S> They just can't BE Luke. <S> But be careful about using pop culture. <S> A lot of millennials wouldn't know who Rosanne Barr is, and have never heard of New Kids on the Block. <S> To them David Copperfield is a Dickens character, not a magician. <S> If your character listens to the Victrola, hears Father Coughlin on the radio, shaves with Bar-sol, and rides an Indian motorcycle on his way to his date with a telephone switchboard operator, that will place him firmly in the 40's. <S> If instead he listens to Iggy Pop on his 8-track in his Trans-Am on the way to his job at the Hard Rock cafe, it's probably the early 80's. <S> So it's okay to add pop culture references, but make sure they will still be relatable in 30 years. <S> Star Wars and BMW are safe. <S> The Beatles are too. <S> One Direction and Kristen Stewart are not. <A> There's nothing---NOTHING!---in the detailed list given by you that's forbidden, if used, just as you described, in a "passing reference." <S> NOR is there any problem with mentioning real businesses or hotels, UNLESS you do so in a derogatory way; such as: "I stayed three nights in the SOUTH NARK hotel, right off Broadway, in New York. <S> And it took me three weeks to clear the bed-bugs out of my clothing, belongings and suitcase! <S> Couldn't get a decent night's sleep there, either; there was a continual party going on, hosted by the Grunge-Rockola band, "ROCK, PAPER, SWITCHBLADES," and they were raising hell non-stop along the entire length of the 13th floor!" <S> If you wrote that about a real hotel, you'd be hip-deep in hell, but otherwise--- simply "I/he <S> /we/ <S> they stayed at the SOUTH NARK," you would have no problems. <S> Some great authors created new brand-names for all the businesses, vehicles, and even tools, that were mentioned in their short stories or novels. <S> Others were intricately detailed, and so generous with the geographical references in their stories, that a reader or researcher could track the action 'round the city, even half a century later. <S> Read <S> many, MANY similar works---not only ones exclusively in your genre---and simply do as those authors do. <S> And please stop with the paranoia! <S> The vast majority of authors DO NOT live to sue other authors; I've something like 80-odd things still in print <S> (almost all are under other names and in other nations, by now) plus <S> I've been "publishing for money" since about 1968. <S> AND I'VE <S> NEVER SUED ANYBODY!!! <S> Oh, gee! <S> Somebody used "my" catch-phrase: "It Cost Him A Shiny New Nickle." <S> Big deal!!! <S> Good luck, my friend! <A> 1) Sherlock Holmes is public domain. <S> We all own it. <S> 2) <S> While classics like Sherlock Holmes are safe, referencing pop culture can date your work. <S> Just FYI...
| As long as you're just making references that don't portray them in a negative light, you're fine for brands and celebrities. No one's going to sue you for it.
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Third person multiple pov in a crime mystery Fellow writers, I am plotting a crime mystery novel. I have the story and gist in place. It should have the "whodunit" element. I want to use Third person multiple pov narrative(more than 6+ povs). I've seen it done (but not in mystery) by having the character name at the beginning of a chapter. Now my dilemma, how do I get around keeping the killer/killers a suspense while using such an approach. Are there any other ways to incorporate the pov I want, without giving away the name of the character. It is okay if the reader knows its the killers pov (just not who he/she is). Maybe by a clear depiction of the criminals dark opinion? Or by altogether avoiding character names before chapters, and letting the reader figure out who's pov it is(but I feel it would be confusing, with 6+ povs). Any input, suggestions and experience with using 3rd person multiple povs is welcome. <Q> You don't need character names in chapter headings, unless you are attempting multiple first person narratives. <S> Therefore your only problem is how to name the villain. <S> Dan Brown does this n every novel. <S> Just pick something descriptive, <S> e.g. The Controller, The Military Man, The Survivor. <S> Names like these allude to a role or a personal history which can be a secret even to their closest friends or colleagues. <S> Thus in your final act you can reveal Brian the chicken farmer was secretly The Assassin the whole time. <S> Alternatively you can introduce your villain through the eyes of a minion or victim, and thenceforth name him as that person saw him, e.g. The Man in White, or The Limping Man. <S> Readers may tire of it however, but to maintain mystery, these pov chapters would likely be few and brief anyway. <A> The POV for each scene should be made clear very quickly. <S> But that's not hard if you mention their name in the narration when doing something. <S> As mentioned above, you can just use "the killer" or something like that for the killer. <S> Use "they" instead of "he/she", or even switch to first person. <S> The other thing is that most people wouldn't title themselves a "killer" but instead consider themselves an instrument of justice, vengeance, purification, etc - focusing on their motivation not the act. <S> Make sure the killer has a realistic reason for doing what he does, whether revenge or God telling him to, to protecting others, not just <S> "he's evil/crazy <S> so he kills people". <S> 6 <S> + is a lot of POV characters. <S> You'll need to work hard to build empathy, unless several are less-used side characters. <S> Good luck. <A> Multiple pov is promising until it is not confusing for readers. <S> I would love to read such work until it is not frustrating. <S> You can simply cross check your lines by thinking as a reader than a writer. <S> As a character's voice is oblivious, you can twist the plot by shifting concentration on each and every character. <S> Hope this helps you.
| You can simply include the killer's narrative whenever you want to spice things up.
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Use double or triple minus hyphen (-) to stand in for em dash? Should I use -- or --- to stand in for — ? I've seen people use double hyphen minus, but some apparently use triple. It could be nice to use triple, since then you can reserve double to stand in for en dash. P.S. I know that em dash can be typed directly on most keyboards. <Q> Use a double. <S> Before I went to writing camp, I never even knew of the different types of dashes. <S> But when I was there, I learned to use a double dash for em dashes. <S> Congrats on knowing this type of stuff! <S> Because not everyone knows... <S> Good luck! <A> It depends on what you're doing with the text. <S> In some cases, a double hyphen with surrounding spaces will be automatically converted to a dash, but that might not work with a triple hyphen. <S> It is much clearer, however, to use the correct characters, and with the widespread use of UTF-8, these should print correctly on most platforms. <S> In typography, a dash can be represented either as an en-dash surrounded by a space on each side – like this – or as an em-dash character with no spaces—like this. <S> The en-dash with spaces is sometimes better behaved at line breaks, but the em-dash is arguably more correct. <S> The en-dash is traditionally used mostly for number ranges (eg, 100–114). <S> These characters can be easily inserted on a Mac keyboard (Option-hyphen and Shift-Option-hyphen). <S> It's more awkward on Windows (Alt-0150 and Alt-0151), but there are many ways to remap the keyboard or use a program substitute other keystrokes for dashes. <S> (AutoHotKey is very good and free.) <A> A double dash would be most correct. <S> In fact some word processors will automatically change a double dash into an em dash. <A> I worked as senior technical editor for 16 years for three major telecom companies (all based outside the U.S.) that had adopted English as their corporate language for all documentation; all the writers wrote in English. <S> I always made a point of showing the writers how to enter the correct punctuation characters. <S> Since typewriters were not an issue, we never used two or three hyphens in place of an en or em dash. <S> Since the en dash is almost always used to show a range of numbers or connect non-hyphenated terminology, an en dash would never replace the em dash. <S> Because there are many technical terms that are hyphenated, we all agreed that a space before and after the em dash clearly distinguished from hyphens in general and tended to increase readability.
| If you must enter text in typewriter style, I'd suggest using space and a double-hyphen for a dash.
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Describing laughter in dialogue? I'm having a problem that is not addressed by The Chicago Manual of Style or the AP Style Guide I have access to: How does a writer express laughter in fiction? I have seen no consistent answer. It seems playwriting and screenplays generally include it since actors are taught to say what's in front of them. The most commonly used expression in prose is ha ha , with numerous variations. However, some feel "inclusion of such expressions are a sign of bad writing." It is possible to write: Stu laughed and then exclaimed, "So the bug turns into the robot!" Or one could write: "Ha ha! So the bug turns into the robot!" [Assuming it is understood Stu is the speaker.] Or even: Laughing, Stu could barely be understood through his chortling: "So the bug--ha ha ha!--turns into the robot, ha ha!" Is this truly a style issue, or do these have a ranking in terms of readability and fiction preference? <Q> Write "ha ha" if you want those words spoken, but not for laughter. <S> Vera rolled her eyes. <S> " <S> Ha ha. <S> Very funny." <S> Actual laughter is a nonverbal sound and is better described. <S> Vera's eyes widened. <S> "You mean you—" A roar of laughter escaped her mouth. <S> Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her body shook. <S> I wouldn't normally spell it out, just as I wouldn't normally spell out the sound of a cough or a sneeze. <S> Of course, there may be rare cases where you want to describe the unusual sound of certain person's sneeze or laugh (often for comic effect), and then you can go to town: <S> His laugh sounded like a mixture of a masonry drill and a guinea pig squeal: "Hweaww-HEEE-hee-heghgh!" <A> Your first example is the best, but I would avoid using "exclaimed" <S> - it's generally better to stick with "said" all the time, as words like "exclaimed" tend to draw attention to themselves and away from the actual dialogue, where the focus should be. <S> I would recommend: Stu laughed and said "So the bug turns into the robot. <S> " or simply: Stu laughed. <S> "So the bug turns into the robot." <S> For the third example, I would avoid "chortling" for the same reason that "exclaimed" is avoided. <S> I would suggest: Stu was laughing so hard that it was almost impossible to understand him. " <S> So the bug turns into the robot." <A> Oh God! <S> not the dialogue tag debate . <S> . . <S> again. <S> Firstly, those who believe 'said' is the only valid dialogue tag and dialogue tags <S> should be invisible are misled. <S> It's fine if you don't write a lot of dialogue <S> - otherwise it's the worst advice possible. <S> - Write a long dialogue exchange using only 'said' as a tag, the read it out aloud. <S> It'll sound like Chinese water torture. <S> To the OP. <S> There is no ONE way, or a CORRECT way to write most things. <S> Ultimately there is only YOUR way. <S> Much like words . <S> . . <S> if you use the same word to describe the same action the prose becomes repetitive. <S> You may use all any any method do indicate laughter in the same passage. <S> "So you see <S> then it's a robot," said Bob. <S> "I see." <S> "What's so funny? <S> Why are you laughing?" <S> "I didn't. <S> I'm not," replied Dave, obscuring his mouth with his hand. <S> " <S> Carry on . . ." <S> "So the robot . . ." <S> "Ha-ha-ha!" <S> "What's so funny!" <S> "Nothing," replied Dave attempting to curtail his laughter. " <S> Gimme one sec . . ." <S> Bob laughed. <S> "I suppose it is kinda funny." <S> "Ha-ha!" <S> Dave erupted. <S> " <S> A bug turning into a robot isn't funny. <S> It's ridiculous!" <S> Think I've used most methods. <A> one interesting thing you might want to consider is the different types of laughters.. we have giggles and laughs and chuckles and grins and chortles and lots more!! <S> (I know the English isn't correct in the statement above.. <S> I was trying to make it a little poetic but in vain) <S> You might want to consider - http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/laugh?s=t <S> Hope this helps!! <A> Any word other than said draws your attention to the tag and not the dialogue. <S> This is creative writing 101. <S> I am twice published and working on my third <S> and I have never had a reader, reviewer or editor complain about my use of the word said. <A> Looking at my own work, I just say "laughed." <S> I never write multiple "Ha". <S> I have written, Jack was amused. <S> " <S> Ha. <S> Then we'll charge 'em for the visit, too." <S> Richard laughed. <S> IRL, I hear people sometimes say "Ha" or "Heh" when amused, as an actual word. <S> But I consider an actual laugh an action. <S> Analogously, I hear "Ow", "Ouch", "Oy" as actual voiced words (depending on culture) that indicate pain was felt, but I wouldn't try to put into voice a scream or other such vocalizations (grunts, moans, crying) that I consider to be more actions than words. <S> I can't spell out a laugh, or a scream, or the sound somebody makes when sliced by a sword, or the heavy breathing sounds they make when panting after a long sprint.
| Handle laughter not as words spoken, but as a physical action.
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Why do news articles and press releases start with date and location? Here's what I'm talking about: PALO ALTO, Calif., January 5, 2016 — Example Inc. today delivered on the promise to reinvent the PC by bringing premium consumer design into a commercial-grade device From what I found , my understanding is that this might be a requirement outlined in the Associated Press stylebook - at least that's where the custom state abbreviations are defined. I'm trying to understand why is it like that. I've seen that approach used in a press release issued by a large IT corporation (quoted above), as well as a lot of radio presenters and major news agencies, so there must be a convention. At the same time, Reuters only does this in some articles, and I couldn't figure out the dependency. Please clarify! <Q> I'm pretty sure it originates as a Journalism style. <S> As soon as you begin reading you know where and when, and the story can focus on explaining the who, what, and why. <S> It saves print. <S> With all the many forms of media out now, it is not as rigid a tradition as in former generations, but it is still an easy way to shorten the key points of the story if one is to save copy. <A> This is called a dateline . <S> Look at the relevant Wikipedia article for a guide to proper formatting and links to the Wall Street Journal and <S> Associated Press style guides. <S> Contrary to what the Wikipedia article claims, the dateline does not (necessarily) describe "where and when the story occurred", but where and when the news originated . <S> I have read several newspaper articles where the dateline referred to, for example, an embassy in my country (which became clear from explanations in text), while the actual news took place in the home country of that embassy. <S> Similarly the death of an explorer is often not reported by journalists on site, but relayed through their agents whose offices and press conferences are in turn credited in the dateline. <S> The origin of the news or feature story, and thus the DATELINE preceding it, is a matter of editorial decision making. <S> It does not arise from a location fixed inevitably at a named locale of given latitude and longitude. <S> The latidude belongs to the editor. <S> Thus where news happens is wherever a news editor decides that the newsworthy situation took place, or where a news-peg could be found. <S> (Grady Clay, Real Places , 1994, p. 15) Here is an example from a recent article in the New York Times: As you can read, the event described happened in Bavaria, while the datline gives "Cologne" (not in Bavaria) as the origin of the news. <S> Apparently, when she wrote the story, author Melissa Eddy was still in Cologne for the carnival . <S> In another example , this one from Reuters, the author reports on events in Brazil from Chicago: <S> As for the proper formatting (and inclusion) of a dateline, you need to refer to the house style of whoever you are writing for. <A> In a news story it is very, very common that you will need to specify the place and the date. <S> A convention that you put it at the beginning of the article is more concisely than working it into the text, and makes it easy to find when people are referring to a newspaper article long after the fact. <S> Sure, you could say, "There was an earthquake in Someville yesterday, January 31, 2016, registering 6.2 on the Richter scale ... <S> " But putting it up front saves a couple of words and probably more important, makes it less likely that you'll forget to say. <S> When you're writing the story, it's obviously "here" and "today", so I can see it being easy to forget to mention that. <S> The reader, of course, may read it days or years from now and could be anywhere. <A> The dateline shows when and where the story was written (or filed), not merely where the events occurred. <S> Newspapers and other news services spend a lot of money to send reporters overseas. <S> An overseas dateline tells the reader that they are getting the news from someone who was close to the event, rather than a second-hand account. <A> As an analogue to web publishing, it is a location and timestamp on an article. <S> For example, an earthquake may occur in a remote part of Brazil, and the dateline would be RIO DI JANEIRO if that's where the report was filed from (the reporter sat in an office in Rio and gathered the news and filed the report from there). <S> If you are filing for AP (Associated Press) or are a member newspaper, you use AP style for datelines. <S> This includes which cities need or don't need state names, what abbreviations to use for states (hint, not postal abbreviations), etc. <S> Some might see datelines as archaic, but they absolutely serve a purpose in any filed report where the location and time of filing matter.
| A dateline must be where the reporter reported from. It is a newspaper era journalism technique and ultimately I think its an easy and quick way for journalists to answer two of the important 'W's right off the bat.
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Redouble, double, or double again? I have seen double and double again a lot. Redouble, not so much. I found out that redouble can mean to double again, to double, or in general to intensify whether that is double, triple, quintuple, or something else. So if I want to use double again I pretty much know when to use it. However I wouldn't know when to use redouble or if I should use it at all. If I use redouble where I would usually use double then the reader would think that it has doubled twice. If I use redouble where I would usually use triple or quintuple or something besides double then again the reader will think that it has doubled again when it might have tripled. If I use redouble where I would usually use double again the reader wouldn't have the intensify vs double again confusion but still the reader might think "It is irrelavant to use redouble when you could just use double again." So should I use redouble in any scenario when writing or editing or should I just use double, double again, triple etc. which I would usually use? I am trying to expand my vocabulary while editing so that is why I am asking if I should ever use redouble? <Q> "Double again" has the very specific meaning of <S> This was increased by 100% of the original, to make 200%, and will now be increased by 100% of that, making it 400% of the original. <S> Which one you want to use is dependent on context and your intended meaning. <A> Instead of trying to use a derivative of double , you can use the suffix -fold . <S> three·fold <S> three times as great or as numerous. <S> "a threefold increase in the number of stolen cars" <S> There is no real maximum number that can be used for this. <S> You can use ten-fold, one hundred-fold, etc. <A> In this context, redoubling your effort means trying harder, but not by any set amount. <S> Maybe 150% of the original effort. <S> At least that's the understood meaning in modern English. <S> If you're speaking the language the word comes from (French), "redoubler" is to double again , or 400% of original. <S> The same is true if you're playing a bidding game (like contract bridge).
| "Redouble" is almost always used in the idiom to redouble one's effort , meaning to increase the effort one is exerting.
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How do I write a fitting ending for an anti-hero? My protagonist is an anti-hero. He's manipulative, cunning, kills, and sacrifices others for the greater good, which is to destroy an oppressive regime. I'm at the point where he has destroyed the regime, secretly taken over and now is destroying the secret society which was in control of the country. I want this to be his last mission. However, I want a fitting end for him. But I don't want to kill him yet because I feel like he has to be punished for his "sins". So, how do I write a fitting end, an appropriate punishment for him to suffer, that isn't just killing the character? <Q> Determine what sins he needs to be punished for, and set up mirrors. <S> If it's toppling a government and he sets up a new one: his newgovernment falls apart because the people are now revolting against him . <S> If he destroys a secret society because he loathes secrecy: in someway he has to establish a new one in order to hold the governmenttogether. <S> and so on. <S> You're going for a Twilight Zone kind of irony. <A> I really like the idea of how Star Trek: The Next Generation dealt with the discovery of a new Q. <S> Although she wasn't quite an anti-hero, her development of new godlike powers created chaos in the cosmos and Picard asks [the original] Q, "So which is it: <S> Does she live or does she die? <S> " <S> And Q's response: "I haven't decided yet." <S> An external entity holds your protagonist's life in it's hands. <A> What drives him throughout your story? <S> Is it money, power, love, lust? <S> What is it that he thinks he deserves when the fighting is over? <S> Fame, gold? <S> Aside from the overall plot, what his his personal quest? <S> Happiness, sanity, to recover the use of his legs? <S> What's the thing under the surface which actually matters more than just beating the bad guys? <S> Being reunited with his family? <S> Being accepted in a foreign land? <S> Being aquitted of a terrible crime he didn't commit? <S> Whatever it is, it's there throughout the story and we're rooting for him, hoping he does the right thing for once and claims his reward. <S> But he fails us, so wrench it away and be cruel. <S> You are writing a tragedy, so make it tragic. <A> Well, the Anti-Hero needs punishment. <S> The new order that rises up in the wake of all this destruction could hold trial against him and imprison him for what 'sins' he did commit. <S> I'm not sure if this is futuristic or mid-evil or whatnot <S> so, he could either be frozen in a carbonite like substance Han Solo style, or shackled and put in the deepest darkest dungeon depending on your settings. <S> Then you could just leave him there and end it so that if you need him again you could bring him back Rambo style " <S> John we need you" and do a whole new adventure. <S> Otherwise he could just disappear into the night like Batman and the reader is left to churn about where he'll go next. <S> Also, a big thing, that holds much importance is whether he won the hearts of the people. <S> Robin Hood killed and was a highway robber, but he won the hearts of the people, so even when the Sheriff caught him, he couldn't really catch him, because he'd just escape somehow. <S> You could even leave it at the second before death. <S> A true cliff hanger for sure <S> , It'd be like Butch and Sundance, they are surrounded, sure to die, and they just jump out guns a blazing, but because it never actually shows them die, they become a legend. <S> Maybe your Anti-hero could become such a legend? <A> Do ends justify the means? <S> The very fact that he acts just like the regime he wants to overthrow is punishment enough. <S> If he realizes it early on, he may choose not to act, thus not overthrowing the oppressive regime. <S> Having to live under it may be punishment enough.
| If it's murder: someone important to him should die.
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best licensing option for freest possible sharing of lyrics while retaining the right to get paid if someone else makes money from them I would like to share many song/poetry/lyric works. I would like to share them as freely as possible, allowing modifications, use of small pieces or lines or concepts, etc.. I want to encourage commercial use of the material, but I would like to have the right to get a cut of any commercial proceeds. I have perused the Creative Commons licenses and it seems the choice is between allowing commercial use with no compensation, or simply not allowing it. Is there some sort of licensing choice that lies somewhere in between? <Q> That doesn't mean someone who wants to use it for commercial purposes can't do so—but they'll have to contact you first and negotiate a separate licence. <S> If you want, you could add an explicit commercial licence, but you'd have to state the prices and terms, and they should work for everyone, from the old lady who wants to use your poem in her home-printed poetry journal going to 90 subscribers, as well as for Disney who want to use your poem in their latest blockbuster. <A> I hope this provides you with an idea of how this works. <S> My production company provides event photography which we currently shoot and provide digital photos under a Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 <S> We used to keep ALL RIGHTS RESERVED but that meant clients broke the license by sharing photos online. <S> So we changed it rather than risk our rights by not enforcing them. <S> So our licensing page now states: <S> Some event photography by Dreamspinner Media is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA, your booking agreement will state if this is the casewith a section like this below. <S> Creative Commons LicenseEvent photographs by Paul Zagoridis/Dreamspinner Media is licensedunder a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0International License. <S> Permissions beyond the scope of this license are available athttp://dreamspinnermedia.com/photography/licensing.Contact us using the comment form below for additional licensing enquiries. <S> Editors feel free to obfuscate the url if it breaches the self-promotion guidelines of this site. <S> It's in there to show that you MUST have contact details in your CC license. <S> So what that means is the photos can be used, changed and rereleased provided there is attribution to the source (me) <S> the derived works are similarly licensed and attributed Non-commercial <S> So if a photograph is used by a media outlet, they should obtain an appropriate license from me. <S> If they don't they can't claim they just grabbed it from the public domain. <A> When you wrote the lyrics down, you established a copyright on those lyrics. <S> Nobody can legally use them for commercial purposes without your permission. <S> That is what copyright means. <S> They have to get a license from you , you don’t have to give one to them. <S> So the Creative Commons license that seems to you to be missing is not needed because that is the default license. <S> That is the one that existed before Creative Commons. <S> The one that everybody already has. <S> The Creative Commons licenses give you other options that not everybody needs. <S> It sounds like you probably don’t need them. <S> So just publish your work in such a way that it includes a copyright notice and also contact info so that the reader can contact you for a commercial use license. <A> You could license your lyrics for a percentage royalty (instead of say, for a flat fee). <S> That is to say, if the licensee gets nothing, you get nothing, but if some licensee "gets lucky," you get your percentage. <S> That's only fair. <A> I have a practical problem with much of music licensing. <S> I sing with a Barbershop chorus, and with a couple of quartets. <S> All of this is "non-profit", but it is not "non-commercial". <S> We get paid for gigs, which give us a percentage of our yearly operating revenue. <S> I don't have a problem with buying music, or paying BMI when we have a show, or paying ASCAP an annual fee for using music -- actually we do all of there to have rights to sing almost anything. <S> If you have a song we want to arrange to sing, I need to know who to contact. <S> I need to know what your procedure is for granting a license to arrange. <S> When I have the arrangement, I need to know who to pay when I make copies of that arrangement for my singers. <S> I need to know if the performance fees are included in the fees we pay to BMI and ASCAP, or if we have an additional liability to you. <S> This can be a maze that is hard for a volunteer, non-profit, but not non-commercial organization to work through. <S> I hope this gives you a framework within which you can find an answer that will serve your need, and ultimately the needs of thousands of small performers everywhere.
| If you license something, you're giving people the freedom to use it under certain conditions (eg, for noncommercial purposes).
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How do I describe the effects of extreme psychological trauma on my protagonist? I am working on a novel where my young protagonist has certain character flaws/issues which are the result of having survived a horrific incident as a child. The incident occured during a time when many people, including a family member, die of starvation, and where there are cases of cannibalism. One night my protagonist and her best friend are attacked. She barely escapes but her friend does not. My plan is to give veiled references to this incident only in the first chapter or prologue. My protagonist has blocked out the incident which, nevertheless, defines her character and life choices. I am wondering where I might find information to believably describe the specific effects such trauma might have on the human psyche without having to dive too deeply into psychological texts. Would also welcome any thoughts/ideas on how to do this most effectively. Thanks! <Q> As a newbie to writing, I can't comment on how to dramatically portray the lifelong impact of childhood trauma. <S> But as a person with PTSD, I can confirm that as Stu W explained "flashbacks, obsession, avoidance, and a high-adrenaline state" are real symptoms. <S> Others include general depression and anxiety. <S> But an important feature is triggers. <S> A trigger can be a smell, an object, a sound etc. <S> Anything that reminds the person of the event. <S> As the name implies, a trigger is a stimulus that leads to a strong response of anxiety or flashback. <S> It can cause a fight-flight-freeze response. <S> As an example, I know a soldier who can't sleep near a window for fear of snipers. <S> And a woman who is afraid of turbans because she was assaulted by a man wearing one. <S> Things <S> like I deserved what happened, my life is cursed, etc. <S> More subtle features can be woven in as things like lack of trust, avoidance of people, addictions, risk taking, avoidance of triggering situations, etc. <S> Another common attribute is the effect and damage it has on relationships. <S> Also the burden it puts on people around the character who can see the traits and the self destructiveness that the character can't see in himself. <S> I would avoid reading the DSM. <S> It is too technical and dry. <S> There are many biographies of people with PTSD. <S> Many news articles. <S> You should be able to do some surface reading to get an idea of the experience. <S> This type of reading will give you a better feel of how it affects people than anything written from a psychological, sterile point of view. <A> I had a friend whose mother remembered being fed human flesh as a child. <S> This was late in WW2 in Holland, at time when everyone was starving and many died. <S> She was a cheerful older lady. <S> If she was traumatized by it, it didn't show. <S> In real life, people react in many different ways. <S> Some find it easier to take things in their stride. <S> Others might be deeply scarred by quite minor events. <S> In fiction, one possible approach would be a character who is very well balanced, very positive, but that's only what's on the surface... <A> What, in the end, are you asking? <S> You have planned out parts of the story: your protagonist blocking an incident and that incident 'defines her character and life choices'. <S> It seems like you have decided what is going to happen whatever. <S> Yet you want information that is believable without you having to take the trouble to 'dive too deeply into psychological texts'. <S> This seems like wanting to eat your cake without wanting the calories. <A> You describe post-traumatic stress disorder . <S> I would start with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV or V for psychiatry. <S> The PTSD section isn't that long. <S> However, I'll add "blocking it out" has been considered a medically incorrect concept for about 30 years or more and usually appears sophomoric in fiction. <S> (It is, of course, possible to forget things.) <S> If it's really what you need to do, I'd approach the recovering process cautiously. <S> The norm for PTSD is re-experiencing phenomena, flashbacks, obsession, avoidance, and a high-adrenaline state.
| The person may also be plaited by destructive thoughts or beliefs about themselves. In the book I'm writing, I am planning a critical scene where the character freezes with a flash back at a very critical moment.
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