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How do you write a political debate in a story? I've recently started writing, but hit a wall during a certain scene. In the story, the characters have an open debate on discrimination in an attempt to raise awareness for their issues and pass new legislation in the fictional country they live in. However, I've found it difficult to find good arguments to use in the story without it coming off as overly simplified or unnatural. Does anyone have tips on debate, or how to write good arguments that flow in a story format? <Q> The starting point here has to be to ask yourself whether you are writing a novel or a polemic. <S> If your story is just an excuse to make an argument against some form of discrimination, then you are going to be stuck trying to write both sides of a debate where you are on one side and trying to set it up to win. <S> It's not that that can't sell, as long as your audience feels the same way you do about the issue. <S> People love books that confirm their opinions. <S> But you also need a victim for them to root for. <S> Save the victim, stand them in the front row of the debate, and have you hero make the speech your audience wants to hear. <S> On the other hand, if you actually want to write about politicians and how they behave, that is something altogether different because politicians don't actually debate, they posture. <S> It is not ever about proving a point by argument, it is always about positioning yourself to win votes and casting your opponent in a bad light. <S> Politicians never answer the question they are asked and they never address the points their opponents make. <S> They talk past each other and over each other. <S> The key to making that sort of a scene work it to write it like a prize fight. <S> Each one is looking for an opening, for a way to sting, for a way to grandstand. <S> The arguments themselves are secondary at best. <S> There are mere weapons in the war. <S> What makes or breaks the scene is not the arguments but how they are used tactically in the war for votes. <S> Make every line a blow and let the battle go back and forth, and you will have a compelling scene. <A> You don't have to write good arguments for two characters arguing opposite points in a debate, you need to write good characters. <S> As someone writing a debate, it's likely that you will favor one side over the other <S> , therefore bias to the debate will likely creep in, as it is difficult to write arguments to support a point that you don't believe in. <S> You will feel the person who is arguing against how you feel personally doesn't have good points, because you don't personally think they are good points. <S> The trick is then to make sure that the character truly believes in the points that they are arguing. <S> Then think about how someone trying to argue that the Earth is flat would attempt to convince people. <S> They may resort to appealing to emotion over solid facts, misrepresenting statistics, using specific theories or studies that agree with their point of view or any number of logical fallacies . <S> Then when writing about an issue that may actually have two valid sides of an argument, you can intersperse tactics that someone would use to argue a lost cause with actual solid reasoning that they may use. <S> Depending on the characters debating, they may both resort to some of these tactics to some extent. <S> It is not about writing a good debate, <S> it about writing how characters would attempt to debate well. <S> Whether their points are good or believable or agreeable is irrelevant, it is about how they are argued by the characters you have written. <A> Adding unnecessary comments or arguments is one of the most likely pitfalls of writing a political debate. <S> Make absolutely certain that each and every comment that your characters voice is for a specific purpose. <S> Everything must have an intended result and meaning. <S> This is all about condensing and being concise. <S> If 'George' voiced his opposition to the Bill on the floor make sure his next comment is communicating his reasoning behind his opposition <S> (BUT ONLY if his reasoning is pertinent to your story). <S> Dialog often loses its power with needless repitition of points already voiced, or adding details that are simply pointless to the purpose of the story and scene. <A> If you want to write a debate, it's the same as writing a gamble, or a fight, or any other human vs human conflict. <S> If you're on one side of this debate, find somebody in either real-life or media to give you arguments. <S> You could read Mein Kampf or any pseudo-science written in the American South to justify racism and slavery if you want real-life examples, as long as you don't use them too ham-fistedly, and probably have, if not a particularly deep debate then at least an entertaining one. <S> Since I know nothing about your story, I will put this on at the end: don't make your discriminated class be significantly different than the ruling class. <S> Detroit: <S> Become Human , for example, messed this up by making their discriminated class look exactly like the ruling class, as well as giving them enhanced abilities, an entirely different thinking process, and telepathy to other androids, so it would make sense to discriminate against them.
| Focus not on the arguments, but on the characters trying to get a read on each other, get inside of each other's heads, and ultimately come up with some twist strategy to, since it's a political debate for legislation, ultimately win the people over. One good thing to do would be to practice writing out a debate about something you are 100% decided about, let's say the Earth not being flat.
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Can a character close to the MC betray them in the first book of a series? I am writing a book which is told in first person from the main characters point of view. There is a group mainly of four people which the story involves most heavily, and one of them is planned to betray the main character in a very selfish way which probably cannot be forgiven. Is this too rapid of a decline in the security of their little group if I am planning to write two consecutive books? <Q> The fact is that betrayal is part of the fabric of life -- just as is love, trust, and hope. <S> And that's ignoring that many antagonists start out as confidants of the protagonist. <S> If you make it believable -- done for a reason that makes sense to the character themself, whether they agree is irrelevant -- then I say: have at. <A> I think it can be argued that a character can betray your MC in the first paragraphs of your story, it all depends on why. <S> Absolutely agree (+10). <S> It is your story and it is up to you how to tell it. <S> If you want to build to it, make the readers like your characters first (one book should give you enough time to do so), then go for a conflict. <S> Or make it the inciting incident of your plot or sub-plot and start with it. <S> The turf is yours. <A> I think that actually sounds really interesting actually. <S> Sometimes, the question, "Can I do something with what I am writing?" isn't really the question. <S> You can do whatever you want in writing in terms of plot. <S> I think what you are asking is not, what is possible with plot, but how do you pull it off in the narrative. <S> In that case, I would look over some of the great stories that feature betrayal, and see how you can pull ideas from them. <S> Here are some that I came up with: <S> Euripides' Medea Harry Potter (Many examples throughout.) <S> King Lear Macbeth <S> The Gospels (Judas' betrayal being archetypal for much Western fiction.) <S> These are stories that stand on their own without sequels (save Harry Potter) that deal primarily with betrayal. <S> Harry Potter is an easy one to dissect because I can assume you have read it, and betrayal is a theme throughout the whole book series, culminating in the penultimate book. <S> In the first book, the idea that Snape is a traitor is laid out from almost the very beginning, the MC's obsess over it <S> and it seems so sure, then in the climax of the book, Quirrel turns out to be the traitor. <S> In subsequent novels in the series you have different examples and types that would be good to go over and examine. <S> In the final book, you have a different kind of betrayal with Ron leaving. <S> This is ultimately settled but it could be a good study about how to bring a lot of tension into your novel. <S> A lot of thoughts, but hopefully something in there triggered your brain. <S> Besides the HP novels, the other things I listed are pretty accessible and consumable. <S> Hope this helps! <A> The answer is up to you. <S> As the author, you may know the reasons and backstory, but the readers don't. <S> In effect, what you are describing (opening paragraph betrayal) becomes "The Hook" of your book. <S> Some stories start on a dark and stormy night, others with a massive explosion, some with a series of unfortunate events, and a few start in a nice, comfortable, one might even say luxurious, hole. <S> I suggest you get feedback. <S> Have a few people read your opening paragraphs, change the names if you must, and tell you if they would read a story that started off this way. <S> Also, step back and think about this from a neutral perspective. <S> Do you like a book that starts this way? <S> Does it hook you? <S> A tragic beginning might start a book off with a bang, it might even become great. <S> It is certainly... intriguing. <S> Not all stories start and finish with a happy little elf, after all. <S> I believe that book was in aisle two, just a few down the way over there. <A> You can have your main character killed in the first paragraph if you want. <S> Dickens did that and wrote a masterpiece.
| I think it can be argued that a character can betray your MC in the first paragraphs of your story, it all depends on why.
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Adding a character from present-day Earth to a fantasy/scifi setting The average present-day human whisked away to a fantasy and/or scifi world is a common trope . It can be used well , or end up in boring stories . I feel like this trope is a bit overdone, but still want to use it. The part that worries me the most is the integration of the Muggle character into the setting. I'm afraid it will end up being perceived as a lazy way to add a cabbagehead or as some sort of wish-fulfillment story, or even break the suspension of disbelief. Is it still possible to play this trope straight? What does it takes to integrate an average Joe in a fantasy setting well? What basic criteria should the Muggle character (personnality/motivation/etc.) meet to not be a walking cliché? <Q> Is it still possible to play this trope straight? <S> Yes. <S> Setting doesn't drive a story. <S> Characters do this. <S> They have to be interesting, rounded and with a purpose. <S> In this type of story the purpose is usually to get home but not always. <S> As long as the characters are worth reading then using this trope is fine. <S> How to avoid making this kind of story boring or stereotypical? <S> Come up with a twist. <S> Do something different with it. <S> What basic criteria - meet to be interesting? <S> There's no answer for this one as an interesting character is a matter of personal opinion. <A> This trope has been used lots, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there are no new ways to approach it. <S> There are thousands of iterations of the same stories, but they're each different and engaging because they tell their own tales in their own way. <S> In order to make your story feel fresh, you just have to do something different with it, whether that is done with plot, setting, magic, characters, or something else. <S> Worldbuilding. <S> SE is a great place to start off with trying to come up with new ideas and angles. <S> You could start off with the character accidentally being summoned into another world that was trying to conjure a powerful demon, and got the spell mixed up and summoned a random person instead. <S> You can have someone introduce technology into a fantasy world by accident, setting off a battle between technology and magic. <S> As for integrating the character, you can approach that in any way you want as well. <S> Perhaps they are transported to a world where the people look like humans, but the MC is actually much stronger than most people in that world, despite being average in our world, giving them a physiological advantage over others whilst they learn about how to survive in a fantasy world they are not yet accustomed to. <S> Incorporate their unfamiliarity with the new world into their character growth, as they develop their understanding of this new world, so do they develop as a person. <S> As for something necessary for the character, I would say they would definitely need to have an opinion on returning to their own world. <S> Whether they love the new place, hate it, or have mixed feelings, they would not suddenly forget about it. <A> Older fantasy definitely used this. <S> More and more, the fantasy that is being released is a re-imagining of mundane old Earth with a secret-society-magic-supernatural layered on top of it. <S> In each of the HP novels, and the Chronicles of Narnia and other similar stories, entry into the world was a little different each time, a variation on the theme of being whisked away. <S> The mode of entry should also have an impact on the story. <S> One story I read involved someone entering the alternate by being thrown out of their car when it crashed, another was when a person got shot in the head;and <S> each of these entries figured into the conclusion of the story.
| The key, I found in most novels of this sort is to be creative with the mode of entry into the magical world.
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Naming a character late in the chapter but introducing him first In the novel (3rd person omniscient) that I'm writing, there is one character that has an overbearing presence all through the story but is never seen and no one interacts with him. What I'm trying to do is write the epilogue with the character as the focus. I'll be introducing the character at the beginning of the chapter (without naming who he is), focus on his actions and just when the chapter ends, I will identify him. So what I'm looking for is - What do you think of this approach ? Will the readers (or you as a reader) like this ? or do I need to change my approach ? Any Good books which have chapters using this approach ? If I do use this approach, then how do I introduce the character ? The setting is a post-apocalyptic world and the character is the titular reclusive dictator of the survivors. So calling him "Thin man" or "The Long Haired man" ala this question will not be appropriate and calling him "The Dictator" would ruin the surprise. So how do I approach this ? Note: While the question looks similar to this , it is not as that question was focused on a specific scenario and I'm looking for a more generic approach (In other words, I can't have tribal names). <Q> I love this approach, don't change it! <S> I once read a mystery book with an approach similar to yours, it ended on a cliffhanger but was nevertheless, satisfying. <S> Try describing him like "the adjective figure" such as "the brooding figure". <S> Pretend you're at the scene where the character is in <S> and you don't know his name. <S> How would you describe him? <S> I hoped this helped! <A> I think it's a good approach! <S> As a reader, I would enjoy the sense of mystery, and I don't think you should change it at all. <S> As for what he should be called before he's introduced, what about his eye color? <S> There's nothing special about, for example, brown eyes. <S> It would be hard to make that a spoiler. <S> If not that, what about giving him a habit- <S> for example: "the smoker;" "the fidgeter;" "the foot-tapper;" "the whistler. <S> " While I can't recall any books that use the nameless approach, ( though there are probably a good amount of them out there) I have used it in my own writing by referring to a man according to the color of his cloak and "the hooded man. <S> " There's so little ways to use this approach, which makes it pretty difficult, but I do like it a lot. <S> I hope you can work it out, and the very best of luck to you! <S> (I hope I was helpful, and I apologize if I wasn't) <A> A character does not have to be named, but they do have to be identified, otherwise the reader gets lost. <S> This says something important about them in story terms. <S> Generally, taking this approach is an expression of how other characters see that character. <S> The defining characteristic by which you identify them should make sense as the characteristic that define them for the other characters, and it speak volumes about how the other characters see that character: are they in fear, awe, or contempt of that character? <S> How they identify that character will define that relationship. <S> Giving that character a name later also define a shift in mood or in point of view. <S> Maybe one of the characters gets closer to the character. <S> Now the sobriquet they use to use no longer fits and they need to use a real name. <S> Maybe they are in different company where the sobriquet would be inappropriate or dangerous to use. <S> Point is, all these choices are structural, not arbitrary. <S> They say something important about the relationship between characters and you need to make sure that they say the right things about those relationships at the right time. <S> Any techniques works when it supports the story; every technique fails when it does not support the story.
| If you don't identify them by name, then you should identify them by some defining characteristic that makes sense in the context of the story.
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Ways to convey detailed knowledge or understanding in a novel? Show is better than tell, but that is not the whole of the story. What are some tried and tested ways of conveying a lot of knowledge, understanding or information - not necessarily technical - in a fairly short period of time in a novel? For example, one might have a character who likes to explain a lot, or there might be effective ways to convey knowledge or information while at the same time depicting action. The knowledge need not have been learnt by a character or the narrator through being formally taught, even by himself. He may have learnt it through acute observation and detailed consideration and analysis, perhaps over a period of several years, perhaps without talking about it much or even at all. This would include life lessons learnt through meditation about experience. I am trying to keep this question general, but particular examples might include the social geography of high streets and the factors that have determined the architecture and the range and positioning of different kinds of shops skills that have been learnt largely in practice, with only a fairly small amount of formal teaching, such as the skills of salesmanship or advanced deception highly honed skills of charming people a solid and detailed framework for understanding certain types of social interaction or social environment that the character or narrator has conquered by himself. Rather than just showing that a character or the narrator has this knowledge or set of skills, and how he uses them - that's if he actually does - how might we convey the knowledge to the reader fast? <Q> One way that you can use that is by creating a scene where the teachings have been used - in action. <S> You could have the main character (MC) reminisce to the teacher's teachings as he tries to resolve the problem. <S> For e.g. If your teacher is a bomb disposal expert, the MC could walk into a mall where a bomb has been planted. <S> As he tries to defuse the bomb. <S> he would think about (flashback to) what his teacher has taught him, what to do and what not do. <A> No, I don’t think there is really one. <S> Lots of Information, “teaching” = <S> Technical Writing . <S> In fiction the "teacher"character quickly becomes contrived and pedantic. <S> The reader will become bored and drop the story. <S> Though you can illustrate some of the teachings through the character’s direct experience. <S> I think this Q is linked to technical subjects - non-fiction vs fiction <A> One thing I tend to do in my writing is consider the options. <S> In gaming one would call this in Medias Res (in the middle of things), where you flash forward to a scene where mechanics can be explained in context or just before the ever popular 'anmesia' sets in. <S> This gives you the chance to both give the boring information to the reader, and offers a great chance for characterization in one fell swoop. <S> What if your MC is the teacher? <S> Have them droning to a class, protégé, small group of students, or what have you. <S> Why not intersperse the droning with mental rants? <S> Same as the last point, but different point of view. <S> The trick isn't to see what options are available (though it's important to know). <S> The trick is to see what fits your character, scene, and narrative best. <S> Hope this helps ^_^ <A> Consider writing a literary novel, a meditative novel of ideas, not a novel that you assume the reader will stop reading if he doesn't get action scene after action scene, interspersed with occasional scenes in which the narrative tension builds towards action. <S> Or consider writing a novel in an experimental form. <S> One work that comes to mind <S> , that perhaps you may usefully study if you're not already familiar with it, is Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance . <S> Critics disagree about whether it's a novel! <S> If I were Pirsig, I probably wouldn't care: it sold five million copies! <A> Have other characters know he has those skills and rely on that knowledge and skill. <S> "Bob where's Al setting up his three card monte today?" <S> "Hm... It'sTuesday. <S> If he didn't get hassled, he's out in front of DeMarco's. <S> Old Man DeMarco visits his sister on Tuesdays and Eddie has a soft spot forAl." <S> Or just wish that they could. <S> "If Frank was here he'd just do his charm thing and talk his way past the guard." <S> "But he isn't, so you're going to have to hit him." <S> Compare themselves <S> "I can pick the lock, but I'm no Angela. <S> It'll take me at least five minutes." <S> It has to be something that is scene and story relevant rather than just something contrived, but in most stories there are people around the character who knows his strengths and weaknesses and might have reason to mention them under the right conditions.
| If your MC is a student, why not portray a class where the teacher is explaining it, but your MC is daydreaming, more focused on the class clown getting in trouble, staring at their crush (or pointedly not staring at them). Flashbacks (/flashforwards) are a good way to show how someone learns it if the Main Character is already an expert when your story starts.
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How do I handle teenage sex in books for teenagers? I am writing a book, in which the protagonists are two teenagers. They fell in love and it is time they were alone and had sex. As long as the book is destined for teenagers from 15-19, I would like to ask how should I handle the sex part. What ways is sex generally handled in YA books? Are there commonly accepted methods for doing this without turning the book into an adult romance novel with underage sex scenes, or with scenes taken out of a porn movie? <Q> Vague . <S> That is to say, the reader knows they had sex by reasonable inferrence. <S> You end one scene with them entering a 'private' area (bedroom, bathroom, remotre area of the woods, etc) and start the next scene with them being sweaty, touchy-feely, and much more physically and emotionally close to each other. <S> In this way the more savvy will get it. <S> Euphemism based sex . <S> In this you have two options. <S> You can just say what it is, just not in a clinical way. <S> They didn't 'have sex' <S> they 'made love' or 'screwed' or <S> 'did the thing' or 'he popped her cherry' or whatever you want to describe it as. <S> Or if you want a more direct approach, you can try the 'looking back sequence' this: "He isn't quite sure how things escalated, but he remembers the sensations, the warmth, the closeness. <S> The nervous excitement is like a drug, even now." <S> Be sure, if you take this route, you don't encourage your audience to 'do the deed', but show it in a real light (e.g. show repurcusions thereof: STI, pregnancy, risk of losing virginity to a jerk, insecurity afterwards, etc). <A> In general, YA books have become fairly permissive. <S> You can get away with a lot , if it works within the context of your story. <S> The important question you need to ask here is: What purpose is the sex serving in your story? <S> If you don't know what it's there for, you'll have trouble writing the scene well. <S> If you know it should have dirty bits in it <S> but you don't know <S> why , then readers will probably come out of it without much impression beyond "that was a dirty bit." <S> So the questions here are: what is your book about; what does the sex signify in the story; what kind of scene and experience are you trying to create for the reader. <S> You can choose just how graphic you want to get, but the important thing is to know exactly what effect you're going for. <S> If you're aiming for "sweet, tender first love," than using hardcore pornography term will not serve you well. <S> If you're aiming for "naked, vulnerable, and utterly down-to-earth," then you won't want passionate, exaggerated euphemisms. <S> As a general rule, focus on feelings, not on mechanics. <S> Feelings, character and relationships are usually what a YA story is about . <A> I think it may be okay if the writing about making love is euphemistic -- but don't let the emotions around it be vague. <S> It should be a big event for your characters and that is what is more important than the physical act.
| You can reference body parts and intimate touches if you want to, but I think you'll usually find that getting into serious, explicit detail will be more of a distraction than anything else. There are various ways to handle this, depending on how you want the scene to come across.
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Is my method of Narration switching from objective to subjective too complicated? I'm having trouble deciding if the manner I have decided to narrate my story is too complicated or not. I have a story set in a completely foreign and alien world (fiction story). I then uproot my main character from their place of birth to a completely foreign culture (to them). I felt if I just dived straight into the story, readers wouldn't be able to relate to the surroundings and settings. I also felt they would get confused if I give them several contrasting settings and cultures at once. I do know readers are not dumb and can adjust but I don't want to get side-tracked describing something when it will interrupt the actual story flow. I'd rather have the confused MC experience something new and then later learn what this and that strange feature/animal/plant etc was. I felt I could use my MC's experience of culture shock to my advantage. So my reader learns about the world through their eyes, as they do. This would allow me to introduce differences/exotic features and have the Main Character's curiosity/misunderstanding/lack of knowledge mirror that of the reader's. But I still had trouble with POV. I didn't want to write in the first person as I want to incorporate many different characters POV, so I have decided to write in the Third person. So I have been toying with a narration sub story. So far, this what I have come up with: My Narrator is having to explain their world and recent history to a New Arrival to the planet. This confused New Arrival would be a stand-in for the Reader. Everything is being 'dumbed' down and explained to them so that they can fully appreciate the current political and cultural situation. My Narrator is using the story of my MC's similar confusion and experiences of a new culture to slowly bring the New Arrival up to speed. My Narrator knows everything that occurred as it is all in the past, coupled with a tiny bit of applied phlebotinum. The Narrator is not reliant on the Authorised history books but actually does know what happened to each character. So you will have an introductory few passages from the New Arrival's point of view, then he meets up with the Narrator. The Narrator starts telling the story in Third Person Objective style (ie no thoughts and feelings are mentioned of the MC, the New arrival is getting the slightly 'censored' version of the story). The writing then switches to the Third Person Subjective/Omniscient style (ie thoughts and feelings are mentioned for the several MC's, this is what really happened - as it happened). There would be an occasional interruption back to Third person Objective with the Narrator and New Arrival at certain story development stages. I have intended there to be some curiosity as to who the Narrator and New arrival are in relation to the Main Story. As well as how the Main Character's relate to the New arrival and the Narrator. So there can/will be several 'easter eggs'? (is that the right term) and 'red herrings' hinting to who is who and what might happen to certain characters. Is this feasible? or is it introducing too many different elements and POV's? Or am I overthinking things again, and this is a completely normal setup? <Q> As long as you make sure the POV transitions are smooth and clearly let the reader know that the POV has changed, (Have you had any trouble with that?) <S> I think it will make for an interesting, intricate read. <S> Since you seem to have it planned out in so much detail as well, I think you should go for it, and having "too many POVs and elements" really depends on the opinion of who's reading- <S> no author's book can be suited to the taste of every reader. <S> Good luck! <A> Not there there is not a place for narrative innovation in literature, but the basics are the readers want to be immersed in the story and narrative trickery is likely to pull them out of the story. <S> There is an old saying in moviemaking that if you notice the cinematography, it is bad cinematography. <S> Once you notice the cinematography, you are engaged at the technical level of movie making, not the literary level of storytelling. <S> The same goes for narrative technique in prose. <S> If the reader notices the narrative technique, it is probably bad narrative technique. <S> For an example of it done well <S> , see No Country for Old Men. <S> But even there, you definitely notice. <S> But Cormac McCarthy is a genius and can get away with it. <S> Most of us should probably stick to trying to tell an immersive story using the simplest narrative techniques we can. <A> I understand your strugglings, but IMO it would be too complex ! <S> Think about the reader, he will be, at least, as lost as the New Arrival, then you will switch to 3rd person objective, then 3rd person subjective, and "red herrings" on top of that ! <S> No one will ever make the effort to read that til the end ! <S> If you want to maintain the POV switching, you have to simplify : 1st person for all as in Faulkner's <S> As I lay dying for example. <S> Experimentation is good, but not if it's to the reader detriment !
| And if it is complex narrative technique, the reader is probably going to notice, unless it is done really really well. If you are worried that it is too complicated, it is probably too complicated.
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Introducing a plot-critical hallucinogen partway through a mystery? This is a sort of act related question. I have an important drug that causes the protagonist to encounter people and things he normally wouldn't, and it is the foundation of a convoluted plan by the antagonist. The drug is fantastical, causing others to experience what the protag hallucinates, essentially making it real as more and more people believe it is. Otherwise, the world is 'real life.' Do I need to introduce the fantasy concepts in the first act outright, or is hinting at their existence sufficient? I want the reveal that he's been poisoned to come out of nowhere at the end of the story and turn it all around, but even suggesting such a drug could exist in acts 1 and 2 would instantly tip the audience off that the mystery isn't genuine. <Q> It will be very hard to write this in a way that doesn't feel like a cheat. <S> However, in my experience as a reader, endings that feel emotionally real can get away with tying all sorts of pretzels in logic. <S> What this means is that if the problems and challenges posed in the "drug-world" are all resolved prior to the big reveal, the book will still feel complete, whereas if the problems and challenges are solved by "oh it was all just a hallucination," people will want to toss your book out a window. <S> A good model is the Wizard of Oz (movie version). <S> The entire adventure is a dream, but it has a beginning, middle and end within the dream. <S> Dorothy can't escape her story in the middle (despite unknowingly having the means to do so), she has to complete her quest. <S> After that, finding out it's a dream doesn't make the viewer feel cheated. <S> You might also make it so that the protagonist is able to gradually figure out what is happening prior to the reveal --this matches dream logic, where figuring out <S> it's <S> all a dream is typically the cue for the dream to end. <S> This way he is working for his release from the drug world, rather than just getting it handed to him on a platter. <A> My feeling is that you should hint at it, so that it doesn't feel like a deus ex machina, but write your story and show it to some beta readers asking about that in particular. <S> If you hint too strongly, it becomes obvious, but if you don't mention anything about this drug until the protagonist receives it, it shatters the suspension of disbelief. <A> Well. <S> In my opinion you should do what feels right for the story and not thinking so much of the reader. <S> When you finish your novel, then you will have a better look on the whole story and might edit if you find something could be better. <S> I think you should consider the following when you choose. <S> If your drug is only to catalyst for the interesting events then I think you should reveal most of it sooner in the story as it is a Macguffin - nothing so important just a cause. <S> In conclusion what I can say in your case is if you want the readers surprised and keeping the mystery then just suggest of this effect by the drug but <S> in order to grab the attention from the beginning then think of another effect that the drug does - maybe it is the intended effect and <S> the fact that it affects the real world is like a side effect that is revealed later. <S> Hope this helps. <A> Describing a psychedelic experience is inherently difficult. <S> You might try weaving in some behavioral changes seeming out of place as your hints something is amiss. <S> If you wait to the reveal, you'll miss out on the fantastical and spiritual elements accompanying hallucinosis. <S> Does your character know where he's getting his visions from? <S> Is he receiving commands via auditory hallucinations? <S> Whose commands? <S> God's? <S> You get the picture.
| But if you want the drug to play an important role in the story then you should not raise the mystery very early - reveal only what is needed for the story to unfold.
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What to write when I cannot create stories? I believe that I am good at expressing things specially in writing. I like to write. I have seen on this site that people usually have stories in their mind but don't know how to write it! My problem is that I can describe something very well, but I don't have the imagination to "create" stories. What are my options for writing as a hobby? <Q> Ghost writing? <S> You can even make money from it. <S> Editing would also be good for you I think. <S> Also journalism, biography novels, travel stories, memoirs. <S> Just an example. <A> If you can describe things well then don't worry about not being able to create story. <S> Every writer is different in his/her style. <S> Once you start writing you can move into different genres of it. <S> For you at this phase, you can do the following: <S> Travel writing Content and technical writing <S> Blogs - you can write any genre of blogs Fashion Blogger - if interest in fashion <S> These are just some options. <S> You could pursue any of them and with time you can earn a living through this. <S> But initially, I would suggest not to think more about money but think about how well you can describe things, places, etc. <S> Hope this helps <A> “Where do you get your inspiration?” <S> This is an often hated, and feared, Q author’s get. <S> Their ability to generate good ideas at the drop of a pin seems unnatural and exceptional to non-writers. <S> They appear like inspired and gifted individuals for whom muses dance. <S> A couple years ago I started developing a story mostly based on my life. <S> After a few weeks of expending on the novel, all these other ideas started coming to me. <S> As time went by, I had more and more ideas, aand <S> I now have a dozen notebooks full of books projects. <S> My point is that it seems to me that inspiration is like a muscle, the more you exercise it, the bigger it gets. <S> So, devote some time to try to write a story, any story, and soon you will start hearing the soft echos of divine murmurs. <A> Poetry? <S> I write 100-word pieces of fiction and it's sometimes tricky to get "story" into so few words. <S> It's much easier to make them into little scenes or observations or even tiny essays. <S> I don't write poetry, but these little things sometimes feel like it.
| For example you can create a blog and include stories of places you have visited.
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How to finish a story? I do realize that this is a very generic question, and I apologize if it doesn't meet the requirements of this forum. I have plenty of ideas for stories and I come up with new ones all the time, which always results in me starting off very ambitiously creating a story world, characters, the main storyline etc. But I'm never able to finish it before I get a new idea which I feel like I have to write down before I forget it. So my question is: What are some key elements to finishing writing a story. (By finishing I mean having a beginning, middle and end. Finishing touches are not included.) <Q> If you have ideas for other stories, note them down, and then return to writing the story at hand. <S> You will know when the beginning that you set out from wraps up and completes from your gut feeling of completion. <S> If you are an outliner, then figure out what the story is about. <S> What is, to use an example, the mystery that needs to be solved? <S> What is the goal that the hero tries to achieve? <S> The end will be, when the hero achieves his goal or finally fails forever. <S> The end will be, when the murderer is caught, the riddle solved, the world saved, the lovers married. <S> I don't know what you are writing about, but if you are not just meandering through your imagination but are actually telling a story , then the end to that story is implicitly contained in it. <S> If I understand you correctly, you are not actually writing anything, just playing with your ideas. <S> You need to decide on one and work on it. <S> If you cannot do that, then you are not a writer but a dreamer. <S> Writing, like all other occupations, needs a certain focus and discipline. <S> If you cannot control your attention to stay focussed on one task, then you cannot succeed at that task. <S> And no amount of advice for writers is going to help you, because then the problem is not in a lack of craft but in either your attitude or your ability to focus. <A> When you start writing a story, don't stop. <S> If you get brilliant ideas, write them down for later. <S> But always finish your stuff, even if it's absolute garbage. <S> Finish it and then get on to a new one. <A> Plan. <S> I used to be vehemently against planning, but had I not, I never would've finished anything. <S> Research the five point plot structure, and use that for each of your characters. <S> You don't have to have all the plot points when you start writing, but I find it helps to at least have a beginning and an end. <S> I've never finished a story where I didn't know the ending very early on. <S> As for the other ideas, make notes on them. <S> That gets the ideas out of your system while still allowing you to focus on your chosen project. <S> Ultimately, you have to decide which one to focus on, or you'll never finish anything. <S> Pick the project that's closest to your heart. <S> If you don't have one, go for the one you have the most ideas on. <S> There is always an idea that stands out to us the most, even if we don't want to admit it because it's too difficult or too sensitive or for some other reason. <S> Give yourself a daily target for writing. <S> I aim for 1000 words a day (some people prefer to go by time frames). <S> Once I get home from work and have eaten my dinner, I don't leave my laptop until those words are written. <A> I took him out back and I shot him. <S> It didn't make me feel bad really. <S> I didn't even think twice even as the police completely exonerated for any involvement in the murder. <S> I waved. <S> The detective waved back. <S> I went back inside, switched on the Television, grabbed a cold one from the fridge and a chilled glass from the freezer. <S> That beer went down real good.
| If you are a discovery writer, then just write your story until you hit the end. It's important to write even on the days you don't feel like it, because that's how you build a routine. Plan, plan, plan.
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How far can insults go in a "Young Adult" novel? In a Young Adult (>12 y. old) novel, once the obviously bad words (F-word, C-word, N-word, etc.) taken away, how far can rude language go ? For example, can I use insults like : "Go sit on a rusty nail!", or "Hang yourself.", or "Eat your deads"? Those contain everyday words, but sounds a bit too violent to me. I wonder if insults basically telling someone to harm or even kill themselves, or to have sex with animals/parents/corpses, even if said with PG vocabulary, are too crude for a YA novel. Is there a general rule for this ? <Q> This isn't a general rule, but perhaps one that might be useful to you. <S> Teachers, like myself, don't really want swearing or explicit sexual references in the texts we teach. <S> Reading them out loud can cause problems even if the language is realistic. <S> (A novel becoming a common school text will mean greater revenue than just appealing to casual YA readers.) <S> However, insults, etc. are a part of everyday life and have to be written about. <S> Robert Swindells in Stone Cold manages to make his characters, mostly homeless people, sound realistic without using a single 'four-letter word'. <S> Eoin Colfer, in the very popular Artemis Fowl series, made up swear word: 'darvit'. <S> Soap operas before the nine o'clock watershed avoid swearing, but there is plenty of violent language in some of them. <S> Think about the Hunger Games series or Maggot Moon which includes a very graphic scene of a teacher kicking a student to death, including things like an eyeball popping out. <S> Teenagers actually like to read about violence. <S> Glorifying violence can be a problem, but violence per se isn't. <S> Stand in a school for a while <S> and you'll hear a lot worse than what you have suggested above, and novels often exaggerate reality. <A> There's a whole world of insults out there! <S> From disparaging your opponent's parentage, denigrating their intelligence, making fun of clothing, and saying your opponent is ugly or cowardly--all these are acceptable. <S> The insults you put forth are fairly tame. <S> If you are worried about violence in them, you must not be writing for an American audience. <S> Successful YA novels are rife with violence. <S> Sex not so much. <S> YA is written for teens. <S> And teens have been exposed to much worse than "go sit on a rusty nail." <S> "Hang yourself" is fairly blunt really. <S> That's not really an insult, that's a suggestion to kill yourself. <S> It really depends on what you want your insults to achieve. <S> " <S> Eat sh*t and die" was a popular one when I was growing up, punctuated by rude gesture, generally as a conversation ender. <S> But prior to that there was a build... <S> "eat your deads? <S> " I have never heard that one and have no idea what it means... <S> You can certainly get more creative. <S> "Maybe if you ate some of that makeup you'd be pretty on the inside." <S> (found that one on the internet). <S> It also depends on if this is here on earth, or in a created reality (like the Hunger Games). <S> You can create subs for cursing in a created reality. <S> Gorram it! <S> Watch your fracking language! <S> Also, look to Shakespeare , that guy was pretty darn good at it. <S> It's not hard to go through this list and update it. <A> My personal rule of thumb is to ask myself would I be comfortable with my daughter saying it when she is 13 years old. <S> Generally I want the dialogue to range from no discomfort at all to a bit of a cringe, so anything you'd hear on the Simpsons. <S> If it sounds like something more is needed, it is the basic " He swore angrily. " <S> That makes it when the character does actually swear, it's a precision F strike that makes people pay attention, rather than getting lost in the background. <A> I've read plenty of YA novels with swearing in. <S> The Gossip Girl series is a prime example - from what I can remember, it uses the F word, and possibly worse, although it's been a long time since I read it. <S> I don't really think anything is off-limits, to be honest. <S> Teenagers are far less likely to filter what they say/do than the rest of us. <S> If they already know the offensive language, why patronise them by using a sugarcoated version of a word if the swear word is more effective? <S> In terms of violence, as mentioned above, there are lots of YA novels that contain violence, too. <S> So long as the violence is justifiable, there's no reason you can't go into detail. <S> You'll lose more points with the reader for omitting something than for going into graphic detail.
| Using violent, common words and phrases is fine. YA novels can be very violent.
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How to convey that the main characer is in pain while dialogue is occuring I'm writing a story in first person. There's a point in the story where two characters are having a dialogue, while the narrator is listening. The problem is that the narrator is also in pain while this dialogue is occurring (think super-villain explaining their evil plan while the hero is injured). There are also a few points where the narrator asks questions during the dialogue, although these questions are very short. The dialogue is actually pretty long -- it's about two pages in length. The dialogue needs to make it into the story -- it contains important information for the audience. What's a good way to multitask and convey that the narrator is in pain, while also including the dialogue in its entirety into the story? <Q> There are several tools you can use to infer distress through your narrator. <S> Have your narrator ask a confusing question, and then correct themselves. <S> Have your narrator interrupt part of the dialogue with thoughts of the pain or distress they are going through. <S> You can also do this from the other persons point of view by having the speaker demand the narrator pay attention, or they could ask the narrator if they understand because they look confused. <A> If the story is in the first person from the narrator's point of view, then simply have the narrator think about how much pain they're in, you could even have sections where the dialogue fades out while the narrator focuses on their injury, leaving you ways to have some mystery elements in the story. <S> For all the reader knows, they were talking about where the evil bomb is kept during those breaks, or what they want for dinner. <S> You often read the narrator's thoughts in books written in the first person, because it's from their point of view, and character's thoughts are often very important in explaining their motivation and actions, so having the narrator think about their injury - even complaining about how distracting it is - would fit in well. <S> If this is too complicated, then simply show the readers that the narrator is injured and in pain, have them "hiss in pain" a short time after they were injured, as a simple reminder that they got hurt badly. <S> The important part is making sure it doesn't take away from the dialogue and make sure the reader gets all the information they need from reading this dialogue. <A> Everyone has made very good suggestions about this, and a few other ways to convey that your narrator is in pain is by utilizing the short questions they ask: their voice can be strained or quaver, their breathing labored. <S> They can sweat with the agony as well. <S> Good luck with your writing! <A> It also somewhat depends on what kind of pain, but in general I would use the second person here ("You don't look good, are you OK? <S> ", "Is anything wrong? <S> ", etc.)The narrator could then could answer truthfully, giving more details on the pain, or could try lying, giving his reasons to the reader only. <A> He felt certain he would black out. <S> Tony snapped his fingers. <S> " <S> Hey! <S> Hey! <S> Wake up! <S> We're not finished yet!"
| Have your narrator ask for clarification on something the other person said as if they missed what was said due to distraction from the pain.
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At what age can I publish a book? I am writing a novel called " Kimberly Rose ," but the thing is, I'm 12. I'm not sure if there is an age cap when it comes to publishing books. Please tell me if you know. <Q> First of all, good for you! <S> Secondly, have a look at this: http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0768778.html <S> I suggest you have a proofreader read your story so you can know if it needs adjustments or corrections. <S> Good luck! <S> I really hope your book gets published and you write many more in the future! <A> Your age shouldn't have an affect on whether or not you get published. <S> this webpage <S> has lots of case studies on writers who got published as teenagers, and how it effected their writing careers and lives. <S> The general advice is not to tell an agent or publishing house your age until you meet in person, this prevents your query from being thrown out the window immediately, as many people believe young people cannot write with the depth an adult can, simply because they haven't written enough. <S> It's fantastic you're already writing a novel at 12, so make sure to keep at it. <S> Have friends, family or teachers read a draft for feedback and use this to make your writing better. <S> Once you've finished that all important first draft, feel free to pat yourself on the back, it's hard finishing a draft and not giving up partway. <S> Once the celebration is over, it's time to think about editing. <S> Your first draft won't be perfect, so put it down for a month, maybe write something else for a bit, before coming back to look at your novel with fresh eyes, ready for editing! <S> You're still young, so you have plenty of time to perfect your novel and your writing, don't rush something out of a lower quality than what you would be happy with seeing under your name just so you were published young. <S> Just remember to always be proud of what you've done. <S> Even thinking as far ahead as publishing is a great ambition that I certainly didn't have at 12! <A> At your age you shouldn't try to judge yourself by commercial success, but by whether you finished the project successfully. <S> That includes not only coming up with and executing the idea, but also maintaining quality control over everything. <S> Try to keep an eye out for markets which appeal to people your age. <S> (I talked recently to a 16 year old who published and sold her first comic book 2 years ago. <S> Now she is running her own comic book company). <S> I once created a 75 page Dungeons and Dragons module at the age of 14 -- I was very proud of that -- I ended up enjoying it at a well-attended gaming convention which I organized at 15. <S> I recently judged a fiction writing contest for 7th and 8th graders. <S> Although many works dealt with typical zombie and superhero plots -- and some of the writing was horrible -- generally their ideas and characters and dialogue were interesting and original. <S> The only thing I'd warn you against is trying to finish things too quickly. <S> Write it, let it sit around for a while, and then come back to it.... <S> Finally, we are in an age where publishing is relatively easy; the hardest part is being to package and market what you've written.
| I don't think your age will affect the publishing of your book, but the quality of your writing will- just as it would any adult author.
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Will I ever be able to write like a native writer? So a little while ago someone said that I'll never be able to write on a native level because I wasn't born in the UK or America. I did, however, go to elementary school in the US at the ages of 5-10 or so, so that has to count for something, right? I just feel really let down for some reason. I can definitely tell when a sentence is or isn't grammatically correct, but I just feel like there's something missing. I'd like to write a novel one day, but I have no clue where to start or if I'm even qualified to write one. Can anyone give me some tips? I'm currently a nineteen-year-old freshman in college pursuing a bachelor's. I haven't decided on a major yet, but I've been considering Professional Writing/Technical Communication because I think it would be quite cool to make a living writing. However, I'm not sure if that would be a poor degree choice. A lot of people say that it's not very marketable. I do read a lot of blogs and such daily, and I constantly try to improve my writing by writing as concisely as possible. I feel like the biggest thing that I need to work on right now is increasing my vocabulary size--which means being good at something so that I actually have material to write about. Thanks! <Q> Joseph Conrad was one of the greatest novelists ever to write in the English language. <S> He was born in Poland and did not become fluent in English until his twenties. <S> It can be done. <S> But writing a novel is not about being able to write a grammatical sentence. <S> It is about being able to tell a compelling story. <S> There is no certain way to equip yourself to tell a compelling story, but reading lots and lots of them, including the very best ever written, is a great way to go about it. <S> I would suggest starting with Joseph Conrad. <S> There is no way to guarantee that any specific skill will stay marketable. <S> Not even for the time it takes to get a degree, let alone for a career. <S> (I studied to be a teacher because there was supposed to be a huge demand. <S> Only three people in my graduating class got hired. <S> The boom was over by the time we graduated.) <S> If your heart is set on a career that requires specific training, like teaching or law, you should study that, not because it is marketable but because you love it. <S> You do not need a degree in technical communication to get a job as a technical writer. <S> A degree (or experience) in a subject related to what you will be writing about can often help much more. <S> Tech writing is one of the most diverse fields on the planet. <S> No one qualification will make you a candidate for all tech writing jobs. <S> You only get to go to college once in your life. <S> Study the thing you are most passionate about. <S> You will be a better student for it, a more engaged student, a happier student. <S> Whether the subject you study will be marketable or not one, five, ten, or twenty years after you graduate will be impossible to predict, but you will be more marketable. <A> If you have a story, you can tell it in any language you know well enough to communicate. <S> Living in English-speaking environment for a considerable number of years would give you a tremendous advantage in terms of getting a feel of the language, but I believe that you can do without it, providing that you do run your lines by a native speaker , who is a friend and supporter , and not the one who told you that you will never be able to write in the language which is not your own. <S> Send that person a signed copy of your published novel, when you get the author's batch from Penguin Random House. <A> Yes, you will be able to write as well as a native speaker, in fact you already do. <S> Your written English is already far better than many native speakers, so you now face the same challenge all us native speaking writers do, which is to hone your writing skills 'til they're sharp enough to bleed, find your voice, and then give yourself to getting that first novel penned. <A> Reading (and listening) is a good way to 'absorb' a language, provided the source material is good. <S> Blogs are likely not to be written as carefully as novels, a BBC news anchor is likely to be more careful with his pronunciation than a random guy on Youtube. <S> Join a writers' group (*) and ask people to review your work. <S> Review the work of others (also a learning experience, as it'll force you think about language, rather than use it intuitively). <S> *: any writers' group, locally where you live or online. <S> Subject doesn't matter, as long as you have fun writing. <A> I do not know enough about what obstacles you face. <S> What I do know is that no matter what ability a person wants to master, practice is the key. <S> I am sure that you will understand what you need to do when you reflect on your failures. <S> Feedback on your writing helps you find problems with your writing, but it does not help you find out about what obstacles you have inside yourself. <S> Focus your problem solving on your writing process . <S> Watch how you work, what you avoid, how you feel, and what you think when you cannot write, etc. <S> Maybe your problem is not linguistic at all. <S> Perhaps the solution for you is to overcome your inhibition to speak English regardless of your pronunciation. <S> This might be more about your linguistic identity than your linguistic ability. <A> Bah humbug, the other answers should convince you that you can do it. <S> Another story to remember is that Samuel Beckett was an Irishman who lived in Paris and wrote in English and French. <S> And if you did, would you choose Goa or Singapore? <S> Botswana or Cardiff? <S> Nova Scotia or Dunedin? <S> Whatever you do don't become a bad copy of a New York or London writer. <S> If you can't live in a city of native English speakers you can mix with them in your local community. <S> While they may not know all the latest tween slang, they will provide an unique and authentic voice for your characters. <S> A writer writes. <A> First, you certainly have a level of competency that exceeds most native English speakers. <S> If you want more training, consider copywriting. <S> https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/want-to-become-a-better-writer-copy-the-work-of-others/ <S> Mine the writing of decades for the gems of prose. <S> Chew on style and tone, digest it, make it part of you.
| Your writing skills will improve with practice, and with feedback. I am not convinced you need to live in an English speaking place.
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Plot: is it as central as "fun" or "entertaining"? So I was writing a story and realized that there was more then enough background material from the characters and actions that these characters went through to write a whole book just on them and the adventures they went on beforehand. But that story would have no real plot. The characters and people in the story would have many adventures but, at the end of the book, all that would have really happened would be that they would have gone from children to teens to young adults... that and it would be fairly traumatizing as they don't exactly have happy happy lives, that's why they go so far to have fun... so basically... So do I need a plot for this book.... or is 'sorrow and fun' enough of a plot? I mean that's the 'plot' of 'Doctor Who' so...? EDIT: Its not much of a "Coming of Age" story, only one character really "Comes of Age" during this story, while the others grow up there's an important difference between growing older and "Coming of age", and the one character that does is a secondary character. Any help here would be great. <Q> Can you restructure it to be an anthology of short stories? <S> While the whole might not have a beginning/middle/end, I assume the individual events within the characters life contain conflict and transformation on a smaller scale. <S> If you can package those short stories into a book that doesn't offer a larger arc, but does provide a plot on the small scale, that might be something that works. <A> Take care not to write a Fan Fiction of your own work. <S> While Fan Fictions are fun to read when you know the story it belongs to, they might not be able to hook a reader that is not familiar with the background of the story. <S> If you decide to write a Coming of Age story for your characters, make sure it is a stand-alone book that includes all the necessary ingredients. <S> A question you can ask yourself to decide whether your story has the quality of a Fan Fiction (in the sense that it is a spin-off that can usually not survive on its own) or a full-fledged novel is: Do I write the book because I want to have fun with the characters? <S> (Fan Fiction.) <S> Or do I write the book, because the story fascinates me? <S> Advice on "plotting" can be found in a number of standard text books. <S> (By the way, I've written Fan Fiction scenes in my own stories and the best advice I've gotten so far was "Kill your darlings". <S> It made my stories much better.) <A> "they would have gone from children to teens to young adults" is called a Bildungsroman, or a coming of age story . <S> It's a classic and perfectly serviceable plot journey. <S> Your plot is based on each character's development and growth. <S> (I'm not sure how Doctor Who fits into your example other than "goes on adventures.")
| If you have a solid story to present -- and kids growing up is a very solid story, in my opinion --, you should be able to flesh it out into a stand-alone novel.
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How early in the narrative should I start my book? I've just recently finished building the setting and plot of a fantasy coming-of-age story. I'm happy with the way it turned out; the character arcs feel compelling and the setting supports the plot nicely. I've got everything planned out — all the different subplots have been tied up in nice, neat packages — but I have no idea where to start. Being a coming-of-age story, there needs to be a lot of character development. Being a fantasy, it's going to take a while to expose the plot. The main arc isn't quite enough to fill an entire book, so there's some room left over to use for exposition, but I don't know how much of it I should use. The timeline goes something like this: Yr 10: Main character meets very important side character. Yr 10.5: Main character and side character escape an attack on their home town. Yr 10.5-16: Main character and side character scrape out a living in another town. Yr 15: Main character and side character, tired of the town and its prejudice, decide to leave and live as nomads. Yr 15-16.5: Main character and side character travel from town to town, living mostly off the land and from less-than-legal ways of acquiring goods. Yr 16.5: Main character and side character hear whispers of the people who attacked their town and go off to investigate. Main story arc begins. The question: How early should I start? The earlier ones have the benefit of more in-depth setting and character development, but I'm worried they won't have enough action to hold the reader until the main plot. Likewise, the later ones feel like they throw the reader into the story far too quickly. At this point, I really have no idea how early in the story I should start. There's downsides to starting early, but there's also downsides to starting late, and without a good idea of how long the main arc will be I really have no idea how to decide. Does anyone have any suggestions? Edit: As some of the comments pointed out, I forgot to mention the length of the story. While I haven't ironed out that detail yet — it's partially based on the point at which I end up starting — it's certainly not a short story, but it's not a multi-book series, either. The best comparison I can make is slightly longer than The Hobbit, but it remains to be seen just how much longer it will be. <Q> In the case of an exile story, the desire is usually either revenge or to return home (which may mean to find a new home). <S> To establish revenge as the desire, you start by establishing the character's love for those for whom revenge is sought. <S> To establish a desire to return home, you start by establishing the character's love for that home. <S> Then you deprive them of those people or that home. <S> LOTR begins by establishing Frodo and Sam's love of the Shire, which represents the way of life that they are seeking to preserve. <S> (Which is why the story ends with the scouring of Shire, not the crowning of the King.) <S> Harry Potter, on the other hand, is a escape story, and so it begins by establishing the place that must be escaped from (Privet Lane). <S> Desire and its frustration are the root of all stories, you begin by establishing the desire and the things that frustrate that desire. <S> Without those things, the timeline you have described is mere travelogue. <A> Somebody said once that the right question bears half of the answer within. <S> Whether you have your story already written or not, <S> it is clearly structured and well thought through. <S> Your characters seemed to be defined and developed, and I have little doubt that your plot is solid. <S> I think that your question is not how early to start your narrative, but how to deliver your story in a most efficient way, keeping the reader engaged and motivated to continue reading. <S> There is an infinite number of possibilities, and they all depend upon your style and taste, the genre of your story, the length of it—as @KenMohnkern mentioned—and the audience you are targeting. <S> If you see your book as a hard action thriller, do not be afraid to start with a scene where your main character and his sidekick are being chased by the authorities because a random thug they teamed up with for this particular heist, sold them up to save his hide, but not before saying something about their hometown which makes them want to go there and see what is going on. <S> You can then bring all the backstory piece by piece as a series of flashbacks between the action scenes. <S> If you are aiming at a classic epic fantasy, do not be afraid to expand upon the exposition—epic fantasy readers do enjoy throughly built worlds and beautifully presented settings—but just keep building tension scene by scene. <S> The choice it yours and only yours, and <S> no one can really tell you what words to type and in what order. <S> For me, you answered you own question when you said Main story arc begins <S> But it is just me : <S> -)Best of luck. <A> Only you know where your story begins. <S> I'll ask you a few questions to help you figure out what you already know, deep inside: <S> What is, for you, the seed of that story? <S> The initial core idea from which you built all of it? <S> Sometimes it is a scene. <S> Could that be the beginning? <S> What is the logline ? <S> The premise? <S> The moral? <S> The theme? <S> The message? <S> The change? <S> The crisis or climax? <S> Can you foreshadow the essence of rthe story in its first sentence? <S> What is the plot or the main character's arc? <S> Were does the protagonist stand at the beginning (in terms of life situation and personality development)? <S> Can you create a scene that shows this outset to the reader? <S> Look at the beginnings of novels. <S> A Google search for something like "novel first sentence" turns up many lists with famous examples. <S> Also go to Amazon.com and look at beginnings of novels in your genre using Amazon's "Look inside" function. <S> Go through these beginnings of famous and genre novels and try to understand how they work. <S> Looking at them with the questions above in mind will give you many ideas for first sentences for your novel, and the rest will flow from there. <A> When to start a story? <S> When the main character realizes s/he has a problem. <S> Stories are about one or more problems confronting the main character, and how s/he goes about solving it/them. <S> You don't want to start the story with "background," because without the problem, the story is "trivial." <S> Instead, use "flashback" scenes to depict the necessary background. <S> So if the problem starts in say, Year 5, start it the story there. <S> And use "flashback" to cover years 1-4.
| A story should start with the revelation of the desire that will drive the main character.
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What genre would this fall under? Imagine a story in which the criminal is, from the very beginning, already known to the protagonist. Now the task is to find the criminal, but the target evades capture easily. This is clearly different from normal crime stories, in which the identity must be found first, but I don't know what it is called. <Q> This is extremely similar to a British show called The Fall, on Netflix. <S> You know right from the get-go, and he gets plenty of screen-time throughout. <S> I urge you to watch that before you start writing this. <S> There are definitely some pitfalls to avoid with this sort of thing. <A> Crime drama. <S> Wikipedia told me so. <S> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_%28TV_series%29 @JStrange88 led me to it. <A> You could go with Thriller. <S> If attempts are being made at capturing the criminal <S> but s/ <S> he escapes everytime, I suspect there'd be lots of thrilling moments. <S> This depends on how the story develops. <S> For example if the detectives husband is the criminal who's been having an affair with the detective's sister on the side.
| You could also use Drama.
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Can I use "fuck" as a non-vulgar verb in a fantasy/steampunk world? I've been sending my fourth-ish novel through the my writing group. It is about a trio of teenagers running away from some mercenaries. One of them (Maris) is a girl who has only had a year of formal education but grew up on a crowded lumber mill. She has a rather blunt way of speaking. In the story, the POV character (Kanéko) is rescued by the other two. Kanéko worried her lip. "Why?" "You were in need." Maris' ears drooped and she looked sad. "And Ruben said you were in trouble. And Pahim smelled like he wanted to fuck you. And he's mean. And I don't think he liked you. And I don't hate you." Kanéko opened her mouth, and then closed it. She found herself unable to look into Maris' wide eyes and looked away. And other example: "Pahim," snapped Kanéko, "That horrible bastard. I mean... we slept together and what does he do?" Kanéko's voice rose up as rage filled her. "Then he kidnaps me and tries to sell me off like some slave!" Maris gaped. "You fucked Pahim?" Kanéko gasped, and then blushed hotly. "No! Not like that. I mean, we were in the same bed but we... didn't do anything. I swear!" The part that the writing group got hung up was the use of "fuck" in this context. I intended it to be used purely as a verb to describe a specific set of actions with the connotation of not doing it for procreation. I thought about using a different phrase ("mount" or "hump" would be appropriate for the Maris). My question is: does this throw the reader out? I believe there are some fantasy authors who do use it but I'd just like to know opinions. Is "fuck" so encumbered by today's meaning that it can't be used without dragging in a whole lot of negative connotations? <Q> In your question you claim that you are using the word "[un]encumbered by today's meaning". <S> I disagree. <S> The meaning that the word has in your world is exactly the same that it has today: have sexual intercourse. <S> It is this meaning that makes is useful as a swearword, since sex is taboo in our society. <S> It is this reference to an obscene act that the word "fuck" still retains in your world. <S> And since people like to use words for tabooed acts such as sex and defecation as swearwords it is very likely that "fuck" would be used as a swearword in your world, too. <S> Unless sex itself had become something that the inhabitants of your world could engage in publicly, in the same way that we publicly engage in eating, that is, people would "fuck" while talking to others on a busy street or invite business partners to a "business-fuck". <S> There are levels of society where using strong language is common. <S> The lower classes (or however you want to call them) don't use euphemisms such as "sleeping together" or "going to the restroom", but use "fuck" and "shit" to denote these activities. <S> Your excerpt makes me think of such rough folk, not of a world where the word "fuck" is no longer obscene. <A> I believe it's okay depending on the context you use it. <S> "Fuck" does throw off a couple readers because it comes off as a jarring to some readers. <S> It's also not widely accepted in society. <S> However, if your character is built up to have such mannerisms, then it's okay to use it. <S> I wouldn't expect to hear "fuck" from a devout nun, but from a psychopath murderer (which is an extreme), its expected. <S> In this case, "mount" would sound weird. <A> Doesn't bother me, considering the context, but then I'm known for having a potty mouth. <S> :) <S> As long as your book is pitched to an adult audience, you're fine. <A> The sexual act can be tender or it can be violent. <S> Its violent aspects can be consensual or non consensual. <S> There are many different words for it, reflecting each of these connotations. <S> F <S> *** is one of the more violent of these words. <S> But f <S> *** also has other connotations: to cheat, for instance, or to make a mistake. <S> When applied to the sexual act, it tends to express lovelessness, casualness, and indifference. <S> It is a grubby violent word (which is the reason I obscure it when I must make reference to it). <S> There was an attempt to normalize it at one point <S> but it came to nothing. <S> Thirty years on, it is still a stock phrase of shock comedians. <S> Overuse has not softened it, presumably because people do not want it softened, they want a grubby violent world for loveless sex, cheating, and incompetence. <S> Every word has <S> its baggage and its baggage is what gives it its power, for good or ill. <S> There is a reason that we have to invent clinical words for acts like sexual intercourse that have such powerful emotional overtones (which are in turn reflected in the various words we use to describe them). <S> You should not expect to be able to rob any non-clinical term of its overtones. <S> Nor, frankly, should you wish to. <S> It is the overtones of words that give them their emotional power, which is exactly what you need in fiction. <A> I kinda agree - it's a little jarring, even if it is only meant to be a verb, not a curse word. <S> My personal opinion, a word that reflects the world specifically might be a better choice here, creatively speaking. <S> Also, something to consider: your intended audience. <S> If you intend this for a YA audience, it really should be changed. <A> At one time in history "fuck" meant simply "to fertilize" or "to have sex with". <S> A late middle ages text ran, if i recall correctly "The farmer fucks the seed into the ground", and this was intended as a perfectly straightforward description. <S> But that is not true of any current English-speaking community. <S> " <S> Fuck" has acquired a connotation of violence, or at least of lovelessness. <S> There are other terms for 'to have sex with" that are not elaborate euphemisms unlikely to be used in the kind of dialog you quote in the question, but without this distracting connotation, or not as much of it. <S> I would suggest "lay" as one possibility. <S> It also tends to suggest casual sex without romance, but not as strongly as "fuck" and without the violent overtones. <S> Let's try it in soem of the dialog from the question: <S> "Pahim," snapped Kanéko, "That horrible bastard. <S> I mean... <S> we slept together and what does he do? <S> " <S> Kanéko's voice rose up as rage filled her. " <S> Then he kidnaps me and tries to sell me off like some slave!" <S> Maris gaped. <S> "You laid Pahim?" <S> Kanéko gasped, and then blushed hotly. " <S> No! <S> Not like that. <S> I mean, we were in the same bed <S> but we... didn't do anything. <S> I swear!" <S> In the othe quote "fuck" actually seems appropriate, the speaker intendes the speech to be a bit shocking i think, but consider: Maris' ears drooped and she looked sad. " <S> And Ruben said you were in trouble. <S> And Pahim smelled like he wanted to lay you. <S> And he's mean. <S> And I don't think he liked you. <S> And I don't hate you." <S> Other possible verbs: "Spread", "screw", "ravish" (a bit too old-fashioned, perhaps), "do" (as in "He did her"). <S> Ther are quite a few others possible.
| It is not the word "fuck" that is considered obscene, but the sexual activity it denotes.
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Folktale within a folktale I am looking for any type of oral literature (folktale, poem whatever), that would include an inserted story, however minor, that is in its content foreign to the primary poem, folktale... Let me give you an example of what I am looking for: a Russian fable in which a fox would tell to a chicken the story of Noah's ark or something like that. Something in this made up way... Does anyone know a story like that? <Q> One example could be the Growltiger song from Cats. <S> In the original staging, the song told the story of Growltiger's Last Stand - when his boat is swarmed by enemies and Growltiger killed. <S> Immediately prior to the attack, Growltiger and is girlfriend are sitting on the boat, and they sing The Ballad of Billy MaCaw. <S> The ballad could be dropped without affecting the Growltiger story in any way (and has been in some stagings). <S> The whole piece is about 15 minutes long, and is drawn from T. S. Elliot's poem book, Old Possums' Book of Cats. <A> Yes for exampleThere is a boy who has to find 7 gems to avoid a disaster in his town. <S> And then we can include a folk story of how these gems were made or found. <S> For example we can say a curse of some lady created those gems. <A> Oddly enough, this is the structure of my own children's book, How the Fisherman Tricked the Genie . <S> It's based fairly closely on a lesser known story from the Arabian Nights. <S> The outer story is about a fisherman who has the misfortune to release an evil genie from a container. <S> The fisherman tells the genie a fairy tale about a wicked king and a magician, who in turn tells a fable about a prince and a dog. <S> In my version there's a more pronounced difference of styles between the stories, but the nested structure is present in the original. <S> Arguably, the entire Arabian Nights is itself an example of this structure. <S> Although it's not exactly a "folktale" it almost certainly compiles stories from the oral tradition. <S> I feel certain there must be others, but I'm having trouble thinking of one. <S> Possibly also of interest is the well-known spiritual "Mary, Don't You Weep," which centers around figures from the New Testament, but interpolates Old Testament Bible stories. <S> If you don't require English, there are West African poems that are essentially compilations of allusions to well-known proverbs , fables and older poems. <S> This Wikipedia article, although not focused on the oral tradition, does give some other good examples, including the Odyssey . <A> The classic example would be The Arabian Nighs (AKA One Thousand and One Nights) ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights ) in which Scheherazade tells her husband an new story each night to keep him from cutting her head off.
| The widespread folktale " The Hidden Treasure " (which inspired Paulo Coelho's bestseller The Alchemist ) has characters that retell their dreams.
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Should I punctuate my poems Most poetry I have seen, especially free-form, is written in broken lines. These lines them run into other lines and so not have any punctuation. Some have explained this using enjambment. Where I have seen enjambment being useful are in lines which have to keep a rhyme scheme but are too long; for example Never did I ever Think or even wonder That this country Which I live in Would make me begin to ( tah ) p.s: there could be a comma between "think" and "or", or even at the end of the lines. Other people explain the lack of punctuation to be style. Some claim the introduction of punctuation would constrict the readers to one particular voice. This is not just seen in free-form or open-form poems. But poems to form also sometimes lack punctuation. Should I be punctuating my poems or no? <Q> Prose is governed by the rules of orthography. <S> Poetry is governed by the poet. <S> Punctuation is part of your artistic vision. <A> Enjambment versus end-stopped lines can also be useful to speed up or slow down a poem. <S> Punctuation can be used to give the reader an indication of when to stop for a breath or at the end of a thought. <S> You may find that a particular poem needs punctuation and another doesn't. <S> If you're not sure, read your poem out loud. <S> It will help you get a feel for what is needed. <A> There are cases where punctuation can be important in clarifying meaning, such as in cases of subject-verb agreement. <S> Line breaks/ enjambments function to give a "pause" or break between items, such as in a series, replacing commas. <S> But they cannot serve the way commas do in clarifying subject/verb agreement. <S> And within a line, of course, it is recommended to use commas for that purpose as well. <S> Example: <S> My parents needed no reprieve from mighty Titian’s lustborne dancing women nude as cows romancing well-dressed men. <S> But let me leave! <S> Are the women or the cows romancing well-dressed men? <S> So you need to set off "nude as cows" in commas. <S> In general, it is up to the poet, but a poet should be well-versed in grammatical rules to begin with, even if the poem is one long sentence, and apply those rules when necessary. <S> Some poets, such as W S Merwin, hardly ever use punctuation, but he skillfully crafts his poetry to allow for that.
| In such cases, where the meaning could be muddled by lack of punctuation (bearing in mind that line breaks function as punctuation but not in the same way), then it should be used.
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What is difference between clown and trickster? Trickster is a character in a story, which exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge, and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and conventional behaviour. Trickster often is fun character, as well as clown is. What is difference between clown and trickster? Where is border when trickster stop to be trickster and become clown? For example, Jar Jar Binks? Is he clown, or trickster? <Q> A trickster (also known as a prankster) is one who plays jokes on others so the recipient of the joke is laughed at. <S> Jar Jar Binks is a clown. <A> Let's find out. <S> Clown : 1. <S> a comic performer, as in a circus, theatrical production, or the like, who wears an outlandish costume and makeup and entertains by pantomiming common situations or actions in exaggerated or ridiculous fashion, by juggling or tumbling, etc. <S> Trickster : 1. <S> a deceiver; cheat; fraud. <S> There are more definitions for both, but I won't duplicate them here. <S> Check 'em out. <A> I'm sort of combining my answer to this question with a comment based on your other question. <S> I would agree with other comments that clowns are simply comic performers and there is no teaching aspect to what they are doing. <S> A trickster, mythologically speaking, is also a teacher, but in the sense that you are taught a lesson painfully. <S> Often though, it's the only way the lesson comes through. <S> The main aspect of a trickster is the trick aspects (may involve making the object of the trick look stupid, etc.) <S> The trick is the most obvious aspect, to the point where many people aren't aware that there is a lesson being taught. <S> Check Coyote in Native American stories. <S> Elsewhere, you asked about Yoda. <S> I do not see him as a trickster because his teaching is what is most obvious and manifest. <S> He may use trickster type actions as a tool, but that is secondary to his persona as a master teacher.
| A clown is traditionally a comedy character and played for laughs at themselves.
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What are the basic elements of a crime investigation story? I've been delving a lot into the the crime investigation genre, and at first I thought "Simple, just start of with Who, What, Where, When, Why and How and you've got yourself a story!" but I quickly realized it's much more complicated than that. A crime solving story has Leads, it has Witnesses, it has Clues, it has Unexpected Discoveries... and I'm just lost in a sea of possibilities... So I've tried to reduce the basic structure of a story to this: There is a protagonist who tries to find out the "Who, What, Where, When, Why and How" of the case There are Clues which may or may not go somewhere, and must be interpreted by the protagonist to have any meaning. There are Witnessess who serve both to bring light to the case or muddle it further. There are Misdirections normally due to simple human nature that can cause someone to seem guilty. There are Leads which are advancements in the plot as the protagonist makes sense of everything else And there are Culprits which are responsible for whatever the protagonist is investigating. So my question is... am I leaving anything out? Is there some fundamental aspect to an investigation I'm forgetting? Bear in mind I consider Plot Twists to simply be a form of Misdirection. <Q> Motive. <S> Why did the person do it? <S> Helpers and Hinderers. <S> People who assist in or impede the investigation. <S> They can range from the detective's partner to evil minions to muckety-mucks on either side. <S> This is apart from witnesses; these are people who can either bring information (clues, evidence) or hide it, who can provide witnesses or remove them, who can create misdirection or clear it up. <A> Scanning the boldfaced terms on this page, I have to laugh aloud because it makes me imagine a novel about a crime investigation without a crime ! <S> That would be a most intriguing book indeed – and I think I will write it, right after my book without an antagonist . <S> But to answer your question, the most important thing for me in a crime investigation story are the investigator protagonist and his or her investigation . <S> Crime investigation fiction is a story of a process and the character and the mind of the person who drives, or is driven, by it. <S> Crime fiction, if done well, is psychological fiction. <S> The crime investigation is a situation into which the protagonist is cast and which serves as some sort of psychological test that will uncover his character . <S> That is maybe not the traditional way these novels are written. <S> Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple do not actually have much of a character. <S> But it is the way crime investigation fiction is done in tv and movies today. <S> They are no longer about riddles being solved, but about inspectors facing their own inner demons as personified by a crime, or being broken or healed by their lives, of which the police work is merely a part. <A> Evidence comes in mind. <S> It is somewhere in the realm of Clues/Leads , but more solid and obvious. <S> Makes a perfect setup for unexpected plot twist, if misinterpreted in good faith from the very beginning. <S> And the Antagonist , naturally, the one whodunit. <A> Another aspect is Conspiracy . <S> A lot of crime novels have an onion layer structure to the bad guys, so the protagonist has to work their way through expanding levels of the crime, such that what at first appears to be a simple homicide is actually a state-wide ring of satanic cultists who run a shadow government. <S> There is also the Traitor which may be too strong a word. <S> But he's the lovable ex-partner who helps the protagonist but in reality has been trying to guide the investigation astray because the traitor is actually working for (or is at least aware of) <S> the bad guy and, at the very least, doesn't want the protagonist to get hurt. <S> Heck, the TV show "24" had a mole in the CTU EVERY DAMNED SEASON, sometimes TWO! <S> To the point where the most effective way to stop the bad guys would have been to immediately fire all the CTU employees at once (or at least send them all home for the day :) <S> A final aspect is a Past Connection . <S> I've read many crime novels where the current crime echoes or mirrors some past event in the protagonists life. <S> May just bring up some repressed memories that have to be dealt with or be a old foe back for more. <S> I guess this is more of a character development tool than an essential element of crime fiction, but it is pretty common. <A> In my mind a crime stroy starts with the case. <S> The first thing you have to know is Jane killed John with a knife, because John has slept with her best friend <S> You need to know WHO is the culprit? <S> WHO was murdered/assaulted/attacked/ <S> robbed/... <S> and for WHAT reason? <S> In the series "Castle" the flow of a crime is perfectly described in the first episode? " <S> Every crime has a story". <S> If you have the story about the crime? <S> You can try to think like the culprit? <S> Why has he done it? <S> For what purpose? <S> Was he alone? <S> Is he intelligent enough to remove traces to him? <S> Think about your detective and the culprit as Holmes and Moriarty. <S> Two highly intelligent characters, that always try to be one step ahead of each other. <S> Crime is a genre, that needs to follow the flow backwards in the creating. <S> Fantasy can start with just characters, their traits and a slightly build world. <S> The story follows in the most cases alone. <S> But crime is something more complex. <S> There can be traps, baits, conspiracies and so on. <S> You need to know the end, before you start to write. <S> Then you can follow it all backwards and create a story around it. <A> There is a detective . <S> This person may or may not be the protagonist. <S> The competence and alignment of the detective will set the tone for a good portion of the story. <S> The detective can be anywhere from stiff and professional to quirky and bumbling.
| But the important part in crime is: You need to know the end and the reasons, why the incident happened. Your characters have to react to a strict plan.
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Using place names from other novels There is a novel by a well-known author the title of which is a place name. The place is fictional and appears in the novel, although there are real places in the real world with the same name, but these places are small and not well known. Anyone who reads that genre will think of that novel first, if they hear that place name. The name is descriptive, like Broken Rock or Black River . I'm writing a novel in the same genre in which there is a similar place, and I would love to call it the same (because of the symbolism). Key events take place at that location, and the name of the place will be said by the characters rather often throughout the book. What will readers think of that? Will it throw them out the story to be constantly reminded of that other book? Will they perceive it as a rip-off or an hommage? Should I avoid it? <Q> I've read 2 different series of books, both that have a place named "Winterfell" that is central to the plot, but whilst reading the second series I no longer thought about the place in the first series after around 15 minutes. <S> Readers will have different things called to mind depending on the context, and it will be unlikely that they are reminded of the previous location after a while. <S> However, even though there are over 30 locations in the US called Manchester alone, as well as further places with the same name in other countries, no matter how much I hear it my mind will always first jump to the place I grew up in the UK, because that's what I immediately think of when I hear the name. <S> So I think it really depends on whether the reader has enough attachment to something with the name already, but this could happen with names of anything. <S> If a reader's sister is named Sarah, and the main character of the story has the same name, it may be very difficult to disassociate the character from their sister even if they are entirely different. <S> There is absolutely no way a writer can accommodate for this. <S> But if, as you say, it's highly likely that your audience would have read a book not only with the same place name but having it as the title of that book, it may be better to err on the side of caution. <S> After all, if you knew a large portion of your readers had a sister named Sarah, you'd probably give your main character a different name. <S> But generally, place names like the examples given in your question are named after something in the area that represents that place. <S> But that means the founder could have named it slightly differently depending on how they saw it, but it would not have to be too dissimilar. <S> So rather than having the name Broken Rock <S> it may have been named Rockfall , or Black River <S> could be something as simple as Dark River . <S> This could help with being very similar thematically, whilst also not being associated with a place the reader may already know of. <A> Ten years ago, if I ran into the name Winterfell in two different books, I would think it was a coincidence. <S> Now that Game of Thrones has exploded everywhere, if something new came out and used the name Winterfell, I would think it is a rip-off. <S> If it is as well known as you say, you might want to try emailing the publisher/author and see if they had an issue with you using the same name. <S> Also, while titles aren't copyrighted, some authors may have separate trademarks on various things connected with their work. <S> That's a complicated arena and I'm not an expert, but if the book's title is part of merchandise, you might be in deep water. <S> I like @Mike. <S> C.Ford's suggestion about having a similar name that also describes the location and is reminiscent of the other book, but still different. <S> Make it your own. <A> In general, I'd say that clear references to another work of fiction are a bad idea. <S> It makes it sound like you're writing fan fiction rather than an original work. <S> You can refer to particularly well-known works of fiction AS FICTION. <S> Like if in your mystery novel the detective says, "Hey, I'm no Sherlock Holmes", well, that's the sort of literary reference that a real person might make. <S> But if in your story of 21st century soldiers fighting terrorists you say that the terrorists attacked Narnia, that's just going to be very disconcerting to the reader. <S> Even if you keep such references within the genre, like if in your fantasy novel you mention a character having come from Narnia, it's likely to be distracting. <S> As a reader, I'd immediately be thinking, "Wait, is this story supposed to be tied to the Narnia stories?" <S> And frankly, I always start out with a bad opinion of someone who tries to piggyback on another writer's success. <S> Just because JK Rowling wrote some very good books about magic at a place called Hogwarts doesn't mean that setting your book at a place called Hogwarts will make it any good. <S> As with almost any rule of writing, you can break the rules if you do it well. <S> But you should really avoid gimmicks. <S> If you're thinking, "I'll use this other writer's place name because then readers will remember that other book and I can get all the associations that go with the place for free" ... <S> no, you won't. <S> You're just being lazy and <S> I think most readers will know it and look down on you for it. <A> I would approach with caution, especially if the referenced place is from a recent or currently active book/series. <S> A little goes a long way <S> But if I were writing a cosmic horror series set in the American Northeast (or New England, as I guess those folks call it :P, I FOR SURE would have characters who graduated from Miskatonic U., drove past Arkham, and once visited Derry :) <S> Judicious use of references from associated works can really bring a universe to life, but only as background color, in my opinion. <S> I would never write a story that had a character specifically reference a killer clown from Derry or those weird fishermen in Innsmouth unless I was specifically working WITHIN THAT WORLD. <S> By the same token, I would never write an urban fantasy series that references Hogwarts. <S> That association is too strong and well known, I think (plus Rowling's lawyers would probably come calling pretty quickly). <S> But a sly reference to Chicago's magical protector might be ok.
| I think you need to be careful about how popular the other book is.
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Should I use contractions in my narrative? Should I use contractions in my narrative, or only use them in dialogue? I have noticed that in some books, like The Passage by Justin Crownin, contractions are used in the prose. In others, like The Faithful and Fallen series by John Gwynne, I don't think I ever remember seeing a contraction in his narrative. The same goes for Tolkien's work. So, contractions or no contractions? Do certain genres lend themselves to contractions more so than others? <Q> I don't understand this fear of using certain kinds of words. <S> Yes, you can use adverbs. <S> Yes, you can use "bookisms" (alternatives for <S> said which give additional information, like hissed, muttered, shouted ). <S> I'll even allow the occasional split infinitive if the circumlocution to avoid it sounds ridiculous. <S> Bookisms and adverbs can be used badly and/or too often, which I'll readily admit. <S> But fussing over contractions seems to me like an extremely prescriptive rule, like "you can't ever use passive voice. <S> " Not you shouldn't do it, or active voice/formal speech is stronger, or don't overdo it, but a blanket rule of "don't do it at all." <S> In my opinion as a writer and editor, writing should be clear, natural-sounding, and easy to follow. <S> Sometimes you can do that with a dense sentence if your audience knows the jargon; other times you have to spell things out at length. <S> Sentence fragments? <S> Sometimes they work. <S> I'm in favor of whatever aids comprehension and reads smoothly. <S> I haven't read either Crownin or Gwynne, so I can't comment on them. <S> Tolkien was deliberately writing in "high fantasy" style, which he basically invented. <S> Tolkien was also a professor of linguistics who invented several languages, so he can use or not use whatever parts of speech he damn well wants. <A> A book isn't just written by the author to tell the reader a story. <S> It has a narrator . <S> The narrator is not the author. <S> Even if there is no narrative frame in which the narrator of the story is made explicit. <S> The narrator is a function of the narrative, just like plot or setting or character. <S> It is never a real person, even in an autobiography. <S> The narrator is a voice whose style of narration is chosen by the author in relation to the story, to effect a certain "feel". <S> For example, it is the narrator which makes a story humorous or earnest. <S> Think of a friend telling you how he had to undergo a painful medical procedure. <S> He can tell the same events to you in a way that you get a good laugh at his expense; or he can tell them with a focus on how bad it all felt and cause you to feel compassion and tenderness for him; or he can choose a more neutral style, considering the interesting advances of medical science. <S> The story does not change, only the narrator does. <S> And it changes with the choice of words, of grammar, of the linguistic register, and so on. <S> A narrator that uses contractions will maybe evoke a feeling of a more immediate, verbal narrative style, of being told something by someone, of a witness of the events, while a style without contractions might feel more distanced, more objective, less involved. <S> Of course the use or disuse of contractions alone is not enough to have that effect, but it will be part of a narrative strategy that will put the reader in a certain frame of mind and thus help the story evoke the emotions in the reader that the author is aiming for. <S> From all this it should become apparent that it must be your choice how you want to narrate your story. <S> There is no right or wrong, only your artistic vision. <S> If you feel unsure, you may need to experiment and learn the proper use of your tools. <A> Mark Twain used them all the time...ironically to create "stupid talk"... <S> meaning writing "hokie-isms" is hard work because the spoken word is filled with t'aints and t'isms and all sorts of clap-trappery. <S> There is an irony to the lyricism of apostrophes and ampersands etc. <S> You would think clear writing would contain the minimum of punctuation but that is not in fact how we speak.
| Yes, you can use contractions.
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An educational ‘roadmap’ to become a proficient writer? I need both information about the material as well as about the time it requires to learn to write. What could be a comprehensive reading list of exemplary works for a solid base? And a good reading list of theory? How much should a prospective students allocate for such purpose? Reading As much as possible might be an answer to become as good as possible. However, the question here is how to become a decent writer, not an exceptional one. That starting at a high-school level and with a desire to write both fiction and non-fiction (with emphasis on non-fiction). <Q> What you are searching for is a remedial writing course for college. <S> That is, a catch-up course to bring high-school students to an acceptable academic level. <S> It's also called "developmental writing." <S> In many high-schools, students write loads of essays, but these are short essays. <S> Student will become pretty lost when it comes down to develop an idea across 5-10 pages. <S> Gather enough material for 3-months of full-time reading. <S> Choose stuff that interests you, not stuff that random people on the internet recommended. <S> A good source of polished writing is the New Yorker . <S> But if this is going to make you read more, buy some books (on paper) too. <S> Reading on a screen might be tiresome sometimes. <S> Authors like Alasdair Macintyre, Bertrand Russell, Norman Mailer, Carl Sagan, Feynman, Steven Pinker, for example, wrote prolifically but took care to produce high-quality texts - well-organized, well-written and highly educational. <S> For the theoretical part you could try: The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker <S> On Writing, Stephen King Merriam-Webster's Guide to Punctuation and Style <S> Some style guide from any mainstream newspaper or from the MLA <S> Also, find some form of obtaining feedback about your texts. <S> Write 5 pages or more and hire a private tutor (online or not). <S> Try to get some feedback on maybe 100 of your essays. <S> That will cost a little, but you are learning a skill that will be useful for the rest of your life. <S> Feedback is essential. <S> Most people are astonished to discover that many structures they deemed standard are actually unintelligible or simply wrong. <A> Start writing and keep writing. <S> There will be many pitfalls along the way and grammatical nuances to overcome <S> but if you so desire, you will achieve it. <S> As for reading material I recommend intermediate level books usually targeted for young kids. <S> Why? <S> In most cases, learning the fundamentals of how something works can go a long way. <S> Riding a bicycle may be simple now but as kids we had to learn it at some point. <S> Professional BMX freestylers started out the same way but elevated their skills and dexterity by practicing further than what you and I are accustomed to. <S> For instance, 'hold' has many different usages. <S> I held your armsI <S> held up my bargain now its your turn!Hold on <S> , Im on the phone. <S> The prisoner is in a holding cell. <S> Please put that call on hold. <S> I will hold you to your promise. <S> Make sure you have a firm hold on that rope. <S> Relax and try to hold in your anger. <S> Men! <S> Do not surrender, hold down the fort! <S> As you can see, this one little word can branch out into different meanings just by context and prepositional phrases alone. <S> Speaking of meanings make sure that you try to use the correct word for a given idea, situation, sentence, etc. <S> For example: I got a signal from outer space. <S> vs. <S> I received a signal from outer space. <S> (yes) <S> The car was going at 90 mph on a rainy day. <S> Suddenly the car started turning left and right and crashed a tree. <S> vs. <S> The driver was going 90 mph on a wet slippery road when suddenly he lost control of the vehicle, swerving left and right and finally crashing head-on with a tree. <S> Keep ideas simple: <S> I'm fatigued. <S> It has truthfully been almost an hour since I have had anything to consume. <S> vs. <S> I'm tired. <S> Its been an hour since I've eaten. <S> Keep medical terms with medical context just like keep legal terms with legal documents. <S> In other words, if you are writing an article about Biology you wouldnt use terms you otherwise would use in everyday speech. <S> For.instance: <S> Some of these viruses stick to healthy cells. <S> vs. <S> Some of these viruses attach to healthy cells. <S> These veins send blood througout the body. <S> vs. <S> These veins pump blood throughout the body. <A> Leaning how to write is quite simple and straighforward: <S> In this, writing isn't any different from any other skill. <S> How do you learn to swim, speak a language, or programming? <S> By doing it. <S> And the good thing is that you already have everything you need to learn to write: you can write (i.e. draw letter-shapes), you have read stories (so you know how they work). <S> Now all you need to do is practice. <S> And practice, in writing, is writing. <S> As for how long it will take, there are different opinions on the web. <S> The answer most commonly believed correct is 10,000 hours or about twenty years . <S> So you better sit down and start writing now, instead of wasting your time on a reading list.
| All you need to do do is write. Learn the different meanings of what one word may posess.
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A written action scene, interrupted? My comic novel has a scene in which the hero is battling a monster. And at a moment of tension, where he's losing badly, there's a scene break in which the narrator goes into a brief digression. After the break, we return to the battle, where more stuff happens and the hero wins. My readers don't like the digression. They say it "takes them out of the story". I must be doing it wrong, because I'm sure I've seen books do this well. How can a digression in the middle of a tense battle be done well? I'd like to have a brief break in the written action scene that comes off more like a cliffhanger and less of an interruption. <Q> It sounds like what you want is a narrative structure similar to the recent Deadpool film, where the main character frequently breaks the fourth wall, has voiceover narration of ongoing events, flashes backwards and forwards in linear time, and generally metas all over the place. <S> If you establish this kind of Moebius strip narrative from the beginning, your readers may be more accepting of it happening in the middle of the big boss takedown. <S> But if you do it for the first time at a crucial moment, then no matter how funny the rest of the novel is, you're breaking the suspension of disbelief. <S> So do it early and often, and teach your reader that at any point you might interrupt the action with narration, flashback, poetry, or random jokes. <S> Whether the particular fight works will then require fine-tuning, but the effect should be less jarring. <A> I think this very much depends on the narrative tone and style that have been used up to this point. <S> If this is the first time you have done such a digression in what has otherwise been a straightforward narrative, the result is likely to do exactly what you reader says: take them out of the story. <S> To fix this problem, you will need to introduce this narrative device earlier. <S> Then there is the question of where the dramatic tension comes from in the story. <S> Sometimes (in the simplest form of fiction) the dramatic tension comes from the physical action. <S> If that is the case, interrupting the physical action breaks the dramatic tension. <S> (It does not, as you might think, increase it by creating a cliffhanger and making the audience wait. <S> There is a reason people PVR shows and fast-forward past the commercials.) <S> A cliffhanger that is not associated with an enforced hiatus (commercials, season break) is only an effective dramatic device is something else, other than the resolution of the immediate action, hangs in the balance. <S> This gives the narrative somewhere else to go and something else to do while outcome of the previous action hangs in the balance. <S> This builds dramatic tension rather than breaking it. <S> In short, you need to figure out where the arc of dramatic (or comic) tension in you story lies and how your proposed digression fits that arc. <A> Just an addition to the excellent answers by Mark Baker and Lauren Ipsum: <S> I am sure you can make that interruption work, if you write in a style where it fits. <S> But if you write for an audience (and not just to pass the time and please yourself) it may be not the worst idea to at least sometimes think of how a potential reader could experience your narrative. <S> Unlike you, they do not know the story when they read it. <S> For you, the interruption is no interruption. <S> Because you know how the action will continue. <S> Because you do not perceive your narrative sequentially, but as a unified idea. <S> It is all in your mind at the same time. <S> For the reader on the other hand, the interruption is a potential break of trust. <S> Reading is a contract between author and reader. <S> The reader allows you to manipulate their emotions and trusts you to play by the rules that the cover, blurb, and first pages of your book have set. <S> The reader has entered your world, identified with your protagonist, and is imprisoned with your characters in the chronology of the story. <S> The moment of crisis, if well written, is a moment of crisis for the reader, too. <S> Now, of course, as Lauren and Mark have said, it is quite possible to interrupt the action in an enjoyable and satisfying way. <S> I only want to warn you to (a) observe yourself closely so that you will notice when you stop writing to the reader's perspective – which is not the reader's taste! –, and (b) to believe your test readers. <S> If there is a significant number of test readers who are uncomfortable with something in your text, it is highly likely that a similar percentage of your target audience will also feel uncomfortable about it. <S> Sure, not every book is for everyone (which is why your beta readers must come from your target audience, not from your group of alpha-reading fellow writers), but the choice to limit the appeal of your book must be a conscious one, not an accident that you later regret.
| But if the dramatic tension in your story comes from something other than the physical action (as it does in more sophisticated stories) then the digression can pull the reader into the story rather than taking them out of it, but only if it increases the dramatic (or, in your case, comic) tension of the story. If you interrupt the flow of such a suspensful and highly emotional moment, some readers will feel as if an important promise has been broken.
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Does it make sense to set a sword & sorcery fantasy in a post-apocalyptic world on Earth? Fantasy worlds are usually set in a separate world, time, and space from our own. Many are set in an alternate world and dimension. They feature medieval-like setting and technology. Yet some fantasy stories are set in our world. Imagine that an apocalyptic catastrophe changes our world into the medieval-like fantasy setting. Is this solution valid? Does it make sense? <Q> You can set a story anywhere. <S> The challenge is not to make it consistent with our world but to make it self-consistent within itself. <S> And I think this is a universal literary problem ( <S> and therefore I don't think this question belongs on worldbuilding). <S> All stories take place in what Tolkien called a sub-created universe. <S> Even the most gritty realism is a fabrication that takes places in a simpler, neater, less random universe than our own. <S> For example, the kinds of random chance and coincidence that happen in real life all the time do not work in stories. <S> Readers feel that these things are cheats, that they violate story rules. <S> Story worlds, even without magic, obey their own rules of causality and probability. <S> So, you can construct a world such as you describe. <S> You simply need to make it a self-consistent story world. <S> It needs to have its rules, they need to be consistent with each other, they have to accord with the general rules of story worlds, and you have to stick to them. <S> But these are rules about shape, not about content. <S> Establishing a new trope is much harder work, but it is not restricted in any way by the rules of existing tropes. <S> It is restricted only by the rules of story. <A> The fantasy genre can apply to a large range of settings. <S> So yes, and I think you already answered your question, a post-apocalyptic setting can fit, as long as you make it believable to your readers. <S> But I think that your question would be more appropriate for the Worldbuilding stack exchange <S> Edit : <S> And although your setting may be post-apocalyptic it doesn't mean that it should be the main focus of your story. <S> You can make it a seemingly regular fantasy world but drop some faint hints that it is a post-ap world. <A> Done well, this can work -- but getting it to work well is tricky (as I'm finding.) <S> IMHO, one of the trickiest aspects is to provide a plausible reason that both big changes (tech dies; magic appears) happen at the same time. <S> Why did those both happen? <S> Did something science-y/technical in a lab somewhere cause a world-wide (or universe-wide?) <S> change? <S> Have the stars finally aligned just right to awaken Lovecraftian Old Ones? <S> In science, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” <S> (--Carl Sagan.) <S> In fiction, we have more wiggle room than that, but your readers will want an explanation that makes sense (to them), within the premises of your story. <S> The setup/world design needs care, so your readers will buy into your reason why guns, cellphones and cars (for instance) no longer work. <S> A previous answerer/commenter mentioned Steven Stirling's Emberverse series (there are two loosely-linked sets of novels.) <S> If you haven't read Dies the Fire , IMHO you're in for a treat ! <S> That said, I found his explanation a bit troubling. <S> His unseen "alien space bats" did this to earth, but we don't know anything about why they bothered. <S> Give the readers a plausible reason for the change , and you've got a great starting canvas to work on. <S> Lots of problems/conflicts both from the old ways no longer working and the new (or even Older, if you will) ways coming back and mucking things up for your characters. <S> P.S: <S> I've seen a few questions about this basic idea on the worldbuilding stackexchange and they've been allowed if posed narrowly enough that people can answer; come see! <A> You may take a look at "The daughters of the Dragons" <S> (Die Töchter des Drachen) by Wolfgang Hohlbein. <S> While it is a fantasy story, with dragons and magic it is after a third of the book revealed it takes place in a future version of earth, after it was once destroyed. <S> So, it is your world, if you want swords and magic in your world, then let there be swords and magic in your world. <S> Magic, for example, may be the result of a genetic mutation caused by nuclear fallout after the big war. <A> Viability? <S> Validity? <S> You're ideas <S> are totally fine. <S> Seriously, as a reader I would have no idea with a disaster turning us all into cool, fantasy characters, ready to go and... Be fantasy characters. <S> In fact, it'd be pretty cool if that actually happened. <S> However, I think I'd like to add these notes to the slew of answers this question has accumulated: It is arguably harder to write about something like this, because it's hard to make the public realistically react. <S> They probably wouldn't think 'yay!' <S> , rather... Something else. <S> One reason it's hard to make this sort of stuff believable is because the public would react so strangely. <S> It is arguably harder to write about something like this, because the change happens within the book. <S> I think it's just so hard to make this realistic and believable. <S> It's miles easier to just have the change happen before the book (create a prologue perhaps) or have no change at all. <S> In fact, yeah, I think you could have a prologue saying the change then the book. <S> It's a bit hard to write about the characters adapting because it's just... <S> It's just so weird. <S> There's no problems with these ideas, they might be a bit hard to write about. <S> Other's may disagree, but in my experience, doing things like this is tough . <S> So I wish you luck. <S> You're ideas are doable and viable, and I'd love to hear how they turn out. <S> I hope this helped you.
| The reason that you see so many fantasy stories set in pseudo-medieval worlds is that it is easier for authors to borrow these existing tropes than do the work to create something new, and readers have less work to do as well, because the rules of these worlds are already well known to them.
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Have a tough time figuring out third-person prose I can write first-person great, but many stories can only be told third-person and i dont have much experience here. It always feels clunky, doesn't flow right. And get distracted by pronouns and what is a private thought of the character and what is just descriptive of the situation. I cant really find my voice in 3rd person, how should i fix that? <Q> I have the opposite problem. <S> I can write in third person fine and much prefer this but struggle with first person. <S> My solution? <S> Practise. <S> To give you an example, I wrote a story of two women having an argument in a cafe from the third person perspective of the waitress serving them. <S> Obviously, she couldn't hear everything that was being said and could only go on body language and brief snippets of conversation. <S> Then I re-wrote the story from both women in the argument in first person, really making sure I got into their head. <S> Then I went back to third and was able to flesh out things I hadn't thought of before in my original draft and later, allowed me to put them in without having to go 3PP. <S> So I'd suggest you try this. <S> Write it in first person, perhaps from two or three characters POV. <S> Then write it again from the third person view. <S> Obviously, you can't say what the characters are thinking (though that doesn't mean you can't put in parts like "Tom paused as he appeared to think, his brow furrowing") <S> but you can add extra details in appearance. <S> And I notice your comment about plot structure of the third person. <S> Plot is plot. <S> Yes, some stories are better in third and some would never work in first (can you imagine A Song of Ice and Fire in FPP?) <S> but To Kill a Mockingbird is all the more powerful because of it's FP perspective. <A> Pick three or four third person scenes that you like from other writers. <S> Type about 500 words of each into your word processor, using whatever format you normally use for manuscripts. <S> As you type (and afterward) notice the rhythms those authors use, and how they make it clear whether the character is observing something (through the five senses) or thinking something. <A> I like @Stephen's idea, which I think you should adapt into a series of exercises. <S> Sit in a park or at a café somewhere and people-watch. <S> Try to write down what you see. <S> You can't know what people are thinking; you can only observe. <S> So write that down: She spoke. <S> He laughed. <S> The dog barked. <S> The waiter looked bored/interested/tired. <S> She kissed the first woman on the lips and hugged the second woman. <S> The little boy whined that he wanted more ketchup. <S> Once you're used to writing what you see, take that home and try to use it as a skeleton for a short piece. <S> What could they be talking about that made him laugh? <S> Why was the waiter tired? <S> and so on. <S> It doesn't have to be a story; just practice figuring out motivations from outside observations. <S> You can do this with TV too, but I would turn the sound off <S> so you aren't cheating by hearing the dialogue. <S> The advantage is that you can pause and rewind to study faces and gestures. <A> I prefer to think of an either "almighty character" or a kind of Carnival Barker when writing in the Third Person...he can do anything he wants...and indeed he should passing through time and space, logic and reason...as mere impediments to give a wonderful insight into your story for the readers that the characters you have created have no idea (nor could they) that he is even there. <S> If done well you can still surprise your reader too with the characters themselves... <S> we are human after all <S> and humans do odd things...and to me this is the art of creating a great story and hopefully a good read.
| It's all about telling your story in the best way possible to make it a better read for your readers.
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How do I make sure my audience is aware of subplots? In a first person story I am writing, I have many subplots going on, but when I started writing it, I realized that the subplots were not obvious. How can I make it more clear that progress is occurring to my subplots? <Q> Don't worry about it in your first draft. <S> Wait until your second, possibly your third. <S> Your first draft is to get the story down on paper. <S> Then you let it sit for a month and go back. <S> The second draft is to fix all the glaring errors you pick up in your first review. <S> After a second (fourth, etc.) <S> round, hand it off to a trusted reader. <S> Ask the trusted reader after the reader is finished if the subplots were obvious enough. <S> Take the reader's suggestions to beef them up. <S> This is an obstructed arborvision problem: you won't be able to see the forest for the trees, because it's your story <S> and you know where all the plot threads are. <S> You have to ask for outside opinions to get perspective. <A> You need to be very conscious of the difference between history and story. <S> If you have multiple sub plots that are not obvious, there is a good chance that they are more history than story. <S> History is a bunch of stuff that happens. <S> History consists of many things happening at the same time in independent threads, so you have to do some folding of time-lines in order to describe all the various threads. <S> But story is something very different. <S> Story is like a bent bow. <S> It is an arc of rising tension. <S> Everything you tell should contribute to that arc of rising tensions. <S> You don't follow the logic of history in telling a story. <S> You follow the logic of tension. <S> Sub plots should follow their own arc of rising tension, but should also in some way contribute to the rising tension of the main plot. <S> So, it does not actually matter that a subplot is not advancing in time sync with you main plot. <S> What matters is, where does the insertion of the sub plot in the narrative contribute to the arc of rising tensions. <S> If that means telling the sub plot out of sequence with the rest of the time line, that's fine. <A> The short answer is: don't worry about it. <S> The longer answer is: don't worry about it until the first and second draft are done and then don't worry about it because it is either a plot or not. <S> The truth is that it is very hard to gauge what the readers will pick up on. <S> Some readers will pick up on your more subtle plots and others will miss them, this is healthy and normal. <S> Don't underestimate readers - they will notice stuff you missed and miss stuff that you are justly proud of. <S> While writing the only question should be "am I telling the story?" <S> After the story is written a really good writer's group or some trusted beta readers that you can interrogate about what they got out of it can help you gauge what readers might be able to pick up on. <S> If a subplot intersects the main plot and feels contrived to you then there might be a problem which you can fix in the next draft. <S> However, if this is not happening - if you, as a writer, can follow the plots - then everything is actually fine and this is all just a mild case of imposter syndrome trying to derail you. <S> The best cure is to not worry and get on with what you do best - telling your story. <S> If there are a lot of truly minor sub-sub- sub <S> -plots <S> then what you really have are details with ideas above their station (so don't worry about it). <S> You might end up removing that in later drafts but don't worry for now. <S> If your sub-plots are just really subtle then what you have are interlinked events that the reader might not see coming until it arrives. <S> Congratulations you have written a great story (so don't worry).
| If you have sub-plots that don't matter and have no bearing on the story what you may have is filler. As I said at the start: In short, try not to worry about it.
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What should be done if there is a dispute of opinions within the editorial team? In a magazine where an individual author's name is not published with the article, it seems obvious to me that the article can be presumed to reflect the consensus of the entire editorial team on whatever has been written in the article. Now, in such a scenario, if a group of editors writes an article which is opinion based and the others strongly feel against the things written in the article then should the article make it to the publication according to standard Journalism ethics? Also, why? <Q> All I can offer you is an example of what I've seen done. <S> I don't know the industry standard for such things, and your journal can follow whatever practices it wants. <S> This is just what my newspaper did. <S> When I worked on a student-run newspaper in college, the editorial was always published with a statement at the bottom reading something like " This topic was approved by a 6-1 vote of the editorial board. <S> " The editorial itself was usually written by a specific editor, chosen for that publication, and their name was attached to it as well. <S> The dissenting opinion usually omitted the name of the writer. <S> The only example of this I was able to find from my student newspaper <S> is this one from 2013, about freedom of speech. <S> I'm sure there's a more recent version, and it's entirely possible that their practices have changed in the intervening years, but searching for stuff on their website is hard. <A> This does strike me as a general ethical question. <S> A publication represents an interest which sponsors its publication. <S> A journalist who accepts employment at that publication is working for hire to perform services for the interest that owns the paper. <S> The interest is entitled to create an organ that represents its own views, an organ that represents a consensus view but also publishes a dissenting view, an organ that represents a consensus view without dissent, or an organ that published multiple views. <S> None of these things are unethical. <S> A journalist who does not feel that they can work for an interest whose publication does not allow them to express their own opinions, or to conform to and support a consensus opinion would seem to have an ethical obligation to resign. <S> Everyone (more or less) has to right to publish their own views at their own expense. <S> No one has to right to have their views published by someone else at the other party's expense. <A> Journals don't have a lot of room for error taking extra time to "get to the bottom of things. <S> " They have to get their product out, especially in the case of a team effort which costs hundreds of dollars an hour to produce. <S> In the case of a single author or investigative reporter, a single editor probably supervises, and individual differences are hashed out. <S> A team effort probably involves a company-wide policy and a chief editor. <S> As Mark noted, if the employee really doesn't like it, there is always resignation, but since this scenario will repeat itself until said employee is a chief editor, most people will just swallow their pride and accept it. <S> Full-time jobs in writing are few and far between. <S> If a chief editor is outvoted, that's a case-by-case basis, and the journal's president might get involved. <S> Publications are private enterprises trying to turn a profit. <S> When in doubt, the tendency is for the powers-that-be to choose sensationalism. <S> A peer-reviewed scientific journal is a different beast with the main issue being whether the data supports the conclusions. <S> In this case, a single dissenting opinion might require the research team to recrunch the numbers so that the conclusion is more reliable--this may alter the conclusion. <S> Again, it's up to the chief editor to make a formal decision. <S> This person is an expert in the field.
| If there was a significant dissenting vote, a dissenting editor was chosen to write a short piece explaining their stance at the bottom of the article.
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writing with color, skin tone I'm trying to describe a character in a story and I'm having issues describing her appearance. She is a black woman with specific (vitiligo like) markings and I don't know how to write that. I don't plan on saying black women or anything like that, I just want to specify here black because shes more of African decent(so if I said woman of color I don't want her to be mistaken as Asian,Indian etc.) I like describe my characters in detail so the reader can get a good image of what they look like. She's a main character and is to be portrayed beautiful yet unique.it's a fairytale styled story. Ex for other random charters off the top of my head. (A more "romantic feel for a woman) "There she stood with her shimmering copper hair blowing in the wind. She was tall and slender with smooth olive skin rich brown eyes that captivated any who looked her way." (gloomy creepy guy) "glaring Calli's way with his cold blue eyes she froze. He had a bold nose and high cheek bones, His pale colorless flesh made him appear as if he were a corps recently risen from the grave" <Q> Here are some examples: <S> Heather stared at Paula's mud-colored skin with its ugly pink spots in disgust. <S> or: When they were kids, Heather liked to outline the light patches on Paula's dark skin, imagining her friend to be a human-shaped planet, and the tiny people that might live on that map. <S> Personally I find vitiligo incredibly sexy and always wanted a girlfriend who had it. <S> Now I even know what it's called :-) <A> I can see where your issues might come from. <S> Firstly, try not to use the word vitiligo . <S> It is a medical term, and as @what said, you're obviously not writing for an audience of dermatologists. <S> Often, we don't say black woman <S> we say woman of colour instead, as this has a better connotation (to certain people). <S> If I were you, instead of saying vitiligo markings <S> you could just say skin speckled with white. <S> Standing boldly was a woman of colour, her skin speckled with white markings. <S> That would be an example sentence based off the things I just said. <S> Conclusion: <S> But, of course that is only if the word is really complex and no one will understand it (like vitiligo which even the computer underlines) <S> Don't worry, I bet it'll come out totally fine :) <A> I've upvoted Lythric's answer. <S> I think both points could stand elaborating, and it turned out too long for comments, <S> so: <S> Check if a word is used in science/medicine, if so, try not to use it in fiction. <S> But, of course that is only if the word is really complex and no one will understand it (like vitiligo <S> which even the computer underlines) <S> I disagree <S> — it's good to use the appropriate technical language, if your narrator would know and use it. <S> You need to be clever and contextualise the language <S> so we understand what it means, but when you do it right, it builds your credibility as an author and the plausibility of the story. <S> Plus, learning new stuff is cool. <S> Your narrator might or might not be someone who uses the technical term. <S> But use what they would use . <S> And understand that lots of people do — women with endometriosis, for example, don't call it 'mysterious stomach pain', they mostly call it 'endometriosis' or 'endo'. <S> Say woman of colour <S> not black woman <S> This is good advice because woman of colour is the wording that's modern and respectful. <S> Use it if (a) <S> your narrator is both of those things; or (b) you are making a conscious decision to make his/her language both of those things. <S> What I'm saying is be conscious of the decisions you're making about language. <S> What I'm categorically not saying is you must embrace offensive or upsetting language in the bloody-minded pursuit of historical accuracy. <S> Historical accuracy is only one of the things you need to balance in your writing, and perfect historical accuracy is impossible anyway. <S> There are many good reasons you would choose option B above. <S> For example, you might want your story to make people happy, or find a wide audience, and have guessed that many people of colour don't want to read a story containing yet another reminder of how recently people like them could be lynched. <S> It's okay <S> — it might even be a good thing — for you to write in a way that respects that. <S> Just be mindful that you're doing it and understand why. <S> Long story short: When you choose language, think about its impact on character. <S> Once you've done that, it's perfectly appropriate to balance with other considerations, too. <A> I don't know a single person who uses "of African descent" in everyday speech and <S> the people I spend time with are pretty accepting, liberal-Democrat New Jersey sorts of people. <S> The black people I know call themselves "black" when talking to me. <S> While it may be language a narrator would use (depending on the tone) and my experience is limited to my specific circumstances, books that read like politicians speak tend not to be page-turners. <S> So when you're deciding on the language you're going to use, I suggest keeping in mind that the words you use and when you use them are equally important tools. <S> Viewers visualize characters as being like them, unless they're told otherwise. <S> And whatever you tell them first often makes the biggest impression. <S> If the very first thing you write about your character is the color of her skin, you're not creating a character, you're creating, at best, an archetype; at worst, a token character of African descent. <S> It's also worth remembering that "of African descent" doesn't necessarily mean dark-skinned. <S> And readers will always remember the character, not as the woman who plays the piano and loves skiing and is dark-skinned, but as the African woman of color who plays piano and skis. <S> Race and appearance are factors in almost every part of our lives. <S> A question worth your time to ask: Why do you want this character to be this particular race? <S> Why is her skin being black (with vitiligo) important to the story you're telling? <S> How is it important to her character? <S> These questions should give you guidance about when to bring these up.
| If you want to describe a dark-skinned person with vitiligo , just say that her skin is dark with light spots. Which words you use exactly, and how much detail your description has, will depend on how the narrator feels about that character's skin and what effect you want your description to have on the reader. Say woman of colour not black woman Check if a word is used in science/medicine, if so, try not to use it in fiction.
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How to make a mimicking character believable In my novel, there is a antagonistic character named Numbers who reacts in a similar manner to those he is talking to, even freakishly so. Because of this he is easily able to become a powerful character, but I am worried if his sudden personality changes (or rather lack of a personality) will make all of his actions feel forced. How can I solve this? <Q> Consider what happens to Numbers when he is alone. <S> Does he maintain the last personality he spoke with? <S> Or lose all personality whatsoever? <S> If the former, then he needs to avoid interacting with weaklings, or else he would become dumb, stupid, weak. <S> When this happens, especially on accident, he needs to becoming frustrated, because it's hindering him -- he may have trouble getting back to a stronger/smarter character because he can no longer plot with ease. <S> Allowing the readers to see this can help them understand his drive and his character switch, and allow it to seem natural. <S> If he loses all personality, then you have to figure out what this lack of personality is. <S> A single-minded drive to become stronger? <S> Is he trying to achieve some overarching goal, for which he needs to be stronger? <S> Portraying this can help your readers see him as an antagonist, and to find his character changes believable. <S> Perhaps he has the ability to choose who he's mimicking, and whether he's going to switch characters <S> (Which will give you the ability to point out WHY he's choosing to switch characters, and allow it to be believable to the reader, because he's probably going to maintain the best/smartest/strongest character during all normal scenes instead of switching). <S> If not, and he's always imitating someone in the room, he's going to need to constantly be around a strong character that he wants to emulate -- who would be more likely to be an antagonist than Numbers, and who could chide Numbers as <S> your typical Big Bad would a lackey for mimicking him. <A> Whatever you decide the reason is for Numbers to take on others' personalities, you have to explain it to the reader in a way which makes sense. <S> Your character could have Giovannini Mirror Syndrome, exaggerated forthe House, MD episode "MirrorMirror." <S> If your story is set in modern times, someone would haveto diagnose the character (or take a stab at it) to let the audienceknow that the character is doing this for a narrative reason and it'snot bad writing. <S> Numbers could be a sociopath who sort of wants to get along withpeople, but he never really learned how, so all he does is mimicwhoever is in front of him because "well, that person is doing it, soit must be 'correct.' " <S> Regardless of the tack you choose, you must show the reader why Numbers behaves the way he does. <S> They should wonder to each other why he's like this. <S> If any of your story is from his point of view, revealing his thoughts and perceptions might also help the reader understand why he's acting this way. <S> The other characters might try to fix him, depending on the setting and their proclivities. <S> In a fantasy, that might mean "lifting a curse" or "performing an exorcism." <S> In a modern setting, it would be a hospital conversation. <S> This also opens a window into his behavior, allowing you to justify it for the reader. <A> Lampshade it <S> Have your other characters comment on how strange and unreal Numbers is, and how they never know what to expect from him because his personality shifts so radically all the time. <S> Your characters probably don't know what to expect from him from moment to moment; perhaps one character always sees another in Numbers' behaviour. <S> In short, let your audience know that yes, this is deliberate. <S> Keep some things consistent <S> If Numbers is an antagonist, presumably he has some kind of goal he's trying to achieve with his interactions with the protagonists. <S> Keep this goal in mind whenever you're writing him, and have him always progressing towards it. <S> If he's trying to seduce one of your other characters, have him always put the moves on them, just different come-ons based on who he's mimicking. <S> If he's stealing materials to make his doomsday weapon, have his methods for getting each item match the way whoever he is mimicking would do it. <S> Give him a verbal of physical tic that always comes through. <S> In short, give him a core, and just change things around that core to match others. <A> Don't make it a person. <S> The best example is The Raven who only says "Nevermore." <S> This is very clearly a very intelligent being and yet his lexicon is limited to not only one word but a "kind of a number of nothing" word at that. <S> So in the madness of the human mind... <A> I think that one of the important things about a character like this is that there has to be some kind of consistency. <S> You can have the wild mood-swings depending on who he is interacting with, but I think there needs to be some kind of base-line, something which tells (or even just hints) that this character has some standard of behavior. <S> It's an interesting idea, but it begs the question - "What happens when he is not around other people? <S> " If I understand the character correctly, he consistently imitates anyone he is interacting with. <S> The problem that occurs with this is that when he's NOT around other people, he has to behave in some way, even if it's sitting in a chair, staring at the wall. <S> Even if the audience never sees him by himself, or doesn't see much of him at all, you as the author should have a good idea of how he behaves in many different situations. <S> In this way, you have a greater understanding of him, and this will inform you about why he behaves the way he does.
| The characters around him should notice that he seems to have no core personality, and should point out that it's not normal. Give him a noticeable accent or dialect, one that's stronger or weaker depending on who he's mimicking, but always there (perhaps 'e always drops 'is aitches). If you're writing a fantasy, he could be possessed byspirits/demons/etc.
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Which should come first, novel, Comic Book or Screenplay? I have planned out my novel, but I also want to adapt it into a screenplay and comic book with a lot of differences. I have been pondering if it should be the other way around, or should I start with an alternative order? <Q> Start with the one you're most excited about. <S> The one you would have the most fun creating. <A> If you have "a lot" of differences among the three media, then you have three different stories coming from the same kernel of an idea. <A> From what I gather, you have an idea that you imagine taking all of three forms: <S> literary live–action audio-visual graphic <S> Each of those requires a different investment of resources and different techniques to bring to completion. <S> I too like to imagine the formations my stories would take if produced on different media. <S> However, for each story I have one platform which I know would serve it best. <S> I work on whichever platform <S> I am most ready to work. <S> Some of my planned projects are sitting on an interminable backburner: <S> they will wait there until I am ready to begin pursuing them properly. <S> Which one is should you choose? <S> My answer would differ from yours: <S> I know nothing about your finances, network of friends and the like, or your skills. <S> It sounds like writing a novel would require the least extra work on your part. <S> So, do that. <A> If you are serious about multi-channel distribution, you should start with the channel that has the most rigoros demands on content and structure, and that is film. <S> There are very few movies made, so competition among scripts is extreme. <S> If you want to get your story to be made into a movie, you better write it that way. <S> That doesn't mean that you actually have to write the script, but that you should work on the outline of your story as if you were going to write a script. <S> Then write the novel from that outline, be successful with it, and have Hollywood buy the movie rights.
| Write them in whatever order you like — for pleasure, for money, for ease of completion.
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Where can I find a market for "offbeat" short stories about God's relationship with us? I have written some short stories that don't seem to fit into any category I can find. They feature God's relationship with various people, but they are not typical "Christian" writing. For example, one of the stories is titled "And God Said 'Watch This'". One of them has aliens in it. Not sure where to look for a market for these. Would appreciate any advice. Thanks. <Q> Novels are about people. <S> This is true for Christian novelists such as Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Walker Percy, or Flannery O'Connor, just as much as it is true for novelists of no faith. <S> When a novel treats the relationship between God and a character, they do it from the point of view of the character, not God. <S> They examine the human experience of believing in God and in believing that they have encountered God. <S> This is a theme rather than a genre. <S> You can explore this in any genre of fiction. <S> Fiction that does not fit a genre is usually classified as general or literary for commercial purposes. <S> Of course, certain themes appeal to some readers more than others, but the limits are not creedal. <S> All of the authors I named above are Roman Catholic, but their appeal is far wider. <S> On the other hand, works that ascribe thoughts, actions, or feelings to God, that look at the relationship with a character from God's POV, are works of theology. <S> You can write a work of theology in fictional form, just as you can write a so-called "business novels", which is business writing in fictional form. <S> Such works appeal to people interested in theology. <S> Most markets for theology are creedally based, though there is certainly a market today for works that are "spiritual, not religious". <S> Finally, there are works of humor, satire, or mockery that attempt to make fun of religious belief. <S> The market for these is pretty broad today. <S> It is not clear from your question which of these categories your stories fall into, but I think these cover the possibilities, at least in broad strokes. <A> Speculative stories about God, or gods, can show up in the realm of speculative fiction, science fiction, or fantasy. <S> Consider the following examples: <S> Some of the stories in Wandering Stars , ed. <S> Jack Dann Larry Niven's version of the Inferno trilogy <S> Mark Twain's Letters from the Earth <S> Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question" Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy <S> If you consider gods in general -- others from Earth's history or ones made up by their authors -- there are many, many more, ranging from the light-hearted (e.g. Terry Pratchett) to the more serious/ponderous (e.g. Jo Walton's The Just City ), with lots in between. <A> Usually in the back of the book is a list of places where the stories have been previously published. <S> If you're reading the kinds of stories you write, then you now have a list of journals that publish stories like yours. <S> (It's irrelevant whether or not they're about god. <S> And, by the way, "And God Said, 'Watch This'" is a great title.)
| Look in the collections of stories you have on your shelves.
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How can I prevent the ends of my chapters from feeling forced? Background I've found that at the end of a lot of my chapters, the endings feel quite forced and abrupt. This is because I don't know where to go, I've done what I need to do. For example: Excerpt from my own writing: “Let us see this matter through. None need to know of this; it is a private issue only for the castle to see to.” “It would be best to seek out the adviser’s” suggested (name removed). “Very well.” This seems extremely abrupt. Its almost like 'okay lets do this' 'do this' 'that it is, see you!'. This comes right after the two characters in this scene discovering a 'page without context'. Considering they've just discovered something so vital and important, I feel like there isn't enough of a winding down section at the end of this chapter. Excerpt from my own writing: A glowing explosion had imploded with embers, knocking warriors away as their clothes were ignited and weapons abandoned. (name removed) watched one fumble for life as he toppled to the ground. I just want to make a note that I haven't decided whether I want to use fumble or cling here, so this example will be edited a lot. I haven't edited this work yet. Anyway, I feel like I've gone from the battle scene to the chapter's end extremely fast, its almost like 'fire explosion!' 'see you'. Normally, after a battle you would have a bit of a winding down section where you consolidated. I haven't had this because I thought it would be obvious that the battle was won, however, it still seems a little bit forced. Also, I changed my mind, I'm changing it to cling the second I finish this question. Fumble connotates that someone is fumbling around the place or fumbling to keep his life, whereas cling infers that he is clinging on to his final moments. Question How can I prevent the ends of chapters feeling abrupt? Is it always good to have a falling action section at the end, after the climax of the chapter? Thanks. <Q> None of these endings feel forced to me. <S> In the second example the viewpoint character looses consciousness. <S> That in itself may be abrupt, but for the chapter it is a natural end. <S> In fact it would be odd to have the narration continue after the protagonist falls to the ground, unconscious. <S> In the first example, a decision has been made and the decision process has been brought to an end. <S> Again that is natural. <S> As the viewpoint characters are still conscious, in the first example something more might follow the decision. <S> I would not pick up the action that follows from the decision. <S> That is a new substory arch and belongs to the next chapter. <S> In fact the whole example is just dialog and feels very bare bones. <S> I would add some description of what the characters do while they speak, or indicate their emotions or relationship. <S> Here is an example. <S> It will not fit your story and characters, which I don't know, and only serves to illustrate what I mean: <S> [stuff happens, things are said] ... <S> “Let us see this matter through,” Lord Brome interrupted impatiently, cutting Sir Falgor's rambling short. <S> “None need to know of this; it is a private issue only for the castle to see to.” <S> Lady Shardley gently touched Lord Brome's shoulder. <S> “It would be best to seek out the advisers,” she suggested quietly, careful not to anger the irritable Lord. <S> Lord Brome stiffened, then caught himself. <S> “Very well,” he said, then shook the Lady's hand off and turned to gaze out the window and to the distant castle. <S> Seek out the advisers he would. <S> But not to ask them for advice. <A> It is hard to be sure from such small samples, but I would guess that the problem is not really abruptness. <S> All chapter endings are in some sense abrupt. <S> The action simply stops. <S> The problem is, where should it stop. <S> Every chapter should have a dramatic arc. <S> It should stop at the end of that arc. <S> A dramatic arc generally ends either with the creation or the resolution of tension. <S> The problem with your first example is that its "'okay lets do this' 'do this' 'that it is, see you!'. <S> " structure does not seem to either create tension or resolve it. <S> It is the end of a scene only in the sense that it is the end of a conversation, after which the characters presumably walk off in different directions. <S> But it ends on what is essentially an administrative decision. <S> No grave matter has come to a head. <S> No grave matter has been resolved. <S> The end of the conversation is not the end of a dramatic arc. <S> The problem is not a lack of winding down but a lack of winding up. <S> Similarly in your second example, although it is a battle scene, there is no apparent arc ending. <S> (By the way, explosions don't implode. <S> The terms are opposites.) <S> There was an explosion. <S> Some people died. <S> Okay, but do those deaths create tension? <S> Do they resolve tension? <S> What is at stake for our hero in this battle? <S> Love? <S> Honor? <S> A moral dilemma? <S> The fate of a loved one? <S> Does this explosion create or resolve tension relative to what is at stake to our hero? <S> If not, the explosion is just a random bit of violence that no more creates dramatic tension than an administrative requirement to get advice from the castle. <S> It is not the end of the chapter because it is not the end of a dramatic arc. <S> The fate of the characters should change in some material way -- or at least be in peril of changing. <S> If a chapter ending feels abrupt, it is probably because it has not reached that point. <S> (Or possibly because it as run on past it, or the chapter contains no such point.) <A> Depends on the story you are telling "and in the telling how the story is told." <S> Traditionally the end of a chapter provides a "forewarning" that more is to come... <S> though maybe not exactly in the next chapter certainly in the coming ones. <S> For example "And he thought 'I think therefore I am' because of what had happened. <S> " <S> End of Chapter followed by Chapter 2: not in quotesI think therefore I am. <S> What the heck does that mean? <S> And then you go from there...
| A chapter end should be a point of flexion in the overall shape of your story. The "boring" or trite way this is done is to literally repeat the last sentence of the last Chapter as the first sentence of your next Chapter...which sounds goofy today but does have literary merit actually. But you might have the viewpoint character reflect on the decision or feel something in anticipation of what they are now about to do.
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In multiple narratives, does time have to be in sync? This goes for any amount of narratives, dual, triple, quadruple, whatever. I'm writing a story with three points of views going on simultaneously right now, about at the same time. However, is it okay to have one of the characters a day ahead of the others, or one a day behind? If I end one chapter with the character's day ending, and I go back to resume from a cliffhanger on a different character where it is still daytime, and by the time I finish that I switch to the other POV where its already tomorrow, is that okay? In a dual narrative, does time have to be absolutely in sync? Can characters be days ahead of each other? <Q> Stories are not organized according to time sequence, they are organized according to narrative arc. <S> A narrative arc is built on rising tension, not the passage of time. <S> Any story with a flashback in it has an asynchronous narrative arc. <S> A multi narrative story usually has multiple narrative arcs. <S> The important thing is to make sure each of the narrative arcs works as an arc. <S> If you try to hard to keep the narratives time synced, you may mess up both narrative arcs. <S> (Remember, a narrative arc is build on rising tension. <S> A cut away may add tension or defuse it.) <S> But it is also possible for a single narrative arc to have two intersecting timelines. <S> Consider a story in which two lovers are separated and are trying to reunite. <S> This could be told as a single narrative arc with frequent communication between the characters and perhaps multiple missed rendezvous, all requiring close time synchronization. <S> But it could also be told as two separate arcs. <S> First you take her through a series of adventures leading her to the rendezvous point at the appointed time. <S> Then you leave her there and tell his narrative arc leading to the ultimate intersection of the arcs (or their failure to intersect). <S> Tension is built through her arc because she does not know if her lover will meet her. <S> Tension is built through his arc because the reader knows she is will be waiting for him, but not if he will choose or be able to meet her. <A> Not only is it okay for characters to be out of sync, it's also widely used in nearly any major fiction work that uses multiple POV's. <S> As The Doctor said: <S> "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff." <S> The same applies with writing. <S> What it means is that the more Points of view you have, and the greater area they cover, the more you can advance and regress within the setting timeline to make your story work. <S> And it is a popular and successful took used by some highly successful authors, and it allows you to explore, in depth, events and situations behind your major plot points: <S> Robert Jordan did it in his Wheel of Time series - multiple main characters that ended up all over the place. <S> Events occurring because of one character impact events occurring around another character, or you get to see the same event from a different angle. <S> When it's done well, you get a much more immersive setting. <S> George R R Martin with Game of Thrones - again has multiple characters and events that occur generally in a linear fashion but has the flexibility to really develop the story and setting. <S> Steven Errikson and his Malazan Book of the Fallen series - similar to the two mentioned above - but goes one step further in that the books themselves aren't chronologically ordered. <S> The published order and chronological order of events varies a great deal - but it works and flows because you are getting so much more information and a greater understanding of the setting. <S> There are too many other authors to mention that do this, but the one thing that it needs, and you need to keep in mind when writing, is that you must have a point of reference or fixed point in time for your readers to fully understand when, how and why some events are occurring and show the progression of each characters story. <S> And that's another thing - all those authors aren't just telling one story, they are telling each characters story within the greater story and that is part of why it works so well. <A> As long as you clearly mark what the date is so that the reader knows your scenes are not in sync, you're okay in terms of clarity. <S> But you should have a good narrative reason for doing so, and not just "the cliffhanger was exciting." <S> If you have characters who absolutely don't interact, it's easier to manage. <S> (This also assumes that you're not telling a story which involves time-travel of any kind, in which case go nuts with asynchronicity.)
| Narrative arc can often be asynchronous. From a reading perspective, I prefer that the scenes not be out of sync by more than a day or so.
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Can I switch from past tense to present tense in an epilogue? I have written my entire novel thus far in past tense. However, I feel like my final chapter/epilogue would work better in present tense. I want to give the reader the sense that everything s/he has read so far is a narration of events. What do you think? Is the tense-switching rule so vital that it would take away from the overall strength of my book? <Q> Switching to present tense in the epilogue would suggest that the story is in a frame. <S> That is, the story is a narration in the present of events that took place in the past. <S> The narrator is not relating in real time, but is looking back over the entire story and relating it in hindsight. <S> This is a common enough technique, but if it is employed only in the epilogue that means that you are springing the fact that there is a frame on the reader at the end, rather than placing it in the frame from the beginning. <S> I don't see why that cannot be made to work, but I think you have to think about it consciously, and make sure the main story is narrated as if it were in a frame, even if the reader is not aware of it. <S> This may be subtle, but I think if it is done well, the reader should feel satisfaction, rather than surprise, when the frame is made explicit in the epilogue. <S> In other words, the switch to present tense should make structural sense in the book as a whole, rather than coming across as a random change. <A> This kind of thing is always Your Mileage May Vary, of course, but I think if you're doing it in an epilogue (clearly labeled as such), you can probably get away with it. <S> The main story is done, and this is a separate after-piece. <S> The tense-switching rule is meant to address comprehension. <S> If part of what you want the reader to comprehend is that "All of this part that you just read is in the past, and we're now in the present," then switching tenses may be exactly what you need to aid comprehension. <S> There's no ironclad rule against it. <A> Essentially it all comes down to how you are going to handle it: use of the present tense conveys a sense of urgency and often indicates immediate action, which makes writing (and reading) <S> a longer piece somewhat difficult. <S> Give it a shot and see how it goes--you can always switch to past tense, if you feel that your epilogue sounds strained and unnatural (it is harder to decide what to write, then how to write it). <S> If you can't tell, give it to a friend to read. <S> Good luck! <A> I agree that it's springing it on the reader a bit, but done properly it can be a powerful tool. <S> An example would be a story about WWII told by a veteran. <S> The main text of the story contains the events that happened, in the past, told in past tense - as a story like this often would be. <S> When the epilogue comes and the veteran is talking about missing his brothers, or that there are so few of them left, or something like that, the switch can be extremely powerful emotionally. <S> If it drives the narrative, an emotional response, or benefits the scope of the story, then definitely go for it - just make sure you do it right! :) <A> If the story was written in first person past tense, then a final chapter titled "Epilogue" would be perfectly fine. <S> A present tense epilogue after a third person past tense story might work, but I can't think of a way to do it satisfactorily. <A> The 'rules' of arts and literature are there to make you stop and think before you break them. <S> The adverse thing about changing tenses is that it can confuse the reader and break the sense of immersion. <S> Typically if you use the more standard past tense for a narrative the reader stops thinking about it as being paste tense per se and just follows it as a sequence of events and keeping it consistent throughout the bulk of a story maintains the sense of a moving present which is also convenient for cutting out irrelevant passages of time. <S> This is often used when writing something where you want to give the impression that the narrator was involved in the events of the main story <S> and it's often seen in 19/20th century proto-sci-fi/fantasy (Lovecraft, Verne etc ) . <S> The danger here is that it can be a bit of a clunky way to force a twist. <S> But it can work with care, especially if it gives genuinely relevant commentary on the events of the main story. <S> Ultimately it is up to your skill and discernment as a writer to decide if it works or not <S> but you are doing <S> the right think by asking the question.
| Having said that switching to the present tense for an epilogue can also make sense especially if it is a fairly well contained scene. You can do whatever you want, there is no law, governing the use of tense (past, present, or even future) in creative writing.
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Subplot with no established POV character present I'm writing a novel with several POV characters, one of which is the director of an intelligence agency. So far, the entire story is told in third person subjective. Each scene is told from the perspective of one of the POV characters. I realized that an additional subplot consisting of several scenes is needed to tie a few things together. This subplot is a mission ordered by the director but not carried out by her. It's not realistic that she could monitor it in real time and none of the agents involved in the mission can plausibly be introduced earlier in the story. It is important that the scenes have a real-time feel to them as the main storyline is up against a ticking clock. It feels excessive to introduce a new POV character (the agent conducting the mission) for only a few scenes, yet it would feel odd to tell that part of the story in third person objective. What is your advice for telling this part of the story? Will it be jarring to have a few scenes told from an objective perspective? Will it be excessive to introduce a new POV character for this portion? <Q> Since your story is in third-person, I think you're fine for that handful of scenes. <S> Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope mysteries are set up like this: 95% of the scenes are from a specific character's POV, whether main or not, and a few scenes here and there are third-person objective. <S> It works fine. <A> If you need to introduce a new character to move the story forward, do it. <S> Picking the flavor of POV is secondary, you can be either objective or subjective, the choice is yours only, and only the time and your alpha readers will tell, if you were right. <S> The only advice is—do not abandon that character, when his or her task of progressing the story is done. <S> Make sure they either stay in the picture or exit meaningfully. <S> My preferred method would be killing them, of course, but it's just me. :-) <A> This doesn't have to be a problem at all. <S> It's generally not a good idea to underestimate readers. <S> Most of them are perfectly capable of understanding that, in this book we're gonna follow along with more than one character. <S> (Some have handfuls of them and do fine.) <S> However, it's also nice when we make things easy for the reader. <S> Dropping in very occasional references to ground the reader can do this. <S> A few random suggestions as to the type of thing <S> I mean: <S> Maybe the chapters with the B mission simply feel different. <S> The pacing might be a bit different due to the timescale. <S> Perhaps the lead agent simply has a different personality to your main protagonist or speaks differently. <S> Is the weather different? <S> Maybe there's one plot in Shanghai and one in a small town in Russia, or a farm in South America. <S> Perhaps the action is of a different type. <S> An action-oriented mission versus, say, a hacking plot or getting financial evidence can be a nice contrast. <S> If you avoid being clunky and obvious about it - please avoid starting each chapter with "The agent said, through his ski mask" - and keep your references to ones that also advance the story, you should avoid any confusion and keep things moving along nicely. <A> If you are basically giving exposition in these extra scenes, it is an opportunity to switch styles. <S> Instead of yet another POV character or just omniscient narrated events, perhaps these scenes are written as an after action report, given as newspaper clippings, or some other manner that clearly distinguishes them as separate from the main narratives but still conveys the necessary information. <S> They could make for a good way to signal breaks/transitions in the main storylines if they fall into a three act structure. <S> If they need to be more immediate, perhaps audio dictations, transcripts of phone conversations, or emails would feel more immediate than an AAR clearly written after everything has unfolded.
| A "B" plot is an opportunity to enhance the main story by setting it off with something that feels a bit different and gives the reader some variety.
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How do I contrast the thought processes of different characters in one scene? I have two characters, Alice and Bob. They have just met and each is trying to deceive the other. But their thought processes and the nature of their deceptions are very different from one another, and I would like to contrast these things. Alice is engaged in some legally or ethically dubious activity. Bob has arrived suddenly and with little explanation. Her primary goal is to maintain control of the situation and prevent Bob from learning anything incriminating. Her secondary goal is to learn who Bob is and what he is doing there. Bob has a very limited understanding of how he arrived and where he is. His primary goal is to figure those things out. When Alice initially spoke to him, she asked him a question which betrayed a profound and suspicious lack of knowledge. As a result, Bob's secondary goal is to prevent Alice from learning anything which might be dangerous until he knows why she lacks this information. That includes not giving away his own suspicion as well as accounting for himself. Both characters are quite intelligent and carefully consider their every word. They also hang on each others' every word. When I conceptualize their interaction, both characters have a great deal of narrative voice, fretting about what might be inferred from one sentence or another. These narratives are, in my opinion, more important to the plot than the actual dialog, which largely consists of evasions and pretexts. I like the idea of contrasting their asymmetrical approaches to the situation. But I don't want to write two instances of the scene with a flashback, because I feel it would dilute the contrast. I specifically want to juxtapose Alice's thoughts on saying something with Bob's thoughts on hearing that same thing, and vice-versa. If I write a flashback, these things would be too far apart from one another and the contrast would not have the same immediacy. Another thought I had was to tell the reader about the conversation, in third-person omniscient, instead of showing them every line of dialog in third-person limited. But this breaks mimesis, and it just feels wrong. I found the narratives entertaining because the characters sometimes jump to wildly incorrect conclusions which are logical based on the available evidence. I find it difficult to tell the reader about these mistakes in a way which is still amusing. I'm sure it's possible, but it seems like a lot of work for something I get "for free" if I stick with third-person limited. I can just drop "Obviously, [something absurd]" into the running narrative, instead of having to go through the whole spiel of diegetically summarizing the conversation, the character's reasoning, how they are wrong, etc., and somehow still making the reader laugh. Terry Pratchett could do that and it would be hilarious, but I'm not him and I have no idea how to pull it off. I'm seriously considering just putting both narrative voices in and alternating between them along with the dialog. I would differentiate them enough to avoid confusion (perhaps with paragraph separation, severe variances in diction or tone, or some other reasonably unambiguous factor). This is certainly unorthodox, but my real question is can I get away with it? If not, what should I do instead? (I'm not a professional writer. I don't care what the editor will think, because I have no editor. By "get away with it," I mean "write like this without it being confusing or otherwise bad," rather than "make it past the editor's desk.") <Q> I should think that alternating paragraphs should be enough, as long as the tone/ voice that each character uses has been sufficiently different. <S> It's not too dissimilar to two different people having an extended back and forth dialogue and not including <S> the 'he said', 'she said' parts in order to preserve the flow of the conversation. <S> The reader should be able to distinguish the two if they know the characters well enough already. <S> Doing it as third person limited will be just that: limited. <S> If you want to do it from both perspectives it will need to be omniscient, particularly if you're delving into their thoughts. <S> If the internal dialogue is distinguished from the rest of the text, with italics for example, it should be quickly clear that they are internal thoughts without having to explicitly state it constantly. <S> For example: Is he suspicious? <S> Quick, distract him. <S> " <S> So, Bob, what do you think about the plan to diversify the customer base?" <S> Good, that should throw him off guard. <S> Don't mention aliens. <S> Don't mention aliens. <S> Don't mention aliens. <S> "Hmm, well I would be worried about losing money by alienating current customers." <S> Dammit Bob. <S> Why is he mentioning losing money? <S> Does he know about the embezzling? <S> How does he know? <S> Alice chuckled and ran her hand through her hair, "you know, I suppose there's no reason to worry about it. <S> That type of thing is well above our pay station." <S> Above our station? <S> Oh Geez, could she be one of them? <S> "Haha, yeah, you're probably right. <S> Anyway, I should probably just keep on marching." <S> Argh! <S> Why did I say marching? <S> It sounds like Martians! <S> Run, just run now before you say anything more stupid. <S> Alice watched him run awkwardly down the corridor. <S> He's going to tell someone. <S> I need to tell Frank right now. <S> As long as you throw in the names of the speakers/thinkers every so often, the reader should be able to keep up who the paragraph is focusing on. <A> The thing about writing is that everything has to be accomplished with a single stream of words. <S> A narrative can only ever be doing one thing at a time, in stark contrast to movies, where many things can be going on on screen simultaneously. <S> On the screen you can create an 18th century ballroom or a 12th century battlefield with a single shot, and have a conversation going on in front of it at the same time, and have the actor's faces tell a different story from their words. <S> In prose, you can't do any of that, you have to layer things in one at a time. <S> So how do you give the reader the sense that a character's thoughts in a scene differ from their words, or that both characters in the scene are lying to each other? <S> You can't cram it all into one shot like the movies <S> can, so you layer it in. <S> You start by establishing one character's thoughts and motivations, then you show their willingness to lie in support of those goals. <S> Then you do the same for the other character. <S> Then, once they meet, all you have to portray is their actual conversation, because the reader understand what they really want and <S> how they a willing to dissemble to get it, and the kind of ways they talk, and so they recognize what is really going on in the scene even though the scene itself it just the bare up-front conversation. <S> This, I would suggest, is the fundamental answer to all questions where the writer is struggling to say everything they want to say in a scene. <S> This is fundamental to how storytelling works: is is all in the setup. <S> The whole structure of storytelling is setup and payoff, and if the payoff isn't working it is because the setup didn't do its job. <S> Reworking the payoff scene a hundred times won't change this. <S> You have to go back and fix the setup. <A> From the way you describe it and the fact that you're asking I'd have to say third person omniscient would achieve what you're trying to accomplish. <S> I also think it makes a difference if it's a short dialogue. <S> but if the interaction is not short, and again, because of the fact that you're asking, I'd go with the description of the dialogue as you suggested yourself.
| If the interaction is short than you might want to try portraying the characters in dialogue
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Description of "Unimportant" Details People advise to keep description to a minimum, or to make it worthwhile to the audience. I'm talking about description that isn't really necessary/important to the plot but is necessary/important to the characterization of the character (which might make it necessary to the story). For instance, in The Catcher in The Rye, Holden Caulfield describes a lot of stuff that don't really matter other than that his description also tells of his reaction/perception of that stuff, which in turn informs his characterization. Seeing this idea used in TCITR, I'm wondering if characterization could serve as a valid reason to describe otherwise "unimportant" details. <Q> I think you answer your own question. <S> If something is properly 'unimportant' then it can be cut without affecting anything else (and should be). <A> The purpose of fiction is to give pleasure. <S> The question, therefore, is not whether a detail is important but whether it gives pleasure. <S> Different types and levels of detail will give different kinds of pleasure in different kinds of works. <S> The details of military technology in Tom Clancey, the details of legal procedure in John Grisham, the details of time and place in John Steinbeck, the fantastical details of the wizarding world in Harry Potter, all gives pleasure to different kinds of readers. <S> For some works, a secondary cottage industry grows up dedicated to nothing but additional details, which is why you can get detailed plans for the Millenium Falcon or an encyclopedia of Dr. Who monsters. <S> This does not mean that all details give pleasure in all circumstances in all works, or to all readers. <S> (Some readers will find the above mentioned details tedious in some of the above mentioned works. <S> Personally the wizarding world had exhausted my patience by the end of book two. <S> And I never did care where Chewie went to the bathroom.) <S> The litmus test for details, I believe, is how the contribute to the pace and mood of the work at any given moment, and as a whole, and whether they increase the reader's immersion in the scene or distract them from focusing on what matters in the scene. <S> Details are neither good nor bad, they are good or bad in context. <A> Personally, I like to think of details as being filtered through some character's perception, and revealing something about the character's relation to the world at that particular moment. <S> Done right, this can reveal character, give a sense of the character's surroundings, and progress the plot (since the details the character notices can reveal that character's intentions). <S> For me, what bothers me is when a writer starts describing things that would either be so commonplace or so irrelevant to the viewpoint character that they wouldn't consciously notice them. <S> That said, this is probably a matter of opinion to some extent. <S> Different readers will almost certainly have different ideas about how much (and what kind of) description they're OK with.
| The details are not 'unimportant' in your question because they form part of the characterization.
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Writing in English, from the viewpoint of a non-English-speaking character, how can I convey a language very similar to the character's own? To provide a little background, I'm writing a novel set in a fantasy world, within which there are multiple languages. I'm applying the rule that any speech the viewpoint character (I'm using subjective third person, by the way) is able to immediately understand is rendered as English, and everything else is written in the original language (as he would hear it). The trouble is that some characters speak a language that is very similar to the viewpoint character's own language. It's not close enough that he'd understand every word, but he could probably get a rough idea of what they mean. My question is, how can I convey this (in the sense of putting the reader in the character's head) as clearly and simply as possible? <Q> Two methods I can think of: 1) <S> The character says or thinks what he's understood. <S> "So you want me to go to the hut in the forest and kill the wizard?" <S> He listened as the elders discussed the situation. <S> Do they really want me to go into the Black Forest and take out the sorcerer who's cursed the whole kingdom? <S> He wasn't sure if he was up for that. <S> 2) <S> The narration summarizes what the character thinks he's understood. <S> The elders spoke for a while. <S> He couldn't follow the entire conversation, but he gathered that they wanted him to go into the great forest beyond the village and either incapacitate or kill the sorcerer who had cursed the kingdom. <S> He wasn't sure if he was up for that. <A> It does require a certain level of knowledge of the language, but I think it is manageable with the help of a spell-checker—to make sure <S> the made-up words do not actually mean something. <S> Something like this . <S> 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves <S> Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. <A> How about speaking English but in a Strong dialect. <S> That might help, examples Geordie, Doric (1 of many Scots dialects if y'ken whit I mean). <S> Some may argue that they are languages rather than dialects.
| The cheap and dirty trick which comes to mind is to take a phrase in English and replace all the words, or at least most of the keywords with made-up English-sounding (or even not English-sounding ones).
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Is NaNoWriMo necessarily a good thing? I'm well on my way to 50k but I feel like my story has not plot and is quite bad. I read somewhere that NaNo is awful for quality of writing. (How) can I improve the quality of writing during NaNoWriMo? <Q> If you are following the daily wordcount rules, NaNoWriMo is explicitly not about quality. <S> It's about committing to getting stuff on paper so you can work with it. <S> So many of us start a novel and never finish it, or never start it at all. <S> Being part of the NaNoWriMo sprint gives you a concrete goal and a community to cheer you on. <S> There is, in fact, nothing wrong with having a crappy first draft. <S> Most first drafts are crap. <S> A first draft which you've written by aiming for a word count is very likely going to be a little extra crappy. <S> This is fine. <S> You now have your words on paper. <S> You can see how your ideas did and didn't work. <S> You have clay to make bricks with. <S> You can throw out whole chapers and rewrite them because you saw how it didn't work the first time. <S> Stop worrying about "This is bad." <S> Focus on " <S> this is getting finished. <S> " You can edit at leisure. <A> It's important to understand what NaNoWriMo can and can't do. <S> In a way, NaNoWriMo is all about quantity, and not at all about quality. <S> That's really important, because quantity is something a lot of writers really struggle with - sometimes without even realizing it. <S> Demonstrate to yourself that you're able to write, and write a lot. <S> Produce a substantial body of unpolished work, that you can later edit, rework, or rewrite entirely into a much-improved second draft. <S> These are the goals <S> NaNoWriMo can offer you. <S> If these are areas you want to work on, then NaNoWriMo is a great way to that (and to enjoy a ton of community support and encouragement while you're at it!). <S> If that's not where you're having difficulty, if those aren't areas you want to spend effort to improve, then NaNoWriMo probably isn't the right tool for you. <A> Not necessarily, no. <S> In fact, probably not. <S> NaNoWriMo puts an emphasis on words, and on getting words down on paper. <S> But words are merely a vehicle. <S> What we call "writing" is actually about storytelling, not grammar and vocabulary. <S> The relationship between words and story seems to be different for different writers. <S> If the discipline of producing words has the effect of pulling story out of you, then NaNoWriMo may have some merit for you. <S> But it is equally possible that the demand to produce words may cause your mind to disengage the story engine and simply start churning words. <S> In that case, it is a waste of time. <S> Stories seem to flow out of some people as easily as breathing. <S> They may lack nothing but the discipline and craft to write them down. <S> For others, words may come naturally, but crafting story is a hard slog. <S> Some seem to benefit from putting writing aside and building story as an outline or plan. <S> Others can only capture story through words, but need to wait for story to come to them before they can write. <S> Still others (the greatest number alas) have neither story nor art in them and can only spew words. <S> Personally I can see NaNoWriMo being effective only for the first and last groups. <S> Story is the point, though, and if NaNoWriMo is not pulling story out of you, I would say stop and wait until you have a story before you write.
| Some of NaNoWriMo's big goals are: Get yourself into the habit of writing consistently. Get yourself used to the fact that not all your writing is good, and don't let that block you from writing .
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How to write a character misinterpreting Four Candles as Fork Handles English is full of homophones that can cause confusion when speaking, but if the two similar sounding words are spelled differently they can be clarified as soon as they are written down. However, this causes an issue when attempting to deliberately write about someone hearing the incorrect words, because as soon as they are put onto the page Schrodinger's box is opened and the reader knows exactly which version is actually being said aloud. From a limited perspective, it can be written as the POV character hears the words, but I feel that as soon as the misunderstanding is revealed it can completely jar the reader as they realize that they have deliberately been misled. For example, written from the perspective of the shopkeeper: A man entered the shop and approached the counter, "good day sir, I would like four candles please." "Of course, not a problem," the shopkeeper fetched four candles from the shelf and placed them on the counter. "No, I asked for fork handles . Handles for forks." As soon as the reader sees this they will realize that, whilst the listener could have easily misinterpreted the speaker accidentally, the writer purposefully decided to choose the opposite way to write it than was intended by the speaker, which means that the reader doesn't get the same chance to have their own interpretation of the phrase spoken. I did think about the possibility of sewing an element of doubt into the writing, for example: A man entered the shop and approached the counter, "good day sir, I would like four candles please." "Of course, not a problem," the shopkeeper was quite sure that he had heard the customer correctly, so he went to fetch four candles from the shelf, and then placed them on the counter. "No, I asked for fork handles . Handles for forks." The issue with this is that as soon as the writing focuses on the opportunity for the character to misinterpret what he hears, it almost certainly means that he has heard incorrectly. If he hadn't misheard, there would be no reason for the writer to mention it, which means the surprise is taken from the reader when it is revealed. Is there any good way to write down a homophone that still leaves the correct (and incorrect) interpretation open to the reader? <Q> Be minimalist, and write what an outside observer would hear. <S> It's worth noting that even in the Fork 'Andles sketch, Ronnie B. is saying very little. <S> He's not having a long conversation that would help us get a handle on his accent; he's just grunting the things he needs. <S> Telling this from Ronnie C's perspective, you wouldn't even allow for the possibility of mishearing until later in the text. <S> Something like: <S> He unfolded a grubby piece of paper and squinted at it. <S> "Fou' candles," he said in a rough workers accent. <S> "Four candles?" <S> I confirmed, turning to gather the requested items. <S> I set the candles on the counter and said "There you are. <S> Four candles. <S> The man just stared at them. <S> "Nah, fou' candles. ' <S> Andles fer forks." <S> Fork handles he meant. <S> Stupid blighter. <S> Later, with the man's accent more firmly fixed, we can play with it. <S> "Got any ose?" <S> Ose ? <S> I took a moment to parse that through his silly accent, with its dropped aitches, added in the fork handles, and realised what he meant. <S> Hoes . <S> Gardening tools were on the other side of the shop. <S> I set a fine hoe down in front of him, and he gave it a blank stare. <S> "No, ose." <S> "Oh, hose ! <S> I thought you meant hoes . <S> Y'mean hose <S> y' should've said that..." <S> I collected a reel of garden hose and dropped it in front of him. <S> "No, ose. <S> " <S> It was my turn to stare blankly. <S> " <S> Well what do... <S> oh, you mean hose, panty hose! <S> " <S> Luckily we did have a pack of tights nearby. <S> I grabbed it and brought it. <S> "No, ose, ose. <S> O's for the gate, <S> mon repose . <S> Le'er O's." <A> The fork handles sketch was one of the most brilliant things The Two Ronnies ever did. <S> And it depends for its success not simply on homophones, but on the manipulation of point of view. <S> You can't write down a homophone (by definition, they are things that sound alike but are not written alike). <S> But you can manipulate point of view. <S> You could do it by reporting what Ronnie Corbett hears in the sketch (the conversation from his POV), and Ronnie Barker's response when he puts those things on the counter. <S> You could do it by reporting what Ronnie Barker says (the conversation from his POV) and the things that Ronnie Corbett puts on the counter in response. <S> You could do it by putting the story in a frame and having either character relate the incident to his friends in the pub afterwards. <A> In the particular instance, for the joke to work Ronnie C had to be speaking in a certain accent for Ronnie B to misunderstand him, because 'four candles' and 'fork handles' are not generally homophonic. <S> So you have to make sure the 'h' is dropped and that the accent doesn't differentiate the 'fou' and 'for' as Ronnie c's native accent would. <S> IPA is probably the way to go, but I'm not versed in it so am falling back on some random googling to suggest that if: Fork Handle is ' fɔːk ˈhand(ə)l ' and Four candles is ' fɔːˈkand(ə)l ' then perhaps you can run them together to something like ' fɔːkˈand(ə)l '
| So for this instance you would have to devise a way of writing the words phonetically which also disguised the spelling.
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Appropriate use of outdated vocabulary and terms? I'm in the process of planning a story right now, without the intention of sharing it it with others, but I would like it to be comprehensible if I do. It's set in the 1880s and is formatted like a journal which belongs to a doctor, and there would be some words used that people now might not be familiar with. Should I replace these with their modern counterparts, or is it okay to use the period-correct version? If the latter, would it interesting and useful to include annotations (say, as if someone had later found the journal)? <Q> If you are after verity, you have far more to worry about than vocabulary. <S> In the nineteenth century the whole style of writing was different. <S> Paragraphs and sentences were much longer than we typically use today and the overall tone was far more formal. <S> Language usage was far more of a marker of class than it is today. <S> (Many of our grammatical shibboleths that are slowly dying out stem from the desire in that period to clearly delineate the speech and writing of the upper classes from that of the lower.) <S> But stories are always written for a modern audience. <S> Setting a story in the past (or in space, or in wonderland) is simply a device for creating the right stage on which to tell your story. <S> Even those in the historical fiction community who scream blue murder about the wrong number of buttons on a lady's glove don't bat an eyelash as monstrously anachronous speech, opinions, or actions. <S> Almost no historical novelist, for instance, make any attempt to portray the religious or class attitudes that would be common to ordinary people of a given period, except as marks of villainy. <S> So, your doctor's journal is a device for telling a story to a modern audience, and it only needs as much faithfulness to the period as is required to tell the story you want to tell. <S> Too much will do as much harm to verisimilitude as too little, by distracting the reader from the story. <A> This really comes down to style and the backstory for your journal. <S> If it's supposed to have sat unread in a drawer for 140 years, nobody would have been able to annotate it; if it's been an object of scholarly study throughout that time, there'll be endless rewrites and examinations of it. <S> Adding annotations to clarify feels rather cheap to me, and feels as though the audience is being patronised. <S> It also severely dates the work, because if somebody's reading it in twenty years and finds that some old words have been annotated but others haven't, it feels less like it was written 140 years ago, more like it was written twenty years ago. <S> For example, if I was reading a book which noted that "Gay" simply meant 'happy' and not 'homosexual', I wouldn't be thinking " <S> Ah, thanks for sharing that", I'd be thinking "Oh, this was annotated ten years ago before 'gay' became a general expression of dislike". <A> I sometimes use archaic words but tell the reader the meaning in the same way a newspaper defines words the lower vocabulary reader might not understand. <S> For example. <S> " <S> Did you do the task I set eow?" <S> "Yes, Lady. <S> It is done." <S> or: The percolator coffee maker sat on the stove. <S> You can tell that eow is 'you' just by the way it is written. <S> I do caution you in over-used of dialect or different language. <S> If you can't read it aloud seamlessly, then it isn't worth having it in the story. <S> Percolator and coffee maker are almost the same thing.
| But exactly how much you need to do really depends on the story you are trying to tell. For myself, if I were reading a piece of fiction that was set in a certain time and written by a person of that time, unless it would be totally unreadable without translation (say, written in Old English or similar), I would prefer to see the unusual words exactly as they were written and look them up myself if I'm confused.
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As a writer, should I be upset because I couldn't think of an idea? I've just been struggling recently with this doubt that I could never think of ideas I've seen written on my own. If that sounds confusing to you, you aren't the only one. Of course, I could sit down and be inspired by something another author wrote and write something in the same vein. That's not the issue. It's that now I've seen them, I can never have the idea off my own back. And that bothers me because I cannot take that back. It's done, it's fixed. And I can never know if I would have thought of it myself or not. Anytime I think of anything similar, it's just going to be based on what I read and not from my own creativity. I know it's neurotic but has anyone else been in this position? I need some clarity on this, an external viewpoint you might say. <Q> Let's say I go on holiday to a nice sunny place and see, first hand, the 'story' of poor local people trying to survive by competing for the tourist dollars that come each year. <S> I may use that as inspiration for a story. <S> Instead of going away <S> I could holiday at home and a read a book ( or watch a documentary) about poor local people trying to survive by competing for the tourist dollars that come each year. <S> I may use that as inspiration for a story. <S> As long as I'm telling my story <S> and it's interesting enough for people to want to read <S> it does it matter which of the two scenarios above were the inspiration? <A> Absolute originality is a myth. <S> Unless you have spent your entire life isolated from the works of every writer who ever lived, your works will parallel and build upon everything you have read. <S> Absolute originality is also unavoidable. <S> No idea is so simple or obvious that it can't become original and unique just by being spoken in your voice or written in your style. <S> Original ideas are in limited supply. <S> The big, story sized ones have each been beaten into the ground by thousands of authors who chose them before you came along. <S> Choose any one of them and then add originality through your characters, their thoughts and through the perspective of your POV character or narrator. <S> Tell an old story in new way and the story is no longer old. <A> Fiction is based on observation, not invention. <S> The same stories are told over and over again because the same stories are lived over and over again. <S> If new writers repeat the stories of old writers it is not because they copied them from the old writers, but because both the old writer and the new observed the same stories playing out in the lives of the people around them. <S> The writer's job is to refine and highlight the key points of story. <S> If a story works for you it works through recall. <S> A good writer makes you see the world more vividly. <S> Having seen the world more vividly, you are better prepared to write yourself. <S> We endlessly retell the old stories because those are the stories there are, and because there is apparently an endless appetite for the old stories told in new ways. <S> What we prize is not the great inventors of stories (for there are none). <S> What we prize is the great tellers of stories. <S> Take the oldest, most trite, most obvious story in the world and tell it with extraordinary verve, sympathy, and insight, and the world will beat a path to your door.
| Everything that can be written has its roots in something that was written before. Inspiration is inspiration and it comes in many forms. Your debt to the writers you have read is not that you steal their invention but that their observation has sharpened your own. You couldn't exactly clone the writing of another if you tried, so stop worrying about doing it by accident.
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Single author scientific paper, 'we' or 'I'? I am authoring a single author paper. Usually when referring to oneself in a paper, 'we' is used. In single author papers I found both 'we' and 'I' (e.g., 'here we/I report xyz'). Which one is stylistically better? To me 'we' seems odd when I read a single author paper. <Q> The convention in scientific writing, at least in the hard sciences, is to avoid "I" even for single-author papers. <S> I suspect (but can't prove) <S> that this is why you see so much passive voice in such papers ("the doohickey was then frobitzed to induce a somethingorother reaction"). <S> According to this well-received answer on Academia , you can view use of "we" as an editorial "we" or "we, as in the author and the readers". <S> The latter approach works better for descriptive writing ("we see the following results...") than reporting ("we did X"). <S> Ultimately you should base your decision on the submission requirements of the institution where you intend to publish the paper. <S> But in general, "I" is uncommon, "we" is used even for single-author papers, and you can use "we" in a way that doesn't have to seem weird. <A> If it's a single author, use I. <S> I is for singular, and if you are doing the research and all that stuff by yourself, then take credit, unless someone's helped you. <S> If you use "we", then there must be more people other than you doing the research, or someone has been helping you. <S> Check here for more information. <A> There is no "we" behind the paper if there was only one person masterminding the project. <S> Although, If this was a formal Scientific paper, It Usually is incorrect to refer to ones self during the script; the point is to present your point, not the fact that you found it(although if you found something completely unique and incredibly interesting, by all means, announce the fact of your hand behind the discovery-outside of the paper.)
| If you are the only one behind the research and the writing behind the paper, I is a singular term and should therefore should be used instead of we.
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What is an easy way to create a detailed character profile for a short story? What is an easy way to create a detailed character profile for a short story? I'm new to this Stack Exchange, and need help creating an organized character profile, with the information I have on my character. <Q> There's no One Correct Way. <S> You can have a list of attributes as if you were creating a D&D character. <S> You can jot down notes so you have guidance for the important parts of your story. <S> Essentially, a profile is whatever helps you to create your character as a rounded, living person in your head so you can figure out what that person would do and say. <S> The form of that is whatever works for you. <A> One of the best ways I ever saw was with those for-entertainment-only personality quizzes; such as "What Disney Princess/Prince are you?" <S> or "What's your Myer's Brigg's personality designation. <S> " <S> Usually, these quizzes have about 20 questions associated with them, so they don't take that long. <S> The key is to answer each question as your character would. <S> This will result in a tidy character description that reflects the internal workings of the person. <S> For appearance, simply pull a pic from online, or a magazine. <S> For family/friend/occupation, add this information as necessary for the story, and to give you, the writer, the sense your character is a complete person. <S> Lastly, identify all the conflicts in this characters life. <S> Spend a little time on this and try to be original. <S> Perhaps his boss is his best friend, but he's uncomfortable with his landlady because she's always hitting on him. <S> Whatever conflicts he has (even separate from the major one the story is about), these are what will serve to bring your character to life. <A> Consider the essential things you need to know about that person in the way they look, what they do currently, and what drives them. <S> Create a dossier of those things. <S> Do this for every major character. <S> Then, start writing. <S> And watch how much of the stuff you wrote down changes. <A> I create an Excel file where each column is a character and each row is a character trait. <S> It looks something like this: John Bobage 14 53occupation pupil <S> retired astronaut wants to be an astronautlives with his mom and sister alonedevelop. <S> misses his dad, depressed; misses his wife, suicidal; sees the sadness in Bob; compassion for sad little John; sets his mom on Bob = <S> > <S> takes care of John = <S> > <S> finds purpose finds new meaning in being in learning astrophysics; Bob's replacement father; ... slowly accepts the love; John's mom offers him <S> What you put in there will depend on what story you write. <S> I like to use a spreadsheet program for this, because I can add in rows wherever I want them and move both columns and rows around as I like. <S> The organization in rows and columns gives me a clear comparison between characters and helps me to make them distinct from each other or relate them to each other. <S> I also create development rows to show how the development of different characters relates to each other, that is, how the development of one character during the story is an "answer" to the development of another character. <S> I quickly made up an example above to show the idea; it is a bit more refined in a real characters file. <S> Do not forget backstory. <S> Personally, I don't go very far with backstory. <S> I don't write the interviews or short narrative pieces that are often recommended to discover a character's backstory. <S> I find that that puts the wrong focus and makes me want to write more backstory into the story than is good for that story. <S> Therefore, I only develop the backstory as far as it is relevant to my story, the rest I leave intentionally blank. <S> This Excel file is something I keep on working on while I develop and then write the story, always changing, adding, or deleting things as my conception of my characters changes in the process of writing. <A> Well, first off it depends on what your genre is. <S> You will always have a genre with a short story, or any story. <S> So if its along the line of romance, or love, you want to have some intake on past relationships, mention a name or two. <S> Or put in some info about the character that would motivate to the plot. <S> If its just a narrative, with a plot, not so much with a certain genre of fantasy, or myth, or realistic fiction, then the character development will be a lot easier. <S> So name his/her name obviously. <S> Not so much appearances, because, as well as the reader will want to imagine the character <S> , the reader wants some information to help your story balance. <S> But if your story is set on how the chracter looks, than its a good idea to mention it. <S> Then use starter phrases such as, "I am a very ... person. <S> " If its in first person or, "SoandSo does ... for this reason." Make sure it's efficient for your story. <S> I hope this helps in anyway. <S> I am still learning the basics in writing myself.
| You can use one of the email or tumblr questionnaires which circulate from time to time and answer it from the perspective of your character.
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How to sell books without giving up rights to my manuscript I just finished the first of a series of children's books and ready to sell. How does one sell their book without giving up all rights to it? <Q> That's what a contract does. <S> You, and ideally your agent, negotiate a contract with a publisher. <S> The contract specifies what rights you are allowing the publisher to have in exchange for distribution and printing, and how the exchange of money works. <A> You should set some kind of limit and some kind of process for rights to revert. <S> Any legitimate publisher will spell that out in the contract (and might even specify early termination clauses). <S> I'll warn you though, publishers hold a lot of cards and might just present a take-it-or-leave it contract. <S> If you're doing a series, you might have to give up a lot on the first volume or two and then negotiate later for better terms. <S> Another thing. <S> You might be talking about not selling digital rights or movie/TV rights. <S> That's possible, but that might cause publishers to balk at your project. <S> A better way to negotiate that might be to require final approval when negotiating movie rights. <S> (Typically though, if a publisher can get something in other mediums, that's a good thing for the author in more ways than one). <A> Traditionally, your rights revert to you after a specified period of time when the book is out of print. <S> However, be cautious! <S> In recent times, publishers have been able to circumvent this by placing books into perpetual "print-on-demand" limbo . <S> If you don't want that to happen to your book, make sure you cover it in your contract. <S> That's one of the main reasons it's good to have an agent, even if you can sell your book yourself. <S> However, you may be putting the cart ahead of the horse. <S> Most writers face their biggest hurdle in getting someone interested in publishing their book, not in protecting their rights to it.
| I think the key question is how long do you grant publishing rights.
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How to excite readers "You have to excite yourself to excite others" Starting with this quote, that I listened to a conference, I really would know the "magic formula" (even I imagin there isn't) to excite readers with your stories and writings.I know, I have to write, to exercise, and to try, try, try...But, is everything closed in the experience?I mean, is there a path, that I can follow, to improve my writes, my stories and my thinking?Yesterday I saw True Detective (Season 1) and I remained literally shocked about its plot. I know, screenwriters are usually good writers and they are able to excite people (with twists), but how do they reach this level? <Q> Contrary to the accepted answer I believe there is a magic formula to writing exciting fiction. <S> It's conflict and how your characters react to it. <S> There are lots of other aspects such as "show don't tell" where instead of saying "the air was cold" you say something like " <S> Mary pulled her coat tight to protect her from the icy wind" (ie show how character reacts and feels to things rather than just referring to the things). <S> But this and other things such as stake are auxiliary. <S> How your character reacts to conflict reveals all this. <S> Everything comes down to character development, which comes from how your characters react to adversity and conflict. <S> They need to be pushed and challenged, and their reactions develop their character. <S> This conflict and character reaction is what will excite your reader. <S> I recommend the book Immediate Fiction, which breaks down these concepts perfectly. <A> I hope I am not making an inappropriate advertisement <S> but I recently took a course in LinkedIn <S> "Writing Fundamentals: <S> The Craft of Story". <S> It is a Lynda course <S> and I believe it answers exactly your question in a very easy and structured way. <S> Otherwise I should say that the most valid tip would be to follow the next requirements: <S> Have a theme (convey message about human relations); Have a logically causal relation between events; Leave only the events that bring something to the story; <S> Know what your reader knows <S> (The fact that you are aware of your story doesn't mean the reader is too. <S> Make sure to show the reader everything they need to know.); Show don't tell; Have interesting characters; Have character development arc; Create conflicts and resolutions; Follow the rule " <S> What can go wrong, must"; Make sure to put stakes, the protagonist should have a lot to loose if they fail. <S> Etc. <S> ; These are only basic tips how to excite the reader. <S> The list is to be continued. <S> I believe in order to excite them, make sure that the reader cares about your protagonist, then have no mercy on him <S> /her - put him/her through the worst you can thing. <S> Meanwhile create dramatic conflicts and resolutions. <S> Hope this helps. <A> Excite is the wrong thing to focus on. <S> The real key to successful storytelling is to engage the reader. <S> There are no car chases or gun fights in Pride and Prejudice. <S> It is a story of a courtship, decorously told. <S> And yet is is probably the single most durable and popular novel ever written. <S> It is about taking the dross of everyday life, running it through a juicer, and then rendering down the juice into something rich and piquant and wonderful. <S> It is life focused, sweetened, and purified. <S> The writing bromides are attempts to capture aspects of this, but none of them is either sufficient or necessary in themselves. <S> Any technique that focuses, sweetens, and purifies life to produce something engaging and true will work for readers. <S> It is a product of sensibility, attention, and refinement. <S> There is no formula for it, in the sense that you cannot achieve it by technique alone. <S> To be able to do it well, you have to change who you are, develop your sensibilities, sharpen your observation, and refine your craft. <S> You have to learn to think and see and express yourself like a writer. <S> There is nothing exceptional about this. <S> Many crafts cannot be reduced to formulas. <S> They require immersion and they change who you are, how you see the world. <S> They rewire your brain. <S> The first and most essential component of becoming a writer seems to be to live your life (your whole life) with a particular kind of attention. <S> You cannot refine life down to its essence until you train your eye to tell the gold from the dross. <S> Some people, it seems, develop this habit of attention very early in life. <S> Perhaps they are even born with it. <S> The rest of us have to work on it, and it can be very hard work. <S> But develop your powers of attention, and the words, and the order and selection of words, will come.
| It is all about creating an experience for the reader that rings true and engages their sympathy and interest. There is no magic formula.
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Script-style conversations in a book How good is it to use script-style conversations in stories? New Hampshire, 2144, Beside a sign at Bulgart st. James: Please, Robert, I don't have time to discuss this. You must hand over those documents! Robert: I'm not giving away the only evidence to the death of my wife. James: You realize they'll be over in time and I won't be able to help you. Robert: It is my job alone to find out who's behind this. You really can't understand! Robert hears a car approaching. James: You need to run, now! Robert says, "Thank you, friend" and quickly runs towards the closest building. He hears, behind him, the car stop. Two agents rush out of the car. <Q> You certainly can. <S> You can do anything that works. <S> Melville does something very like this at one point in Moby Dick, so there is good precedent for it. <S> The thing is, why are you doing it? <S> Why break convention? <S> Any time you break convention, you call attention to what you are doing. <S> When you break convention, you call attention back to the text itself. <S> There are certainly writers who break convention. <S> Cormac McCarthy does not use quotation marks. <S> I have no idea why, but I notice that fact that he does this, which makes me more conscious of the text. <S> This might be why he does it, since his text is very deliberately poetic. <S> (Again, it may simply be because he is Cormac McCarthy and he can do what he likes.) <S> Using a script format like this seems to add a kind of staccato tone to the dialog, as if it is spit back and forth rapidly. <S> But that's how it strikes me. <S> It may strike others differently. <S> Being unconventional, it does not come with any guarantee of how different readers will interpret it. <S> In the end, though, as an author you are entitled to literary innovation. <S> It may be worth it if it produces some worthwhile effect for your intended audience. <S> But be aware that it will almost certainly rub some people the wrong way. <A> It's not unheard of to do this, but I wouldn't recommend doing it at the beginning of your book. <S> Give the readers time to get to know the characters, then you can cut to a kind of short-hand between the characters. <S> The reader should always be able to follow what is going on in the dialogue; if it's confusing, you failed them in the writing of the story. <S> Everything else in a novel should be like a novel. <S> Screenplays are written for directors and actors to bring to life. <S> A typical book reader wants you to paint an experience in their mind, which they can't get from watching TV or reading a screenplay. <A> I think the crux of it is that anything you do that breaks convention will make your writing more difficult to read. <S> That isn't to say you shouldn't do it, by the way (several of my favourite books take serious liberties with style and formatting), but it must be worth the effort. <S> If a reader would be able to get everything they could possibly get from your writing, for less effort, if you used conventional formatting, they'll be (understandably) frustrated if you don't. <S> If not - if your choice adds something, and the effort is worth the reader's while - your only difficulty is convincing them to put the effort in in the first place. <S> Once they do, they'll be glad they did. <S> As with all such things, though, it's ultimately a matter of taste. <S> There are people who think anything "conventional" is bland and unadventurous, and wouldn't be seen dead reading mainstream fiction (or using the phrase "wouldn't be seen dead"). <S> There are also people who think anything "unconventional" is a pointless attempt to seem clever, and that mainstream fiction is mainstream because it's just better . <S> For what it's worth, I think both of these positions are ridiculous, but that's beside the point. <A> Either you're writing a prose piece or <S> you're writing a screenplay. <S> Don't do both. <S> If you're doing some advanced stuff with formatting trying to represent different kinds of media (radio transcripts, chat logs), you might be able to have speaker tags the way you do above, but not ploppped down in the middle of a regular paragraph.
| When you follow convention, you text tends to become transparent and the reader simply sees that scene you are creating. If you wanted to short-hand your first draft via a screen play method, that would be fine, as long as you go back and fill in the details to give book lovers what they expect from a book.
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How to better imply time and place changes? For instance we are speaking of one time and then when we finish we speak of a moment that preceded, i.e. Ten hours before that . Or we are speaking about people in a facility and then we change to Later that day in a bar how to correctly imply these changes? How to write them? <Q> This is probably more of a question about transitions than anything. <S> I often wondered about this myself (and I'm assuming you are talking about this in context of fiction writing to make it seem real). <S> Then I read the book, <S> Make Your Words Work, by Gary Provost (amazon link) <S> and it cleared it all up. <S> Basically, he explained it simply. <S> Suppose you read a story and two characters are bidding each other goodbye. <S> Then you come upon the following: ' <S> ***** <S> Later that day at the cafe, Barry heard a gunshot. <S> You see? <S> It's really as simple as that. <S> Suppose you want it to be a specific time, that's ok. <S> Readers are smart enough to follow it. <S> Some books do use the asterisk in between these transitions also to show the reader that it's two different scenes. <S> ' <S> *** <S> At 10:05pm <S> Barry startled from where he had fallen asleep on the couch. <S> The TV was blaring, but he had distinctly heard a gunshot outside his door. <S> Directly outside. <S> Your readers will understand it well enough. <S> Readers are smart. <A> There are countless ways to announce a flashback (ten hours before) and denote time passing (later that day), it all depends on the genre and your personal stylistic preferences and none of them are either correct or wrong. <S> Basically, what you are managing is a scene change, and the time can go in any direction, depending on how you are telling the story. <S> If you are writing a more relaxed-paced piece, your character can just reflect on what s/he saw or was thinking some time ago, maybe even without an explicit scene break, just say something like "her thoughts returned to the events of this morning" and keep going. <S> The passing of time is even easier: every scene break implies a change of some sort, whether scenery, point of view, or time, so start a new scene and work in the time reference in a natural and unobtrusive way, say "I can't believe it's six already, I have to go..." etc. <S> It is all up to you. <S> If you are looking for actual words to use in any particular case, this is not a right place to ask your question, you would be better off consulting with your writing group. <A> One way to convey time is with signposts: <S> She buried her head in the pillow as she smacked the alarm clock for the third time. <S> He fumbled with his key in the lock, glowering at the burnt-out porch light. <S> "Gotta remember to fix that before leaving for work tomorrow," he muttered. <S> Over dinner she shared the news of her promotion. <S> "Are you coming to bed?" <S> "In a minute -- just want to catch the weather report," he said as he glanced at the TV. <S> The kids bounded from the school bus and ran for the playground. <S> Homework could wait. <S> You don't know exactly when she gets up in the morning or school gets out or they have dinner, but you usually don't need an exact time. <S> If you need to be more specific, you can work it in without resorting to outright narration: <S> The blare of the Rolling Stones jolted her out of her dream. <S> 6:00 already? <S> Not ready to face the day, she reached over and smacked the snooze alarm. <S> Take that, Mick Jagger. <S> He quickly cleared the lunch dishes. <S> He was cutting it close; the kickoff was at 1:30 and the guys would be here any minute. <S> The minute hand crawled ever so slowly toward the 12. <S> Two more minutes... <S> one more... at last! <S> 3:00 brought the anticipated bell and the stampede from the classroom. <S> "Don't forget to read chapter 3!" <S> Mr. Davis sighed, knowing his reminder had fallen on deaf ears. <S> I've been talking about time, but you can handle changes of place in a similar way. <S> You don't need to say "they're at a bar" if you can imply it -- the pitcher of beer, the conversation with the bartender, the noisy crowd watching the game on several TVs while munching pretzels... show, don't tell.
| It is common in many action TV series to start an episode with an action scene, and then display a clear subtitle (ten hours before) and return to the events which led to what was shown first, and I have seen that technique applied to writing, where the scenes are time-stamped to enforce the sense of urgency and convey the importance of time, being an element of the plot.
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A character's behaviour changes when returning to more familiar conditions. How should I attempt justify this change to the reader? The story I'm writing begins with the main character in an unusual and demanding situation. For various reasons, this situation causes him to behave in ways that are quite different to how we see him act for the rest of the story. Now, if this were happening later in the story, I'd simply establish what has changed and why it's unusual for him, and provided I'd characterised him right, his unusual (for him) behaviour would seem natural and appropriate, given the change of circumstance. My trouble is, since the character is going back to far more familiar conditions, and isn't self-aware enough to think about or acknowledge this fact (at least, not without prompting from another character), many of the usual tricks I would use to show that his relationship to his environment has changed will be unavailable to me. How then do I flag up the relevant changes, such that the character's behaviour doesn't seem arbitrary to the reader, without "breaking character" (in the sense of revealing things from the character's perspective that the character himself would pay no attention to)? <Q> NOTE: <S> I'm new to this site, and not completely familiar with the finer points of etiquette, here, so please do let me know if this (answering my own question) isn't considered the right way to go about this sort of thing. <S> I've given this problem more thought, and I believe I've found a nice solution (which isn't say I'm not still open to other suggestions, mind you). <S> I think the answer is to introduce a common element to both. <A> If he's not aware that he's back in a familiar environment, then why would his behavior change? <S> Maybe what you might try is having the character act the same way even though the environment changes, and then have something occur where due to him acting like he is in the unfamiliar environment would either seem extremely out of of character to the other people in this familiar environment, or would cause him to "snap out of it" and return to his normal behavior. <S> Ex: If a typical high school student finds themself transported to the realm of Star Wars as a Jedi-in-training, then they would probably freak out a little bit. <S> If, however, they were later transported back to their native realm as a high school student, they might try to use the force to laughable results, prompting one of their fellow students to ask them what in their right mind they are doing. <A> I'm pretty new to this site, but the first thing that came to my mind: are there any inside jokes or something like that? <S> Something that only familiar things/people can make the character do? <S> Or maybe you could be like ' <S> I don't know how, but I feel like I've done this before... <S> I dismiss that thought <S> and--' or close to that
| If I have the character encounter a specific and recognisable stimulus in both parts of the story, and his reactions are noticeably different, I think that should be sufficient to signal that there has been a shift in how he is responding to his surroundings, and should draw the attention of any reader who notices it to the corresponding differences in his situation.
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Writing a story with 10 POV characters (about a reality game show) I want to write a short-story about 10 players in a post-apocalyptic zombies game show, split between teams, the last survivor wins. I already have the rules, the challenges and some characters. The problem is that I want to write it without any hero, and telling the story from the POV of all the players just like a reality game show. Is that possible? if yes how can I proceed? <Q> It sounds like you're describing an ensemble cast , where there are several key characters but no single main character. <S> While the page I linked to talks about TV/movies, the same applies to written works. <S> The style is not at all uncommon in, at least, science-fiction novels (what I mostly read). <S> To proceed, start writing. :-) <S> Some writers divide up chapters by point-of-view characters (for example, Jo Walton's The Just City , Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem ). <S> Make sure your readers always know where the are, story-wise, and you should be fine. <A> As yet, you have a setting, but no story. <S> A story can be thought of as something intruding into the live of a person and forcing that person to act. <S> The change brought about by the intrusion generates a goal in the protagonist, and the story tells how he works towards and reaches that goal – or fails. <S> A story can have one or more protagonists, but it must have one. <S> The protagonist is who the reader cares about and whose success or failure he takes interest in. <S> Without a protagonist, there is no story, only description. <S> A novel may have several protagonists all partaking in the same story, or it may have several unrelated storylines. <S> So ask yourself: What is the story about? <S> It is not about a game. <S> It is about the goals of the participants, the reasons behind those goals, what they have to give up or how they have to change to achieve those goals, and how they fail or succeed. <A> While I personally dislike narratives with multiple POVs, it's a fairly common technique. <S> Speaking as a reader, the obstacles you would need to overcome in order to reach me are: Keeping it from becoming confusing --it <S> can be hard to keep alarge cast of characters straight, even with one POV. <S> You'remultiplying the problem with many. <S> Avoiding meaningless repetition--with multiple points of view, you'll probably be hitting the same events multiple times. <S> The trick will to be to make sure there'ssomething new and interesting each time you see the same event over. <S> The classic movie Rashamon centers entirely around this technique. <S> Making it worthwhile <S> --ten POVcharacters sounds like a recipe for lots of filler. <S> If you wantto do it, you'll need to give them each enough of a distinctivevoice and compelling POV in order to make it all seemworth it to the reader. <S> You're setting yourself up for a tough challenge. <S> But sometimes the best work comes from accepting a tough challenge and exceeding all expectations. <A> Yes, it's possible, though may be confusing to the audience. <S> One cheap but efficient technique is to name sections/chapters after the 'current protagonist', simply give each a title which is the name of the current POV. <S> You'll still need some kind of binder to present who is who, but you can proceed normally afterwards. <S> Also, don't fear to break time and location continuity; instead of repeating the same event, skip between events, retell them from different POV only as they really differ a lot between POVs. <S> And again - don't confuse the reader. <S> Place and time at the header of the section is another cheap but efficient trick to keep track of them.
| If you write your story as the story of the Game and all participants are protagonists of the story of the game, or if you write your story as different people experiencing completely unrelated things in the context of that game, is up to you, but you need to come up with either a single story with multiple protagonists, or an individual story for each of your protagonists. Nothing is worse than multiple POV where you can't keep track of whose POV you're seeing through at any given moment (or worse, don't care). Others divide up chapters by locale/subplot, with several active key characters being shown in each (for example, Eric Flynn's 1632 series, Hugh Howey's Wool series).
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Describing big cities and using slang words while writing I've been trying to write a book that takes place somewhere in America, maybe New York, Chicago, or another large city. But the problem is, I live in Hawaii and have never been to a city that large. How should I go about writing about the city? Also, in Hawaii, we use a lot of slang words for talking to people or about things, (for example: we say slippers instead of flip flops) would it mean I would have to start using a different vocabulary for the story? <Q> The New York Times had a fascinating dialect quiz a few years ago, and the author just put out a book called Speaking American. <S> I haven't read it, but it sounds like a good place for you to start to grasp how regional dialects differ. <S> Beyond that, you'll have to travel or spend a lot of time speaking with locals to get the flavor of local language. <S> You may get some from documentaries or news, but real people will give you the best results. <S> If you want to describe the city properly, same thing: travel or start researching films/documentaries. <S> If you are writing about a real place, you have to experience it to write about it. <A> It very much depends on why it is New York or Chicago. <S> Do you want the specific flavor of the city? <S> Do you want locals to find your portrayal convincing? <S> If so, Lauren is right. <S> But if the particular flavor of the city is not important, you may be better off treating it as generic American city. <S> There is more that is generic about North American cities than the is particular about them, so this is much easier to do. <A> If you're having trouble making the city slang sound natural, or if you can't completely suppress your island slang in your narrative, you could always make your POV character a Hawaiian, visiting the city for the first time. <A> Write what you know, or you will be risking to be ridiculed (and deservingly so) by the people who do. <S> If the location is important to your story, do your research (preferably in person). <S> New York, Chicago, San-Francisco are all big cities, but they are extremely different from one another. <S> As for the slang--Lauren Ipsum is absolutely right <S> --you better get things right, before new yorkers stone you alive for mispronouncing Greenwich Village or Houston St. <S> (OK, you can get away with pronunciation, using only written words, but you get the drift...)
| If you want your story to sound authentic, you must learn and use the slang of the city(ies) in question.
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Options for point of view in a story At first I was going to tell my story told from my main character's point of view, but now I'm wondering if I should make it coming from the point of view of a third-person narrator. I wanted the main character to display her thoughts and emotions to the reader, but I also wanted the reader to experience scenes with other characters without the main character knowing. The only way I can think to do this is to have it come from a third-person narrative point of view. What are my options? <Q> First of all, don't confuse point of view with person. <S> You can write in the third person and still tell the story from one character's point of view. <S> Second, third person is the normal mode of storytelling. <S> All this stuff about limited vs. omniscient is largely a distraction. <S> It is an analytical scheme used to classify the POV at various points of a story. <S> Unfortunately what tends to happens with analytical categories it that people tend to turn them into prescriptions, and then they become puritanical about them and start insisting that a work must be in a single category from beginning to end. <S> This is all bunk, and you would be well served to forget all about it and just write your story in the third person in the way that seem most natural to you. <S> Sometimes when a story is not working, an analysis of the story may reveal that the way POV is used in that particular story is not working, and those categories might be useful for describing what is going wrong. <S> But in no way does that mean that every story that uses POV in the same way will not work, or that any general rules for what you must do with POV can be derived from the failure of POV in one particular work. <S> Fill your head with your story and write it down as it comes to you. <A> It's perfectly okay to have multiple viewpoint characters in a single story, as long as readers always know whose viewpoint they're in. <S> The safest way approach is to use only one viewpoint character within each scene. <S> If you want a new viewpoint character, finish the current scene, and start a new scene with a new viewpoint character. <S> The benefit of switching scenes is that readers understand that each scene break represents a change of some kind (to a new time, place, or viewpoint character). <S> Make sure you start each scene by making it clear to the reader which viewpoint they're in. <S> But it's very easy to confuse readers. <S> For this to work, you have to be very good at helping the reader follow the viewpoint switches. <S> It's rare for writers to do this well. <A> Why not go with third person semi-omniscient? <S> That makes jumping from characters much easier and you can still have their thoughts etc. <S> I prefer reading this <S> but it also depends on your audience and your purpose. <A> It seems to me like you want to assemble your story from the perspective of each player. <S> Rather like if someone were to have access to the diaries or personal notes from each of them? <S> If so, then there isn't any need for an omniscient narrative voice — <S> correct? <S> If you want to present the story from the confines of multiple, limited perspectives, then it is best to have strong breaks between those perspectives. <S> You will probably want them on separate pages, and you may wish to consider the judicious use of headers which convey or confirm the identity of the proceeding perspective. <S> Something like a prefix or suffix to the chapter titles, if you are naming chapters, and if you can do so in a way which doesn't degenerate into background noise. <A> Mark Baker has a great answer, but to add. <S> Chapters, sections and paragraphs can be used to jump between POV, and the narrators. <S> I personally think that these can be used, but there is a risk of a mess. <S> Chapters are fairly easy jumping points, because those are the most concrete. <S> The readers accept time jumps and completely different scenes, when the chapter is changed. <S> They are low risk place to make such jumps. <S> With more careful planning you can go deeper to the levels of text, possibly even to within sentence jumps. <S> "STOP", but the enemies do not stop; because they already surrounded him, which he was not aware. <S> Such sentence makes sense, but it is tricky to make an easily understood story written this way. <A> I do the same thing as you, there's a simple solution. <S> When you want to change viewpoints, just do. <S> ----(character)---- <S> and then everyone knows that it's from that characters perspective
| It is possible to switch viewpoint characters within a scene. Until you have real mastery of story craft, don't mess with any fancy literary techniques, or mess with restricted persons or POV.
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Can a novel without any death be taken seriously? I was asking myself this question while writing a novel that don't imply any death or even really dramatic event !The novel tells about the main character's strugglings and conflictuous relationships, but death never occurs in the story ! Can a story like this be taken seriously and don't be considered too lightweight from a dramatic point of view ? And, in a general way, do you know a great novel that don't involve death of any of its characters ? <Q> Three words: Pride and Prejudice <S> We could name many others, but P&P is by most reckonings, one of the finest novels ever written, and it is not about death. <S> But it is easy to see why the question might occur to someone. <S> Every story needs stakes. <S> Does it not follow that the higher the stakes the more serious the novel? <S> And isn't death the highest of stakes? <S> Does it not follow that a serious novel must be about death? <S> No, it does not. <S> Consider: <S> First, in the Western tradition at least, death is not the highest stakes. <S> Traditionally we have placed a number of moral factors above death: dishonor, impurity, apostasy. <S> And even among modern atheists, autonomy is placed above death (which is why there is a movement for assisted suicide). <S> Second, death is, in a sense, not high stakes at all, because death is inevitable. <S> We might risk death for all sorts of things, for adventure, for fame, for glory, for wealth, because these things are not inevitable. <S> The desire for these things, even for simple married love, may be greater than our fear of death, and indeed, in many novels, the threat of death is a mere complication in the quest for some less certain goal. <S> Third, the seriousness of a novel is not judged by how high the stakes are, but by how seriously and perceptively it explores the human condition. <S> Pare it down to a plot summary and it will sound like any Harlequin Historical. <S> But is stands among the immortals of literature because of its exquisite insight, and the brilliance of its telling. <S> In other words, while a novel must have stakes, stakes are merely scaffolding. <S> Stakes create story shape. <S> The scale of the story they create does not matter, what matters is the shape. <S> The real seriousness and merit of a work lies in the telling and in the perception of the human condition hung upon the framework of that story shape. <A> Personaly I would say: It is possible. <S> The reason why death is mostly chosen as source of despair and drama is his simpleness. <S> The death is almost absolute and a reason, why protagonists would change drastically. <S> Other drama settings could do that too, but it is hard to write that and maintain a logical flow in the story and behavior of the characters. <S> So if you can maintain it, there shouldn't be a problem with your premise <A> Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. <S> No characters died in this one, though there was a lingering threat of death. <S> One could argue that the character of Moaning Myrtle died though for her, death was a per-existing condition to the story and happened years prior to the story, so I wouldn't counter it. <S> While she talks about her death, the view doesn't see it described by the narrator in the book.
| Pride and Prejudice is a romance novel.
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Do you need to end a story with the same perspective you start with? This may seem like an odd question, and perhaps I am over analyzing this a bit too much, as I usually do when it comes to my writing, but here is my concern. The novel I'm writing is in its last chapter, I know exactly what's going to happen, how it's going to end, etc. but I wrote it in 3rd person omniscient with occasional 3rd person limited for zooming in. If I started the novel in one character's POV (in 3rd person limited), will the novel feel disconnected if I end it in another character's POV or in omniscient? I'm not quite sure if this matters one way or another, but I just thought I'd put the question out there in case anyone could provide an answer. <Q> No. <S> A story stands or falls on the completion of the story arc. <S> POV is simply about camera angles. <S> You choose the camera angle that best frames the part of the story you are telling at the moment. <S> There is no obligation to end on the same camera angle that you opened with. <S> There seems to be an obsessive focus on POV in many questions here at the moment. <S> I think it is important to stress that POV is simply a narrative device. <S> It does not determine the shape of the story, nor the reader's sympathy with the protagonist of the story. <S> In fact, the only real reason to give a writer any such advice would be if you thought they were not yet a sufficiently skilled writer to manipulate POV successfully, like telling a fledgeling composer not to change time signatures in the middle of a piece. <S> But the point of such advice should only be to suggest that they master the basics before they move on to advanced techniques. <A> I don't think so <S> , it's really a matter of how you worked it together. <S> If you can only stay in on POV because you can't switch without making it confusing, then I wouldn't do that. <S> So if you want to do that and you can pull it off, sure, go for it, you have nothing to lose. <S> It's really up to you. <A> I think it's a matter of style. <S> I think of examples of both situations your describe. <S> There's an audience for both I think. <S> I might be someone who does not like discontinuity and would go home unsatisfied still looking for some closure while someone else would be entertained and that's it. <S> I think that if you write something you yourself are satisfied with then you'll be able to 'sell' your novel.
| It's just a matter of what your style is. Nor is there any obligation to tell an entire story from a single POV. If you're able to make it good while switching between that, then it can make sense that you do that.
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Any suggestions for a new writer? I am in no way a writer. It's something I've always wanted to do, but could never build up the courage to actually start. Every time I think about writing, I think about the end result and how I am not a good writer. This process circles through my head until I come to the conclusion that I shouldn't write at all if my final product is going to suck. I have no real experience writing seriously (outside of school projects/poetry classes). I have a lot of stories that I want to get out of my head and put down. Could anyone give me any suggestions? Maybe something about your writing process or how you got over something similar? <Q> Let's say that you wanted to become a circus performer. <S> You want your act to be juggling flaming batons blindfolded while riding a unicycle on a tightrope over a tiger cage. <S> You recognize that your first attempt to do any of these things, let alone do them all together, is going to suck. <S> So what do you do? <S> You go away and you practice each element separately. <S> You watch other performers to learn their technique. <S> Maybe you go to circus school. <S> And you practice, practice, practice. <S> In each of the skills in your act you will hit a plateau where you will get discouraged. <S> If you really want to be a circus performer, you will persevere and eventually start improving again. <S> If not, you will quit and do something else. <S> That's fine. <S> We all have to test our resolve to know how much we really want something. <S> Maybe you will decide to be an accountant but you will put on a clown suit and juggle rubber balls for children's parties on the weekends. <S> That is fine too. <S> One day, if you work long enough and hard enough, you will ride your unicycle blindfold across a pit of tigers while juggling flaming batons and the crowd will go wild. <S> Learning to write it like that too. <S> It looks easy, but then, the great circus performers make it look easy. <S> But a writer had to build a world, create characters, paint a scene, tell a story, expound a theme, and charm the reader with beauty all in a single string of words. <S> It is at least as complicated and difficult a task as riding a unicycle blindfold over a pit of tigers while juggling flaming batons. <S> It takes as long to learn. <S> There will be plateaus that test your resolve. <S> Most who try never get good enough to wow the crowd. <S> So you have discovered that it's hard. <S> It is not just hard for you. <S> It is hard for everyone. <S> The question is, how much do you want it? <S> How hard are you willing to work to get it? <S> How afraid are you of heights, or fire, or tigers? <S> Suggestions? <S> Like any complex and difficult skill, start with something small and simple. <S> Practice till you get good. <S> Add something else. <S> And study the masters. <S> Study them all the time. <A> You're letting the perfect become the enemy of the good. <S> Let's be blunt: your initial efforts will suck. <S> That's because every writer's initial efforts suck. <S> Stephen King? <S> Sucked. <S> JK Rowling? <S> Sucked. <S> Octavia Butler? <S> Sucked. <S> Shakespeare? <S> Suckethed. <S> Your goal is not to write something perfect. <S> Your goal is to get it down on paper. <S> Once it's on paper, then you can edit it, repeatedly, until it doesn't suck. <S> But you cannot edit a blank page. <S> So go ahead and get your stories out of your head. <S> You don't have to show them to anyone. <S> The grammar can be terrible, you can have lots of "TK he gets from here to there," your characters can all be Mary Sues, it doesn't matter. <S> Write. <S> Just write for the sheer joy of writing. <S> Later, you can go back and make it better. <S> Later, you can go ask for help from beta readers and editors and learn how to make it better. <S> But there's no end result if there's no beginning. <S> Go forth and write without worry or shame. <A> What I learned is that the writing process is something very subjective and what can work for me could not work for you and viceversa. <S> However, the most important thing (especially if you are a beginner) is to shut down your inner critic . <S> Just let it flow. <S> You have to discover your voice and your style. <S> You can't expect to have a gold bar if you are not ready to get your hands dirty collecting the nuggets. <S> There's a time to write <S> and there's a time to judge <S> ;) don't mix them up. <S> P.S. Good Luck! <A> This sounds like a classic case of Imposter Syndrome . <S> At Thanet Creative Writers (a local community of writers I started where I live) I noticed that this seems to be a problem for many beginner writers. <S> The only consistent solution has been to actually start writing and not worry about the outcome. <S> Without fail, anything you wrote will seem poor when compared with anything else you wrote more recently. <S> That just seems to be a fact of life. <S> In terms of an indicator of raw skill, this self-doubt (sometimes named the Inner Critic ) seems to be largely positive. <S> It stems, as far as I can tell, from an awareness of what you do not know. <S> That awareness stops you thinking that you are the best writer since Shakespeare and thus allows you to develop your skills. <S> It is not a universal rule by any stretch of the imagination, but there does seem to be something like an inverse correlation between ability and self-confidence when it comes to writing. <S> In general: Don't compare yourself to other writers Silence the Inner Critic <S> Don't try to produce perfection as perfection <S> is a myth Write first, edit <S> later You are a writer if you write
| You should write without questioning how good can be. You can learn how to make the end result great.
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Why are names in fantasy novels often "original"? In the vast majority of fantasy novels, the characters' names are somewhat original (Bilbo, Kvothe, Daenerys, Pug and so on). Some authors use special naming convention, like Robin Hobb who uses a quality for name (Shrewd Farseer) in the Farseer Trilogy. I see mainly two reasons: an elf named Legolas is way more charismatic than his cousin named Kevin it gives an exotic touch, because magic isn't enough exotic by itself Are there other reasons? For fantasy in a medieval-europe like world, is there really a need to be so original? <Q> Names are part of language. <S> However, they are normally not translated. <S> A Frenchman named Pierre is not referred to as Peter in English, he keeps the French version of his name. <S> We presume that English is not the lingua franca of a fantasy world. <S> Or rather, it would be a very specific kind of fantasy in which it were. <S> But the story is told in English. <S> It follows that the names of characters in the fantasy world would be in their own language, and since names are not translated, the original form of the name in the fantasy world will be used in the English telling of the story (perhaps transliterated in English characters). <A> I think "striving for originality" is a key reason, but to that end it's fair to say that 99% of fantasy novels aren't set in this world <S> (earth and it's various countries) <S> they're set in their own mythical, fantastical world and thus, along with religion(s), commerce and monetary systems, social hierarchy and class structure, geography, weather, clothing, traditions and much more, the naming conventions for people and places would be different from our own. <A> So it's only natural to want to convey that. <S> But I think there's another reason. <S> If I name my characters "Bob" or "Pocahantus" or "Chun Li", you form associations -- you see those characters a certain way because of your own cultural context. <S> Since that's probably not the context of my world, that makes my job harder -- <S> you, the reader, now have certain assumptions that I need to overcome. <S> If I name my characters "Xilg" or "Z'lin" or "Loohrun97", you don't have those assumptions. <S> I might have other problems <S> (names shouldn't look like I just mashed the keyboard; what's the linguistic basis for them?), but at least you probably won't make Earth-based assumptions. <A> I don't think it's necessarily motivated by a desire to have "charismatic" or "exotic" sounding names, as much as a desire to avoid having names that sound incongruous with the fantastic environment. <S> Much fantasy is set in a different universe from our own. <S> The culture depicted is usually at least somewhat different from any real-life culture. <S> And we expect people in different cultures to have different names. <S> When we translate a text describing something that happened in another culture, we usually don't translate names, we just transliterate or transcribe them. <S> The same applies to historical fiction like " The Clan of the Cave Bear ". <S> We know that names like "Henry" and "Alice" are associated with particular modern real-world cultures, so it would be weird to encounter them in Paleolithic Europe. <S> You mentioned "Daenerys", but George R. R. Martin actually uses a lot of names that are clearly based on real-life European names like "Eddard", "Catelyn", "Brandon" etc. <S> This works since the culture they live in is clearly based on medieval European cultures. <S> Martin seems to like to use unusual spellings, but I don't think this is really necessary.
| That said, some fantasy has cultures that are very obviously modeled on real-life cultures, and in that case using real-life names is not that jarring. As others have said, most fantasy is set in a different environment, where the non-English-speaking inhabitants have different cultural and linguistic norms.
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Do Epic Fantasy and Sci-Fi books have inherently more descriptive language? For example the book Eragon by Paolini, and Magic Kingdom by Terry Brooks. These both have lots of description. To me that means lots of showing and less telling. Other books don't seem to have that much description. Some Sci-Fi has this as well, Jurassic Park, & Chrichton's other books. I've downloaded lots of samples from Amazon and these (same genres) have more telling than showing or what I am calling description. These authors aren't as big, maybe they have 100 reviews. On the other hand, Old Man's War didn't have a lot of description in it either, compared to someone like Brooks, and it is very popular. Are these just different styles? Edit: This question is useful, but not the same, How to develop a more vivid and descriptive writing style Edit: Based on what's link, I had this thought: If it requires a camera and an actor to communicate a scene and feeling in a movie, then you have to show it. We rely on the actors in film to show us how they feel to make it real, whether it is facial expressions, voice tone, or something else. Some actors are better at it than others. The amateur actor tells more than she shows and most times it doesn't make for a good story. All of us have tried to explain a scene in a movie to a person who didn't it. It's difficult. They have to see it, even though you just told it. "You have to see it" sounds better than saying to someone, "They have to show it." <Q> Fantasy and science fiction books have a major additional task that other genres can avoid if they wish: worldbuilding. <S> But SF and fantasy, as a rule, need to establish a new world. <S> They need to explain how their setting works, how the world functions, how their premise has made the story's reality different from our own. <S> Even if 99% of the world is mundane, and exactly like our own, the fact that it's in the SF/fantasy genre means readers are coming without assuming that most aspects of the real world carry over to the story. <S> You need to give the readers grounding, let them know where they're landed. <S> All that being said, there are incredible varieties in style. <S> Plenty of genres, like romance and thrillers and certainly travelogues, will leap at the opportunity to explore a strange or unusual location. <S> And plenty of SF/fantasy writers are sparse and lean, establishing the setting in a very minimal way and leaving it at that. <S> Bottom line is, yes, there's good reason for fantasy and science fiction to devote extra attention to description. <S> But, if you look, you'll find that pretty much any combination imaginable can be done. <A> I agree with Standback, but his answer is not generally true. <S> In this time and age, most readers of Fantasy and Science Fiction have seen so many Science Fiction and Fantasy movies that their minds are full of images of spaceships and dragons. <S> You can expect the average person to be just as familiar with the inside of a spaceship or the physique of a dragon, as with the Eiffel Tower. <S> And just as you do not have to describe the Eiffel Tower in a novel but can simply refer to it by name, because of this common knowledge about Science Fiction and Fantasy worlds that your readers bring to your books, you no longer have to describe the common elements of fantastic stories, either. <S> You can write "dragon", just as you write "dog", and you can write "spaceship", just as you write "car". <S> Only if you want your readers to think of a particular type of dragon, dog, spaceship, or car, do you need to go into more detail. <S> I have even argued multiple times before, that you should not stifle the imagination of your readers by prescribing how they should imagine the elements of your tale. <S> Allow them to imagine your horrors in just the way they find most horrible, allow them to project themselves into your narrative, and you will satisfy them the most. <S> Keep descriptions to a bare minimum. <S> I skip them, anyway. <A> I agree with Standback, but his answer is not generally true. <S> The meaning of the quote above escapes me. <S> Besides, I happen actually to agree with Standback. <S> The building of a unique world would add color to your story (which should, of course, come first, setting being secondary and all), even if you deploy all the existing cliche elements, like FTL travel, spaceships, dragons, witches, elves, dwarves, vampires, zombies and so on. <S> Having said that, the level of the details you throw at your reader is up to you and you only, but if you skip them completely, you are risking that your audience will have a different picture in their mind than you are trying to paint.
| A story of any genre can devote a lot of attention to description and detail, but it isn't a necessity dictated by the choice of genre.
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Alternative to Strunk & White? I have to confess that I find Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style" to be a very tedious read. Can anyone recommend an alternative title that covers similar ground? <Q> It depends what you're looking for. <S> Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style: <S> The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century appreciates the strengths and weaknesses of Strunk and White, explains its history and tries to provide a more diverse kind of help for writers. <S> Its longest chapter, which is over 100 pages, discusses the "rules" of word choices, but the rest of the book talks about other important aspects of writing (especially when the reader needs to learn, e.g. in non-fiction or stories with heavy worldbuilding). <S> Occasionally, it argues some "ungrammatical" constructions are worth it. <A> I would not have thought S&W was long enough to be tedious, but it is certainly dry. <S> A considerably more lively, and longer, and, I think, better book is Sir Ernest Gowers The Complete Plain Words . <S> Livelier still, and much much shorter, is George Orwell's Politics and the English Language . <A> At the base there are "formating" guides, the driest of them all, like the Associated Press Style, Chicago Manual of Style <S> , MLA handbook.... <S> S&W is sometimes listed under the former category, but it is more a writing philosophy, a stylistic statement. <S> Yes, it can be tedious in parts, but it is well worth it. <S> The gist of it is to be effective with your writing. <S> For more visual learners there is "The Elements of Style - Illustrated" <S> Then there are writing guides like: " <S> On Writing <S> Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser". <S> Here is a link to some of the best books on writing
| Mark Forsyth's The Elements of Eloquence: How To Turn the Perfect English Phrase discusses dozens of writing techniques that have been useful for centuries.
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Is writing only scenes a good way to earn writing skills? I'm searching to improve the way I write, and so I started to create just scenes, for example a battle. Is it a good idea as it is not integrated in a well-established story ? <Q> I would be careful. <S> Yes, there is much to be said for learning a complex skill by practicing in parts. <S> But there is a real and pervasive danger of getting caught up in language when you should be focusing on story. <S> As Robert McKee points out, it is easy for writers for fall in love with individual scenes and be unwilling to throw them away when they don't fit the story they are supposed to be telling. <S> The hardest skill to learn, and that thing that will make all the difference to your career as a writer, is story. <S> To practice scenes apart from stories may therefore be to focus your effort in the place it is going to do the least good. <S> And there is another trap here as well. <S> The best way to achieve any effect in a novel -- to produce any emotion or reaction in the reader -- is through story. <S> If you work on scenes divorced from story, you deprive yourself of this means of producing an effect, and this may lead you to try to hard to produce the effect in other ways, such as by florid language or an over-emphasis on describing how people feel or react to things. <S> It is story that will make or break you. <S> Figure our story and the scenes will come naturally enough. <A> You can focus on one thing to improve — descriptions, or characterization, or pacing, or sentence structure — and just focus on that, instead of worrying about how it fits into the overall scheme of your book. <S> In fact, I've recommended this technique elsewhere on this board to help work on learning your characters. <S> Adapt it for anything you need. <S> Or for the pleasure of writing short scenes. <S> If you write enough with the same elements (same people, same setting), you might find a story emerging. <S> Or not. <S> No writing is wasted. <A> Every sentence written, is a step towards perfection, <S> If there exists perfection, in this all so imperfect world. <S> Writing scenes and non related dialogue chains can be good practice if you keep in mind its merits and limitations. <S> It will make your writing crisp. <S> improve your ability to simplify language enabling the reader to focus on your story. <S> help picture the details of a scene and paint a mental picture as you write. <S> Help keep said mental picture consistent between scenes. <S> (You do not want readers confusing a mistake as an element of plot) <S> create a discipline in you to write a little, every day. <S> But discipline in writing pieces of unrelated text, won’t help much with working on a single plot for a long period of time. <S> It won’t: <S> Improve you story telling skills. <S> Improve your ability to expand a plot to various sub plots and parallel stories. <S> Help you build characters. <S> Character develops from the first paragraph and end with the final period in your book. <S> give you the discipline required to finish a book draft. <S> It's easy to start a book, and really very difficult to finish one (Even the first draft!). <S> All the best. <A> It sounds like a great idea. <S> Are you serious about writing a 'well-established story'? <S> If you are practicing and learning, I don't see the problem in using your idea. <A> I think everyone else has excellent answers. <S> However, I would like to add my thoughts. <S> Try to write down the story behind it <S> I think a scene has the most power when it is affected by things. <S> It isn't just 'being a scene', there are things that led to it, things that are affected by it. <S> And what I guarantee, is that when you are writing, your brain will make those extra little strands of story to make the individual scene make sense. <S> I used to try writing single scenes too, I thought they were pretty exciting. <S> However, I was quick to discover that they weren't befitting me as a writer. <S> As Mark Baker said in his answer, I became attached to some scenes I was writing and bursting to include them in a book where that sort of thing wouldn't make sense. <S> Furthermore, I wasn't practicing all the skills I could be practicing. <S> I wasn't practicing storytelling, which is argueably the most important part of writing. <S> I felt much better when I was creating short stories of 1000-3000 words to put my scene in. <S> This will allow you to practice more skills, as well as get a feel for how the scene interlinks with the larger work. <S> It's all well and good being able to describe a single scene well, but ultimately the larger work is what matters and especially the story. <S> Conclusion Give the scene more meaning by making it more than just a scene. <S> Put it in a very small short story to host it. <S> This will also help you develop storytelling skills. <S> Avoid becoming attached to a scene. <S> Try writing short stories rather than just scenes, because they are better for building up to being able to write a novel. <S> Unless you are just attempting to become a writer who can describe things, you need to write stories. <S> I wrote many short stories before trying to write entire novels and they did help me . <S> They helped me much more than when I was writing scenes, and I was more entertained by writing them too. <S> So I would say in your case, try writing a few short stories and see how it goes. <S> I hope this helped.
| You may also benefit in writing a bunch of short stories or scenes. I think it's a great exercise to strengthen your writing skills. There's no pressure to adhere to anything fore or aft in a story, so you have complete freedom to take the scene wherever you want.
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Will it help you to get published if you have a lot of followers of your writing? Background To be honest, I really didn't know how to title this question. Anyway, the background. I was sitting around in front of the plan for the second book of my trilogy. Woohoo! I finished the first one yesterday on new years eve, so I'll be able to say that that entire book is what I spent a lot of 2016 on. I was preparing my masterplan, my ultimate gallery of ideas. However, then the deathly thought crossed my mind... What if what I'm writing will never be read? I might not get it published. Now, I know in my heart that I am going to get published and I promise I will with every inch of my being. However, I know that it's difficult. So, I came up with a battle plan. I'm aiming to get a huge army of followers, we'll barge into the publisher and... No... I decided it might help me get published if I had a few people supporting me and my book was anticipated by 'the public'. Question If I start a blog, or whatever else I might want to start to gain followers, will that help me get published? Is it worth getting people to support my writing? I don't need people to praise me so I can keep going. I know that my writing is proper, professional ... No, not professional, that just sounds egotistical. I know my writing is good, I know in my heart that I'm going to get published one day. I never run out of ideas or joy I derive from doing the work or anything, so I'm not looking at this in a praise-driven and inspiration-driven perspective. I'm looking at it in a marketing perspective. Blogging is getting old anyway. Is there an alternative to blogging that's just as good? Maybe I'll start a youtube channel or something, and teach about writing on there, get followers. You never know, it might work. <Q> If you have supporters following your blog, you might be able to argue that you have an audience who will buy your writing. <S> However, to be meaningful to an agent and therefore a publisher, your audience has to be in the thousands at the least, and even better <S> , have already paid for some of your stuff. <S> So if you can sell 10K copies of a self-published e-book, or several e-books, that will likely have more of an impact than 10K notes over 500 blog posts. <S> (on a separate note: merciful Freya, don't confuse writing and video. <S> I read a hell of a lot faster than most people talk. <S> I don't have five minutes to commit to your video. <S> I can read your page in 20 seconds, and share it in less than that. <S> I rarely share video links. <S> Ain't nobody got time for that.) <A> What you are asking about is called "platform". <S> For a writer of non-fiction, platform is essential for getting published. <S> Getting non-fiction published without massive platform is almost impossible. <S> For a writer of fiction, though, platform is almost irrelevant. <S> Fiction is not sold through being part of a community, but through marketing. <S> If your book is good, it will get picked up by a publisher. <S> Having a platfrom will help, but not having one won't be a deal breaker for fiction. <S> Only if you want to self-publish your fiction do you need to build your own marketing channels through your writer platform. <S> Google "platform" and "writer" to learn more. <S> There are some good books out on what platform is, who needs it, and how to build it. <S> There is also a lot of hype by people who want to sell you their books or services (e.g. Michael Hyatt), so be careful what you believe. <S> The above advice, that you don't need platform for fiction, comes from the book Create <S> Your Writer Platform by Chuck Sambuchino. <S> The fact that he tells me that I don't need him, makes me believe him. <A> That is exactly how I did it with my book <S> Every Page is Page One , which is a book about writing for the Web, largely for technical writers. <S> But whether it works for fiction is a different matter. <S> My Every Page is <S> Page One blog (which is still going) is about the same subject at the book. <S> A novelists blog, on the other hand, is not usually about the same thing as their novel. <S> They are often very dull things repeating standard grammatical and writing school advice. <S> There are thousands of them, and they are, for the most part, deadly dull, and almost certainly doing nothing to help sell books. <S> The other thing about my blog is that it is a niche blog in a technical non-fiction area. <S> That means that although the audience is not that big, the conversion rate is pretty high. <S> A lot of people who read my blog also buy the book. <S> I don't see how a fiction writer carves out a niche like that or achieves that kind of conversion rate. <S> And I am not sure any of it matters. <S> While there are probably more people writing novels than reading them these days, the fact remains that gifted storytellers remain rare, and publishers are eager to find them. <S> Show them that you can tell a ripping yarn, and you don't have to bring an audience with you.
| A blog can definitely build an audience for a book, and the existence of that audience can definitely help sell the book to a publisher, and afterwards the blog can help sell the book to the public.
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Ways to avoid repetition of "filler" words in writing? I wasn't entirely sure how to phrase this in the question box, so it may seem like a duplicate. But, I did look at these questions ( What are the tricks to avoid repetition in writing? , How to avoid repetitive sentence structure? ) and didn't find the answer to my question. What I want to know is What can you do to stop using the same words over and over again in dialogue and narration? Allow me to elaborate. I'm in the process of editing a 50k word manuscript, and I realized by using the navigation pane that there are certain words that appear multiple times in each chapter, sometimes per page. They are sort of filler words but removing them would change the structure and meaning of the sentence. I frequently use words like: wait, just, actually, even, definitely, only. These are not the kinds of words you can easily replace with a synonym. How do I stop using them so much? I don't know if it's my speech patterns influencing my writing, or if I simply need to find a better way to say things. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. <Q> Everyone has their pet phrases and turns of phrase. <S> That in itself does not matter much. <S> What matters is whether you are expressing repetitive or monotonous ideas. <S> Yes, you can go in and insert synonyms for words you use frequently, but if the real problem is that your ideas are repetitive, that is just lipstick on a pig. <S> On the other hand, if the ideas are original and not repetitive, it really does not matter if certain words are being used frequently. <S> People are not reading you for your words, but for your idea. <S> If the ideas are fine, don't worry too much about the words. <S> It is better to use the plainest and most natural word for an idea than it is to make your prose purple with needless variation. <S> This is part of a bigger pattern, by the way. <S> Words are the canary in the coal mine. <S> They are often the first indication that something is wrong structurally. <S> Too many people get hung up on trying to fix the words, but no amount of tinkering with language will fix a structural problem. <S> People would waste a lot less time and effort if they looked for the structural problems first instead of last. <A> I can see several possibilities here: <S> Don't worry about it. <S> Perhaps your "overuse" of these words is simply part of your style. <S> Or perhaps it isn't overuse at all. <S> Ask a few good readers to read your story and give you feedback. <S> After you finish a first draft, search for each word. <S> Make a conscious decision what to do about it (delete the word, leave the sentence alone, rewrite the sentence to make the word unnecessary). <S> Here's an experiment. <S> Take a section of something you've written. <S> Maybe 500–1000 words. <S> Make a copy of the section. <S> Edit the copy to remove every instance of the trouble words, rewriting as necessary to make the sentences meaningful without the trouble words. <S> When you're done, make notes about the kinds of revising you had to do to eliminate the trouble words. <S> Make another copy. <S> Edit it to insert even more uses of the trouble words. <S> Read through the three versions, making notes about your reactions to the different styles. <S> Rewrite the original, using everything you've learned from these edits and your reactions. <S> Another experiment. <S> For the next two weeks, when you finish each writing session, search for the trouble words and eliminate them, revising as necessary. <S> After two weeks, go back and restore the ones you really want to restore. <S> Make notes about how you decide which ones to restore and which ones to omit. <S> This tells you about your personal style. <S> Consider how you could use these words to characterize your characters. <S> What kind of character would overuse "actually" in conversation? <S> What kind of character would overuse "actually" in private thoughts or narration? <S> What other words might a given character overuse? <A> You mention that you don't think that your problem words can easily be replaced with synonyms. <S> Maybe not "easily" <S> but I think the exercise of trying to substitute synonyms may aid your understanding if why you are using them. <S> For example, look at your use of the word "just" and determine if you mean "merely" or "solely" or some other phrase. <S> It may be a larger issue, as @Mark Baker suggested, or it may be a need for a more precise use of vocabulary.
| Make notes about how you decide which to retain, which to remove, and which to revise. If repetitive words are a symptom or repetitive ideas, then focus on fixing the ideas. Make a list of the words you're concerned about.
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How to distinguish two different voices in one book? A relative (who is no longer living) wrote a number of autobiographical pieces which I would like to publish in a book. I would like to include four or five chapters written by myself, that would supplement the relative's memories. In addition, some chapters will require a small amount of text written by me, usually at either the beginning or the end of the chapter. By "small," I mean half a page or less. How do I distinguish between the two voices? I was thinking that for a short bit inside a chapter, I could use italics, or the dreaded footnote. But I don't want to use italics for a whole chapter. I don't want to have to use my first name in the chapter title three or four times. That would be embarrassing. (My chapters mostly come at the end of the book, but there's one that comes in the middle.) <Q> For example, supposing the reader knows what your relative's name is, if you start your chapters by mentioning him on the third person, the reader will understand the narrator had changed. <S> To flow back to the main text, hint at what's coming next, and put a clear separation. <S> Is there a need to use "I" in your chapters, or can you manage entirely without? <S> If you focus on explanation text, you can remove yourself from the chapter entirely; write not as yourself, but as an anonymous observer. <A> Set off your part with some kind of identifier: <S> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy <S> nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. <S> Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros <S> et accumsan <S> et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait <S> nulla facilisi. <S> Aparente Smith: <S> About two months passed where Joan didn't write in her diary. <S> We can guess that she continued in her job, since the next entry picks up with another lament about her coworker David. <S> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy <S> nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. <S> Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros <S> et accumsan <S> et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait <S> nulla facilisi. <S> For a chapter head, I'd be fine with reading Aparente Smith: <S> Interlude or something similar. <S> I hear you about one paragraph vs. an entire chapter of italics, and I have to agree. <S> A little is okay, but pages and pages becomes exhausting. <A> Besides the obvious solution of using an explicit identifier, you can play on the visual aspect subtly. <S> It hadn't to be so too IN YOUR FACE as you name it, because, other than the bold and italic , you could play with the multiple shad of gray. <S> use different fon, or change the background slightly, <S> The reader eye Will catch the variation, and if you use an observable change of ton that they could associate with it, and give them a hint the first time. <S> I think you'll be able to make them feel it without a lot of additional effort. <S> I suggest to go with a hand <S> handwriting font for your personal entries, such as aspire
| It's possible to make the difference apparent without spelling everything out.
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Dynamic characterization: How do you show development/change in an inherently flawed character, like a psychopath? I got an idea for a short story recently following a traumatized boy who has developed antisocial tendencies and lack of empathy, and ends up in a psych ward. I want this protagonist to have a meaningful story arc, involving some change. The obvious change would be to make him begin to care for people, though I think this is unrealistic and impossible. So, anybody have any recommendations for making an inherently flawed character a bit more dynamic? <Q> Robert McKee maintains that people don't change, and that a story arc is not about them changing, but about showing how far they will go. <S> They don't change, but their true nature is revealed. <S> I'm not sure I agree with McKee on this, but I do think he points out something important about the nature of story. <S> In some sense, at least, it is an exploration of the character by the application of increasing shocks to their system. <S> Revelation may be sufficient payoff, rather than change. <A> Yes, brilliant and realistic idea. <S> Trauma, especially in childhood, has severe effects that last well into adult hood. <S> Some Recommendations: <S> Diagnose your character. <S> "antisocial tendencies and lack of empathy"is very broad and a condition is rarely this simple. <S> For example,repeated childhood abuse from which fight/flight is not possible,can manifest in a freeze response. <S> Making the patient unable torespond with empathy, or in fact respond at all. <S> Not because they don't want to, but because of lack of empathy but because they have emotionally shut down. <S> Understanding the root of the problem makes it easier to imagine what changes would realistically occur. <S> Research. <S> As hard as it is, research childhood trauma and PTSD. <S> Show the change. <S> "starting to care about someone" is a bit much, often ifvictims have shutdown to that extent <S> then results are painful and slow. <S> what about something more subtle, for example, they hit someone . <S> Whilst this might not seem like "caring", it is a response. <S> Another alternative would be to apologize , again, not cliche orobvious, but a small sign of change. <S> Another alternative would beinteraction with an object or animal, do they feed a cat where beforethey would kick it? <S> What about answering a phone that they would normally ignore? <S> Check spelling and grammar. <S> Incorrect spelling and grammar can detract from what could be a very powerful story, so get help in this area. <S> Conclude the change. <S> Where does their journey end? <S> Obviously"completely normal" is a stretch, but do they end up being able to keepa dog? <S> Note: <S> There is a lot of interesting insights here in the heart wrenching blog "How to Live on Earth When You Were Raised in Hell", (which incidentally would be an awesome title for a novel or short story...). <S> Also interesting psychological insight into "polyvagal theory" where if there is no option to run/fight then your brain shuts down. <S> Trauma survivors blog <A> If the character is drawn starkly enough, even very small changes can be very noticeable. <S> The best example I know of is in Nabokov's Lolita . <S> The narrator is an unrepentant molester, who is basically wholly focused on his own wants and needs. <S> Late in the novel, he gains what amounts to a single moment of clarity where he senses, no matter how dimly, that what he has done is wrong. <S> It's a significant moment because of how completely selfish he has been up to that moment. <S> You might also compare the main character in Remains of the Day . <S> Although not at all sociopathic, he is very emotionally constrained. <S> On the surface, not much happens in his life, but the writer gradually helps you understand that he has strong emotional attachments of which even he himself is unaware.
| A story arc, per McKee, consists of a character with a desire meeting a series of increasingly difficult challenges to that desire until they are pushed to the edge of their capability and we (and perhaps they) discover who they really are.
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Print runs, unsold books, books by weight and do authors get some compensation for unsold? I got couple of good definitions of the traditional Print run. One of the disturbing things mentioned in one of the definitions that many a times 50 percent of them are destroyed. How it was destroyed is not known but if it has anything to do with burning of books or something, bad for everybody. I am surprised if that used to be the case. I come from India and here for most people one big source of fiction books has been something called booksbyweight https://www.facebook.com/Booksbyweight/ . This is very popular with millennials who go to discover new authors, new genres at very low cost. While this is good for the seller and probably a bit for Publishers, are authors compensated for it ? I would also ask what authors think of it. <Q> Booksbyweight appears to be simply a used bookstore with a bulk pricing model. <S> In the paper world the economic model for books is that the publisher sells copies. <S> The copy then belongs to the person who bought it. <S> They can resell it to whoever they want, including used book stores. <S> The author and publisher receive no further compensation when a book is resold. <S> Generally speaking, authors and publishers don't receive any compensation when their books are lent out by libraries either, though there are now public lending right payments in some countries. <S> (Pretty small, I believe.) <S> The model for the digital world is very different. <S> The publisher licenses a right to view individual volumes in a digital library. <S> You can view the copies you license on multiple devices, but you cannot resell the book after you have finished it. <S> There is no used market for e-books. <S> Another model that is emerging (pioneered by O'Reilley for technical books) is that you subscribe to an entire library of books for an annual fee. <S> The publisher and author than get a cut from the library when their book is actually read. <S> In fact, they get paid by how many pages are read, so you get less if someone reads a chapter and abandons it than if they read all the way to the end. <S> I think the latter model may actually be the fairest model of all to writers and publishers. <A> Another possible route to market for books unsold by the publisher is that they get remaindered, which means that unsold stock is sold cheaply and in bulk to merchants who will try to sell on through bulk discounters, possibly in third world countries. <S> For the publisher, the alternative is often to pay storage fees at a distributor or pay for the books to be pulped. <S> Pulping often involves book materials being put to uses that you wouldn't guess at , incidentally. <S> eBook sales to libraries are often at a considerably higher price than retail. <S> Bearing in mind that an eBook with an official retail price of £25 can sell to a retailer for half of that, it might be sold to a library with a "30 simultaneous borrowers" agreement for a high multiple of £25. <S> I've seen multiples ranging from x2 to x20, and library prices of over GBP 1,000 for an eBook (of which an author would get their contractual royalty share, of course). <A> What that definition of "print run" is missing is the actual printing cost. <S> There is a huge cost of setting everything up to print let's say a 200 page book. <S> If you print 10,000 books, the first book costs an enormous sum of money; the other 9,999 are dirt cheap. <S> So if you estimate you can sell 6,000 books, and print 6,000 books, and you sell them all and realise you could sell 2,000 more, printing these 2,000 will cost you almost as much as printing 6,000, and printing 6,000 plus 2,000 will cost you as much as printing 15,000 in one go. <S> That's why you will always print a lot more than you think you will be selling, because its much cheaper to have too many printed than not having enough printed.
| There is unlikely to be a royalty payment for the author for such sales, as they are often below the sunk cost of the product (printing, distribution, storage).
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How can I describe technology while avoiding problems with scaling? Worldbuilding chat has pointed me to this stack because it's less about defining the technology and more about how to express these definitions in a relatable and realistic way. A pretty frequent occurrence when working with fictional technology is that when describing what the tech does and how it works, the author messes up the scale of the underlying technology or what it is capable of. This can happen in multiple ways (all examples are purely fictional): The author describes near future technology with ludicrous numbers, which actually are on the other end of the power bell curve. the author may, in 2001 describe a computer in the 2050s whose power is actually closer to something from the 2020s. The opposite also happens: the components from the machine actually are much stronger than what's possible at the time. The author describes a machine that actually is woefully underpowered for what it is said to be capable of. For example, blowing up a meteor the size of Texas with a nuke buried 800 feet deep. The author describes a machine that actually has much more energy than needed for the job. They mention "a 1 Kt bomb, big enough to destroy the empire State building", but such a bomb would actually take out everything 5 blocks around the empire state building as well. The author has a concept that's scaled well at the time it's introduced to the story, but when used later on, it either scales poorly or not at all. An example would be a martial artist taking of weighted clothing as a powerup, but he keeps doing it even when he's not even hindered by the clothes anymore. Note: I'm talking about purely numerical issues with scaling, not the technology itself becoming outdated because new tech is invented. I'm not talking about "cassete recorders in space", I'm talking about "A spaceship to the moon with the power of a bottle rocket". Assuming you already have your technology worked out concerning what it has to do, how do you go about describing the tech to a reader without pulling potentially knowledgeable readers out of the story when your numbers don't add up? <Q> That way your other characters will talk down to them (and the reader), avoiding technical descriptions which involve numeric and scientific details. <S> A cub reporter, the ship's recreation officer, or a hobbit from a backwards and far-off land... <S> these are all great point of view characters who can work their way into the action without ever having to really understand what is going on or how things work. <S> The weapons chief paused, obviously calculating the explosive force needed to vaporize an asteroid of our target's size and density. <S> I watched her lips moving as she silently did the heavy math. <S> Then, realizing that I was waiting for an answer and recognizing the kind of answer I was looking for, she paused, smiled, and said, "It will have to be a really big bomb, but we can do it." <A> If you've worked out the tech, why haven't you worked out the scale? <S> Isn't that part of "working out the tech"? <S> Just coming up with the idea of "a rocket that goes to the moon" isn't sufficient. <S> You have to come up with <S> how it goes to the moon. <S> If your story is meant to be realistic, then you have to do enough hard-science research to determine how a rocket could actually get to the moon. <S> You need to understand thrust, weight, the layers of the atmosphere, velocity vs. vacuum, orbits, and so on. <S> If your story is fantasy (relying on magic, for example), then you still have to cover the mechanics of getting to the moon, and your magical system has to be logical to a certain extent. <S> (This is what I call the Heroes Power Conundrum. <S> The show Heroes had people developing abilities like being able to heal from any wound, or flying, or turning invisible. <S> But those gifts never seemed to require power . <S> If the cheerleader grew back a toe, the energy to create that toe had to come from somewhere. <S> She should have been constantly eating cheeseburgers to fuel her healing.) <S> So just "casting a spell to put the rocket on the moon" is insufficient. <S> You have to establish how such a spell is learned or created, where the magic comes from, who can use it, if there's backlash, et cetera. <S> The short answer is, to avoid problems with scaling, figure out how the tech would really work, or as close to it as possible. <S> If you put a bomb in a building, do research on how much C4 you need to take out a building of that size, or how much more damage your chosen amount of C4 would do. <S> And so on. <A> It doesn't matter. <S> The tech is a McGuffin. <S> It's a device to drive the story. <S> The entire plot of Casablanca revolves around a pair of passes that cannot be revoked by the local Nazi authorities. <S> The passes are a McGuffin. <S> They are absurd on the face of it. <S> Of course any such passes could be cancelled by the local Nazi authorities. <S> " <S> Yes, Obergruppenfuhrer, I knew they were enemy spies wanted by the Reich, but they had magic tickets so of course I had to let them get on the plane. <S> " <S> Right. <S> Tech in Star Trek? <S> All technical problems are solved by reversing the polarity of blah blah blah. <S> Tech in Dr <S> Who? <S> Make it up as you go along and change your mind half way through. <S> It doesn't matter. <S> What matters is that you tell a good story. <S> What makes a good story is not that it is technically plausible. <S> So many stories could be so much more easily and safely resolved by another quite obvious course of action, or simply by a character asking an obvious question. <S> What makes a good story is that it is emotionally true and that it brings the protagonist to a point of moral or emotional crisis that is resolved in a satisfying way. <S> Yes, there will always be people who nitpick the details. <S> There is a rather entertaining series on youtube that picks holes in every major movie. <S> The point being that these are major movies that told compelling stories and made millions at the box office. <S> Their tech, and often their plots, make no sense, and is utterly lacking in scale. <S> No one cares. <S> They want to watch men in capes bash each other while having deep philosophical discussions. <S> Nitpicking the details is a sport for some people. <S> It is part of how they enjoy a story. <S> If there were no nits to pick, they would enjoy it less, not more. <S> (Think about Amy's deconstruction of one of the Indiana Jones movies on Big Bang Theory in which she showed that Indy's actions made no difference to the outcome of the plot. <S> That was fun. <S> I but a whole bunch of people went out and rented it again just to see if she was right. <S> Ka-ching. <S> " <S> Thanks for the residuals" say the screenwriters. ) <S> It doesn't matter. <S> The tech is a McGuffin. <S> Focus on telling a good story. <A> For hard SF the answer by Lauren Ipsum is correct. <S> For space opera, the answer by Mark Baker is correct. <S> Also, the first sentence of each answer is sufficient, you can skip the rest.
| One good trick is to choose a point of view characters who is at the low end of technical competence.
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Do you need to have your major plot point established in the first few chapters? Background I've now reached 10,000 words on the second book in my trilogy. Wow, goals. I have just got to the first major plot point which basically spells out the relationship between two characters which will drastically effect the plot of book two. However, what did I spend this 10,000 words messing around on? I decided that considering loads of new characters are being introduced in book two I would try and implement more interactions between characters early on and spell out the themes that would be going on later in the novel. Hence, most of these 10,000 words is the characters faffing around, talking and generally preparing or recuperating from something that has happened. For example, three characters have been arguing about might and praising the King's might. The guy praising the King's might gets called a coward for relying on the King entirely, and then there is a ton of incorrect blather that he spouts from his mouth. The other character then foreshadows something that will happen next chapter that is in their POV, by saying something like "Prove your not a coward by showing your might to (unnamed)". I've forgotten exactly what it was, it foreshadows though. Question The major plot point in book 2 has not been yet established by book two. It probably won't be fully established until a while later after I've 'set things up' so it all runs smoothly. Is it okay to introduce your major plot point late? <Q> I beg to dissent with other answers here so far. <S> Yes, everything will become clear only after the book draft is finished, but the important question is when the draft would be finished. <S> It would be pity to see 10,000 words go to waste, so it's quite a valid question to check if you are on a right track. <S> In my opinion, it's all right to spend 10,000 words to set up the stage - but only if the stage looks intriguing enough to the reader. <S> For example, your new characters may be doing nothing, but reader may already see looming conflicts and anticipate plot developments. <S> Also, this is all good only if you don't have any cliffhangers from book 1 that begged for action. <S> In such case a reader would be eager to see plot development rather than "faffing". <A> Look ... <S> I'm going to second most of what smoss321 said. <S> Write the book. <S> Don't worry about this stuff until revisions. <S> That's what's most important. <S> That being said, it sounds (since you're asking about plot points) <S> you could use some macro perspective. <S> You mentioned you are writing a trilogy. <S> Trilogies are, by definition, a single story broken into three episodes ... <S> but it is a single story. <S> So, you're in the process of writing the "middle" of the story (and, as we all know, the middles are often the most difficult). <S> There are a few things from your post which would concern me, if the book was finished . <S> Loads of characters appearing at the beginning of book two sends up a red flag (of course, without knowing more about why, it's difficult to speculate). <S> Mostly (from what little information we have), loads of characters makes me think you aren't beginning book two where book one left off (unless, of course, you killed off all the characters in book one). <S> This is doubly true when combined with a ton of blather and faffing about . <S> This makes me believe even you are seeing there is too much "fluff" in the beginning of your story. <S> ("You're a wizard, Harry." <S> or "I volunteer as tribute!"). <S> But these things ... these plot points ... <S> they're <S> locations in your story are just guidelines. <S> 10% for your hook doesn't mean it needs to be precisely at the 10,000 work mark. <S> THE MOST IMPORTANT THING : <S> Don't worry about this stuff right now. <S> Unless you are an in-depth and intense outliner (which I am), write the draft and take care of these kinds of revisions later (which I also do). <S> It will cost you nothing but time to allow your character to do what they want during this first drafting experience, so long as you go back through when its finished and cull the unnecessary during revisions. <A> Full stop. <S> There is nothing that you need to do or need not do at any point of your work unless you feel that it is necessary. <S> Getting published is a slightly different story, but this is a question about writing. <S> So long as you are writing then you are succeeding. <S> Most (I would say all) of the truly great writing is the world is found in works that bend, break, and flaunt the common rules of writing. <S> If you write how you desire you will not always succeed, but when you do succeed you will do so wildly. <S> TL;DR: <S> No. <A> I must agree with @Alexander: one should worry about major plot points, and minor ones too, since the beginning. <S> (Unless you're a radical pantser and embrace remaking your first draft completely.) <S> That having been said, I think it completely appropriate for the major plot point to reveal itself late on, however that means (for me) that either the first book (if it's a trilogy) or the first part of the book was mostly about a major subplot that set the stage for the main plot. <S> As an example, imagine one wants to write about the love story between A and B. <S> Only that love story is going to be driven to a tragic conclusion because A was first involved with Z. Therefore, I start with Z and A getting together and treat that as if it were the main plot. <S> Problems between Z and A slowly pop up and, as they both try to work them out <S> , B enters the stage and puts an end to the first relationship. <S> Now the real love story can take off and soar into tragedy while the readers can easily see how Z is behind it all.
| Write how you want, when you want, and cause the elements of your work to develop solely as you see fit. Now, if, by plot point, you are referring to those pesky moments in an outline story structure advocates discuss (I'm one of those, by the way) ... assuming the wordcount goal for your novel is the standard 100,000 words, then by 10,000 words you should have the plot's Hook firmly established. There are no rules in writing.
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How do I add more characters into my story? I am new to the site, so please let me know if I'm not following proper format or etiquette. I am beginning a story (only 4,000 words so far).I am having trouble adding in characters that can be developed, because the protagonist doesn't really have friends, just people she smokes with, and she isn't close with her family. The loneliness she feels and the amounts of time she spends lost in her head are integral to the story, but are making it hard for me to add other characters that I can develop past being two-dimensional. <Q> Are you writing this in first person? <S> The choice of first person is the cause of many writing woes because it is a POV that essentially puts the writer in a box. <S> If you are writing first person and your protagonist is withdrawn and friendless, any people she meets are going to be two dimensional to her, and thus two dimensional to the reader as well, since the reader can only see them through her eyes. <S> Now, this might be a legitimate way to tell her story. <S> The characters do not become three dimensional to us until she reaches some epiphany and they become three dimensional to her. <S> But if that is not what you want to do, then write in the third person. <S> The difficulty goes away at once because not you can turn the narrator's focus, and thus the reader's attention, to the secondary characters and make them as lively and well rounded as you like. <S> Half <S> the help-I'm-stuck questions on this site come down to the author having made choices about POV that don't fit with the story they are trying to tell, so I am guessing that is the case here too. <S> If not, please clarify your question and I will update the answer accordingly. <A> Who is your character forced to interact with? <S> If your character needs to go to work or school, then you have a whole host of potential characters. <S> Even if you're sticking to your character's perspective very tightly, there are likely people that she sees every day who grow and change around her. <S> If this smoking is the kind that takes place outside, then she likely sees the same people passing by regularly. <S> If she doesn't have to go to work, where is her money coming from? <S> If it's from somebody <S> she knew who passed, memories may play an important role in her life. <S> If she's on the dole (literally or figuratively), she has to interact with government workers or other patrons. <S> How does your character cope with not knowing people? <S> I can't say whether they'd be two-dimensional or not, though. <S> If your character has pets, maybe she's anthropomorphizing them. <S> If your character watches a lot of TV, she may be developing relationships with regular protagonists, newscasters, and so on. <S> She may have imaginary friends. <S> She may have conversations with and imagine the lives of people she knows or used to know in her head. <S> Does having more well-rounded characters actually make sense? <S> Finally, if none of those people really have an impact on your character in a way that works, maybe that's important. <S> It's possible that your story needs to explore what happens when somebody is deprived of real human contact of any kind of depth or when they reduce those around them to caricatures. <A> If her loneliness is essential to the story, I don't see this as being a problem. <S> You don't need to add a huge cast of well-rounded characters just to have them. <S> In fact, I think that this might end up serving your story quite well, as long as it's executed well. <S> If it's made clear, somehow, that the main character is isolating herself, or somehow that her perceptions of the characters around her are one-dimensional, I think it would absolutely end up improving your story. <A> Have parts of the story be in the point of view of characters you add, not just your main character. <S> This way, you can show how the character thinks as well as act, and you can expand upon your current characters by having the added character express their opinion of them, whether in thoughts or aloud. <A> One doesn't have to be alone to be lonely. <S> One can have 1000 facebook friends and not have a real friend. <S> In fact the more facebook friend one has, the lonelier one is likely to be. <S> It is a sign of a desperate need to connect. <S> One can pack one's schedule with parties, outings, and meetups and yet be totally alone. <S> After all, why do you think your main character is lonely? <S> Loneliness is a feeling that comes from mainly 2 things: 1) the desire to connect and the inability to do so, and 2) the feeling of envy of those who have formed those connections. <S> With that in mind, you can introduce a TON of characters. <S> And those characters can actually help you flesh out her feeling of isolation.
| If the character's really in pretty total isolation, she would likely find ways to add characters to her own life.
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Is a bandit ambush a fatal, cliche mistake? Background I've planned the chapter I'll write tomorrow. It features a bandit ambush! That's so exciting! Wow! The sickly scent of blood, the glistening blades and powerless enemies. They are nothing compared to my godly knight who is so skilled with a sword she can slice asunder the shaft of an arrow. Here's my characters mission plan: We're getting tired on the road. There's a building up ahead, maybe we should go and spend the night there because it's snowy. But, it's filled with people from the Black Cross bandit gang or something. We're going to need to clear it out, face the bandits, and fight valorously. Luckily, we have the young lady who is able to cut arrows in half on our side. Automatic victory. The idea is, they dash in and wreck the fort the bandits are staying in. Compared to the combined tactics and communication of our heroes, they are naught. So, the plan will be successful without any issues, and they will successfully clear out the bandits. Furthermore, my godly knight will have another time to shine, where she mercilessly shall sever an enemy's head from their shoulders. Question So here's my question: Is it really cliche to have an ambush? Is it a good idea to make the adventure a little more interesting by having the occasional battle? <Q> If they can't possibly lose, it is not a battle, it is a spot of exercise. <S> There is nothing exciting about a bandit ambush if the bandits have no chance. <S> Certainly going to win and do is not exciting. <S> Probably going to lose and don't is exciting. <A> As I see it, there are three possible uses for such a scene. <S> You show the skill of your protagonist because you need your reader to know it later. <S> Just saying that your knight is skilled is not sufficient, you need to prove it. <S> This is like the bus fight scene at the beginning of the movie The Specialist , where before the fight starts we know that the character played by Sylvester Stalone will beat the ruffians' asses, but the scene is there to show just how effortlessly Stalone puts them out. <S> Also, he pets the dog . <S> Michael J. Sullivan uses a bandit ambush in this way at the beginning of Theft of Swords . <S> Fantasy fiction isn't always as plot driven as thrillers. <S> In some books, some scenes are there only to allow the reader to spend more time exploring the fictional world. <S> Tom Bombadil at the beginning of the Lord of the Rings serves no purpose regarding the main plot. <S> We learn nothing about the characters, or the background of their quest. <S> This scene is just there because the Lord of the Rings is about experiencing a world. <S> While the ambush fails predictably, something else happens during it. <S> If it was me writing that book, then one of the knight's companions would be all sexed up from the violence and they would all hump each other afterwards <S> ;-) <S> Did I say three? <S> Here's another. <S> If the tongue-in-cheek style of your question is any indication then your novel might have a humorous touch. <S> If that is so, repetition and meaningless events might be part of the humor. <A> I am with Mark Baker on this one. <S> Looks like you have already established the level of competence of your character, so showing it again would be redundant and would likely annoy me as a reader. <S> What you can use the situation like this for is to introduce a twist of sorts—your good guys win (of course), but someone gets hurt, and can't walk or ride for a while—or show a previously hidden character trait—she suddenly shows mercy, or the opposite, etc. <S> The idea is: do not repeat yourself, it makes your story boring, even with the full of action fight scene. <A> Does your ambush have a purpose in driving the goal of the protagonists, or create new information for the reader? <S> Action shouldn't be there just to 'be' there. <S> You could be introducing a new secret weapon that these bandits got ahold of, a new faction that appeared that poses a threat or makes a lead towards the protagonist's goal, or it could be that they are just there to display how much the protagonist has improved after a training session or learning a new power. <S> A story won't be interesting if you just have mindless battles that just get in the way of the protagonists. <S> Like you've probably heard by now, <S> Everything has been done before, however, it depends on how you take advantage of it for advancing your story. <A> As has been mentioned in other answers to this question, if we already know the over-powered-ness of your knight, then we need to learn something new from this fight, or something has to change: either the physical circumstances for their journey or something within them. <S> Physical consequences <S> Someone already mentioned that the fight could leave one of "good guys" wounded, resulting in a challenge for the group after the fight . <S> Or someone could die, or their (enter important object) is broken, and so on. <S> Psychological consequences <S> Another option is to let the Hero(/group) experience something that changes her(/their) mind about their mission, their look on good vs bad -guys, violence, relations, words, power, genders, beliefs, clothing... <S> You name it. <S> Maybe their goals are questioned. <S> Maybe they have gained valuable knowledge in achieving their goals. <S> In general As with most in life; repetition quickly becomes tedious. <S> Therefore, summarize what we already know, and focus instead on what is new/different. <A> If cliches were a mistake they wouldn't be cliches. <S> Depending on what your goal is, what you want from your work and what your definition of success the cliche might help you get the results you want.
| You can have a cliche such as the main character being a chosen one that's bullied by others, but as long as you can make it interesting and lead in your story in a unique way - the readers won't care.
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What kind of an effect does breaking gender roles/stereotypes have in fiction? Background It might sound like a silly question, I know, but something someone said to me today has made me concerned that my book sounds childish and nonsensical. Apparently: " having a woman who burns people at the stake, cuts off heads and betrays is too childish for people to take her seriously. " In my book, I've got men with excessively feminine names and attributes as well as plenty of women who are clad in full iron armour and won't hesitate to chop off someone's head. I know that in those times women were (and still are, in some perspectives) discriminated against, would be 'owned' by the husband and definitely not on the front lines during war. I learnt that during history. I'm scared that because I have so many women who go around cutting open arrows, assassinating kings, and not playing the stereotypical role of a woman in those times my book will appear like it's written by someone negligent. Question Does it matter if you break gender stereotypes? Of the present day, or at the 'time your book is set in'. Do many readers not expect for example, the things I mentioned above? Would they think my writing is childish if I broke stereotypical gender roles? <Q> If you think of your book as a "serious" historical fiction, then your concerns are well-founded. <S> You can't make your book serious in the sense of "historically accurate", but I see no problem having it serious as "deep and thought provoking". <A> Write whatever you want to. <S> No matter what it turns out to be, the real work is creating a seamless, fictional dream that will pull your reader in rather than have them spending half the novel saying "That's unrealistic." <S> See Writing a novel, can I do [this or that]? <A> Personally, I would typically view breaking gender stereotypes as a breath of fresh air. <S> What I would not view as a breath of fresh air would be exaggerated, consequence-free actions that kill my suspension of disbelief (unless I was seeking out a surrealistic fantasy or broad comedy). <S> There is actually a hidden sociopolitical danger in ignoring historical realities when presenting characters. <S> By giving them more agency and power than they actually had, you're both imagining away (and thus excusing) <S> the power structures that kept their real life analogs down, and simultaneously making the real-life historical persons seem weak and complicit in their own oppression. <S> Consider Tarantino's revisionist Western Django Unchained , which features an escaped slave bounty hunter slaughtering white people with happy impunity. <S> It never actually happened. <S> Suggesting it did might be a satisfying revenge fantasy for some, but it both misrepresents and paradoxically excuses the realities of enslavement. <S> Conversely, Octavia Butler's Kindred paints a more realistic portrait, even within a more explicitly fantastic context. <S> It is the narrative of an intelligent, educated, modern black woman who is horrified to learn that none of her skills, talents, knowledge or initiative will help her break out of the servile and compromised life of a slave when she inadvertently time travels back to a time of slavery. <S> Both narratives break stereotypes, but only one, in my view, deserves to be called "childish." <S> For someone to break stereotypes without experiencing any of the real world pushback, and often brutal, socially sanctioned enforcement , is nothing but a lie. <S> On the other hand, the more "mature" narrative is NOT the one that made millions of dollars at the box office.
| But if you are writing "historical fantasy", you are free to do anything you want, as long as the book is good. People write many less believable things than women with swords and armor or feminine men.
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Reasons to use "red herrings"? I don't see any analytical literature about the usefulness of red herrings as a TV trope. What are some reasons to use them? I'm assuming there's more to it than just bored writers trying to amuse themselves to the detriment of the reader. The one I can think of is - generally you build anticipation in a plot by making the viewer/reader subconsciously establish a pattern through repeated exposure to consistent cause and effect. Then to evoke a dramatic / emotional shock you mislead them by giving a cause that fails to provide the anticipated effect. Moreover, you leave the viewer anxious about the climax by sewing a seed of doubt that the effect is not a foregone conclusion. Is this the basic intention? Or are their others? Example: I create a highlights video of soccer matches where my favorite team keeps starting a match badly conceding goals, but always makes a comeback and wins each game. Then just as it's getting predictable, you throw a red herring in by showing highlights of a match where they fail to make a comeback and the viewer is jarred with disappointment. Subsequent match highlights will then keep the viewer on edge by not knowing which way the next one will go. <Q> To expand on @Alexander's answer... <S> It's most popular, I believe, in detective stories, where the red herring will point at one person as the criminal only to have the real criminal revealed later on. <S> Thus, it makes the outcome less predictable. <S> Before learning of the correct term for the technique, I use to think of it as "throwing sand to the readers's eyes" (literal translation of a Portuguese saying) because the objective was to keep the reader from seeing the (fictional) 'reality'. <A> For me, there is a right way and a wrong way to include red herrings or twists in a story. <S> The wrong way <S> Suddenly subvert the reader's expectations with a plot twist <S> AKA <S> "the rug-pull". <S> Interesting, I would consider that the example given above (the film "The Usual Suspects") is an example of a bad twist. <S> Very few (if any) details in the 'reveal' sequence at the end are actually noticeable by viewers during the course of the movie. <S> The right way <S> Developing the plot such that multiple endings are plausible before the red herrings are removed and the reader is left with the 'real' ending. <S> Right now, I can't think of a better example than the first "Mission Impossible" movie with Tom Cruise. <S> As the film progresses and the protagonist reveals more information, he re-visits his memories to theorise and subsequently eliminate different possibilities. <S> EDIT: <S> To more directly address the question: building up multiple plausible endings before picking one is incredibly satisfying to read and write. <S> Other readers will just enjoy the ride, but will still greatly appreciate how the set of possible endings will narrow as the story approaches the end. <A> If I understand you right, you describe a plot progression as "normal outcome - red herring - unexpected outcome". <S> I see "red herring" as a very popular plot device without any "normal outcome" prelude. <S> For example, the movie "Usual Suspects" is one big red herring. <A> I don't think you quite have the sense of what a red herring is. <S> It really isn't a general plot device. <S> It is more a specific technique in a puzzle kind of plot, such as a who-done-it mystery. <S> It is something that suggest, and leads the reader to believe, that the gardener did it, when in fact it was the butler who it. <S> The entire plot around the gardener is than the red herring. <S> What you are describing seems to be more generally a technique of maintaining suspense of the will-they, won't they variety. <S> There is no red herring involved in your treatment of the soccer matches.
| Savvy readers may attempt to guess the correct ending and feel rewarded and satisfied by the story's conclusion. To me a red herring has always been a clue that diverts the reader's attention.
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What is better for prose: symmetry or simplicity? Here's an example: Mary had never concealed Marcos as though he were an (ugly) scar. No, far from that. She'd always exhibited him around like a sexy birthmark. I think the word ugly is unnecessary here, since a scar is assumed to be ugly. A birthmark, on the other hand could be either ugly or beautiful. The only reason to use ugly , in my opinion, would be to keep things symmetrical (ugly scar, sexy birthmark). What the best option in these cases? Symmetry or simplicity? <Q> You're thinking too deeply <S> You're going way too far into this. <S> I wouldn't say 'lack of unnecessary elements', rather 'description'. <S> In writing, there is no symmetry on the page. <S> Two nouns both having adjectives doesn't necessarily create symmetry. <S> You should know the following: Only have necessary descriptions. <S> If you stick to that you'll be fine. <S> For example, if you think the scar doesn't need to be described as ugly, don't describe it as ugly. <S> To be honest, you can get away with skipping loads of descriptions. <S> I hope this helped you. <A> I personally love symmetry, redundancy <S> and I naturally use plenty of adjectives for each noun I write. <S> Sometimes even couples of adjectives (ugly and nasty scar, meek and pretty face, etc.). <S> But I love it - <S> that doesn't mean it always works, or that it's necessary. <S> So the question you ask is: does it work? <S> Is it necessary? <S> Are you going for rhythm and musicality, or for effectiveness? <S> If stylistic symmetry has a purpose in your story (your character is a perfectionist, an abstract thinker, an obsessive, etc.) <S> then make your prose sound like that. <S> If you don't need it other than "it just sounds right", then take it out. <S> Your editor will in any case, I guess ;) <A> I personally think that the word "ugly" is necessary in the example above. <S> I know a lot of people who think scars are cool - unless they are ugly. <S> In which case you generally want to hide them.
| Generally speaking, simplicity and clarity come first as a priorities in writing, especially narrative prose. If redundant descriptions make sense in your prose (ugliness is a feature trait and you need to stress it out as much as you can) then make your prose sound like that.
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I have a hard time staying focused on a single novel I am currently writing three different stories. I didn't start this on purpose, because I knew it would be very difficult to keep up, but I couldn't help it and kept getting different great ideas that would fit in different stories. I've narrowed it down to three main stories that I've been working on. I want to narrow it to only one but I have a hard time choosing only one story to think about because I love them all. This is why I'm not able to finish one story because I keep jumping to the next ones. What can I do to keep focused on one story at a time? <Q> Here are some ideas: <S> List all of your ideas down, and gather the best points from all of them, consider what you think is most interesting. <S> Invest heavily into your characters, imagine their lives and intricacies. <S> Make them your friends, and imagine living inside of your world that you have created! <S> Remember you're mostly writing for yourself - so <S> if you're switching ideas a lot, you could write short stories instead to practice endings. <A> I have a similar problem... or not. <S> (I mean it's not a problem for me.) <S> I am writing five stories at the moment, but I focus on one at a time. <S> For instance, I can write chapters for one story for six to twelve months. <S> At that time, I typically start getting bored <S> so I change to another story and focus on it. <S> That way, I avoid getting fed up with a story and I'm much more productive as, <S> when I refocus on a story, I have a fresh overview and can feel excited about working on it. <S> One of those stories is currently reaching 120,000 words (nearly finished). <S> Of course that's how my mind works <S> and it does not stop me from finishing my tales . <S> I strongly advise you to follow @what's suggestion (in the comments) of creating a 'slush file' to jot down ideas for other stories, and do not take longer than 1-2 hours jotting those ideas. <S> If you get too excited with a new idea, it may be best to shelf the story you're working on and try to focus on that new idea for at least three months. <S> Any less than that <S> and you can't fully immerse yourself in your fictional world and characters (which will turn out cardboard-like). <S> If you can't focus on one idea at a time for less than three months... <S> you've got a serious problem. <S> You need to stop and analyse what is going on: why can't you focus? <S> Is it the story? <S> The characters? <S> Do you have a terribly short attention-span? <S> Whatever it is, identify it and work on it. <A> Ask someone else to pick the one that you should work on. <S> Right before they tell you, you should know which you want to work on. <S> Then, somehow, prevent yourself from being able to work on the other two, maybe give the files to that other person, and instruct them not to give them back until you have finished the one you choose. <S> Repeat the process between the two left. <A> I keep getting different great ideas that would fit in different stories. <S> Jotting something down doesn't take much time. <S> Resist the urge to figure out where in the other story it should go, and how to adjust things in the other story to accommodation the addition. <S> Then get back to your goal for the day (or the week, month, or whatever).
| You may jot down the idea when it occurs to you, along with a note about which story you'd like to add it to. Gather all of your favorite ideas and write them into one novel or a series that can encompass all your ideas (or the best ones) Set yourself a goal and a reward for meeting the goal.
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How much detail when writing technical documentation? As a software developer, I often find myself writing my own technical documentation and user guides. How much detail should be put into this documentation? When is it too much detail? EDIT I'm stuck on a user simply being able to follow a linear A->B process, vs. material that will teach the user how to use the software in a manner that will enable them to handle many errors or process deviations on their own. <Q> Documentation about the same product could have very different levels/types of detail depending on whether you are writing: Task-oriented end-user documentation, where the focus should be on how to use it , ideally with some examples . <S> This type of documentation might cover only common cases, and people often read it linearly. <S> Example: user-level documentation for an email client that tells you how to send, read, format, categorize, etc. <S> Reference user documentation, where the focus should be on covering all the cases, but still only in ways that affect how a user uses it. <S> People usually jump into reference documentation to look up something specific and haven't necessarily read any of the rest of it. <S> Example: documentation of all of the options and settings in that email client, or Unix man pages, or API documentation. <S> Installation, configuration, or integration specifications for system administrators, systems engineers, and similar people. <S> These people are users too, but they are not end-users <S> and they are more likely to be concerned with questions like: What demands does this product place on my network? <S> How do I integrate this with my single-sign-on security? <S> How do I get usage reports? <S> Example: documentation for an email server in an enterprise environment. <S> Specifications of various sorts, where the audience is not users but other people who interact with your feature: other developers, testers, an enterprise customer's technical reviewers, product managers, and so on. <S> Those different types of users have different needs when it comes to details. <S> (I've grouped specifications into one bullet point here, but there are several types here.) <S> Deep-dive internal documentation for your coworkers so they could take over your code if you got hit by a bus. <S> There are more, but I hope these examples illustrate the situation. <S> When writing documentation, you need to ask yourself: "what do my readers need to know?" <S> and, by extension, "what <S> don't my readers need to know?". <S> In order to do that, you need to have some idea of who your readers are and what they are trying to accomplish. <S> Why are they reading your documentation? <S> Answer that <S> , and you'll have a good idea of how much detail to supply. <S> But if you still can't tell, ask for peer reviews early so you can recalibrate if you need to. <A> The acid test is this: Will the reader behave differently if they know this? <S> If not, leave it out. <S> The aim of user documentation is to enable the user to act correctly. <S> Any detail that does not contribute to correct action slows the reader down and may reduce their confidence. <A> Just enough for your target audience to be able to use your product or duplicate your process. <S> If you are writing for professionals, you do not have to explain the difference between click and double-click. <S> If you are writing for consumers, you might :-) <A> It depends on who your target audience is and what the purpose is. <S> If you are writing for uneducated users who just need to be able to use the product, keep details to the very minimum. <S> Clear, logical steps that allow tasks to be completed is what's needed. <S> If, however, you want your user to understand how the product works so that they can use it more creatively, give more details. <S> Consider what some documentation does: What is needed for general consumption is the normal text, but there are specially labelled 'expert' sections <S> -- read them if you need or want to. <S> Alternatively, provide an introductory tutorial and then detailed technical information for people who want to do more. <A> If you're working in a group, check the level of detail of existing documentation, and ask for guidance from your group leader, or a co-worker who seems to know what's what. <S> Picture an imaginary reader. <S> Write a description of this ideal reader -- why is s/ <S> he reading your documentation, and what does s <S> /he hope to get out of it? <S> For example, you need to have clear in your mind whether the reader wants to simply use your software, or whether s/ <S> he wants to be able to modify it. <S> Perhaps you could provide two levels of detail. <S> Analogy 1: <S> Newspaper articles start with the very short version of the story, and then tell the longer version. <S> Analogy 2 <S> : Eurogames often come with a short quick-start sheet, which skips the motivation and lovely prose, and just gives you a quick rundown of the set-up (preparation for play) and a bulleted list of the mechanics. <S> A longer booklet can provide the story behind the game, a slow introduction to the pieces, tiles, etc. <S> that one manipulates, notes about strategy and variants, and fine points about rules, etc. <S> Imagine that an editor writes to you and asks what the purpose of your article is, and why you took the approach you took. <S> Write back to this imaginary editor. <S> You'll probably find that writing about what you're trying to accomplish with your writing will help bring the project into better focus.
| It depends on who your readers are and what they are trying to do with the information.
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How many rewrites should a writer expect for a novel? "By the time I am nearing the end of a story, the first part will have been reread and altered and corrected at least one hundred and fifty times. I am suspicious of both facility and speed. Good writing is essentially rewriting. I am positive of this." — Roald Dahl Well, I am not quite this bad but it does have me wondering about how many times a novel is generally rewritten until it is suitable for submitting. This author even has a formula: vomit draft - let it fly baby Story arc pass - main story subplots - overall structure MC & supporting character arcs - including character development & embellishment grammar/punctuation pass & bad habit pass (adverbs/tense/sentence variety/word choice) ... Hard copy read - make corrections Kindle read - make corrections OUT TO BETAS Including Beta notes pass Holistic read - wearing my audience hat Corrections from Holistic read QUERY TIME But another writer cautions : Eventually, redrafting will just spoil the novel - there is a danger that the story you set out to write ends up so ‘surgically’ enhanced that it no longer resembles the original story – the intrinsic core of the story has been lost. There are entire blogs dedicated to this question.Frankly, dozens of times seems overdone. Perfect isn't feasible unless you are this blogger . But dozens isn't practical, especially given my advanced age. Aside from as many as it takes to find a publisher, does any one know the MEAN number of drafts for a novel ? <Q> I don't think you can even have an answer for a given writer. <S> Mercedes Lackey rewrote her first trilogy seventeen times, but now she churns out books every year or so. <S> (whether they are any good is a different question.) <S> Barbara Cartland wrote over 700 books in her lifetime, Isaac Asimov over 500 in his, and <S> George R.R. Martin has been struggling with Winds of Winter since the Truman administration. <S> A first book or series is going to go through many cycles. <S> Once you get better at writing and editing, and particularly if you're writing a series with familiar characters, you will likely go much faster and need fewer rounds. <S> You can track your own work, but I think it should be only for your own benchmarking purposes. <S> The book is done when it's done, and not before. <A> There really is no general answer to this. <S> There are writers who publish their first drafts and make a lot of money with high volume output, while others polish their books endlessly and achieve high literary fame. <S> Then there are writers who do either and manage neither. <S> Famous examples for heavy rewriting include Leo Tolstoy, who rewrote the whole of War and Peace seven times, Robert Musil who worked on The Man Without Qualities for twenty-one years and left it unfinished when he died, and Ernest Hemingway, who wrote 47 different endings for A Farewell in Arms . <S> An example for high output first drafts is Elle Casey. <S> Research her, its interesting. <S> She publishes about one novel per month , sometimes two. <S> She also blogs heavily about her process, and I have learned a lot from her, although I don't (yet) emulate her. <S> What you must do, depends on what kind of person you are and what goals you have. <S> You will find your ideal process through experimentation and self-reflection. <S> Are you happy with self-publishing the verbal ejaculate of your imagination? <S> Or do you need the New York Review of Books to discuss your work of art? <S> Can you manage one book per month? <S> That seems like a lot, but can you manage even one single complete rewrite?!? <S> I find it almost unbearably difficult. <S> Try both for yourself and find out. <A> There is not one answer, as others have said. <S> But I would suggest the following: <S> How many rewrites it takes to make a competent writer is a very different question from how many rewrites it takes for a competent writer to write a new book. <S> That might mean rewriting the first book 20 times before you are good enough to make it good, or it could mean rewriting four books 5 times each before the fourth one is good. <S> You should rewrite if you can see something wrong with a book and a way to make it better. <S> Once you can't make it better, give it to someone else to read and listen to what they tell you is wrong with it (but not how they tell you to fix it). <S> If you can now see what is wrong with it and a way to fix it, repeat the process. <S> Once you can't see how to make it better, no matter what your beta readers say (good or bad), submit it. <S> Or, if you still feel it is not good enough to submit, but can't tell how to make it better, stick it in a drawer and take it out next year. <S> A book can fail at multiple levels. <S> Story problems cannot be fixed by fiddling with the prose. <S> In fact, fiddling with the prose seldom fixes anything (which is why you should ignore all the suggestions from your beta readers). <S> Good storytelling is about how the arc of the story works out and whether it maintains tension and provides a satisfying release. <S> It is about how you set up the reader's expectations and how you pay off those expectations. <S> Some writers spend countless rewrites trying to fix failures of tension or excitement with more and more overwrought prose when the real problem is that the events are simply not set up properly to create tension or excitement. <S> Recasting the story is usually what makes a book work, no rewriting the prose.
| I don't think there can be an answer for this. Writing is a difficult craft and you should expect to have to do a lot of rewriting before you get good at it.
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Are plot twists always necessary for a good story? In the story I'm writing, the protagonist writes a representational story about himself and about the fulfillment of his wish impossible in his reality. Such wish is the sub-protagonist's main goal, and it's set still at the beginning, and the rest of the story is just the sub-protagonist's journey to accomplish it. And that's it, no gotchas. However, I'm not sure if it'll be a good idea to leave it so predictable and unsurprising. I mean, of course that achieving such goal have some conditions he has to endure, but in the end, his goal is still accomplished, no matter what, and he knows such conditions since the beginning and goes into the journey with that in mind. From what I know from the other works I use as reference, when there's a solid goal since the beginning, taking the whole story to be achieved, there's always a plot twist (usually several) affecting such goal, and in the end, the goal is achieved, but in a way never known before in the story, and a lot changes after those twists. But in my case, I can't do much, as the sub-story is the protagonist's wish fulfillment, and it would make no sense for him to make the sub-protagonist fail in his journey, and the reader would read all the story just to find out that the sub-protagonist fails. So my question is: is it always necessary for a story to have plot twists to be considered a good story? Or a story without them has to be executed with great mastery to not get bad impressions? <Q> Nothing is 'always necessary' in writing. <S> It's about what you want to write, and - if it's important to you - what people want to read. <S> And people are strange and various, so you will probably find someone who will enjoy reading what you've written, whatever it is. <S> Also, there will probably be a good deal of people who will like it for the fact that it doesn't follow conventions, that they may be tired of. <S> However, having said that, most stories have twists for a reason - and that's because the majority of people will find them more interesting and satisfying. <S> As you say, it's the journey and the challenges on the way that make the story. <S> In fact, there are many stories where the original story goal is achieved. <S> The only problem is if the protagonist achieves everything they set out to do without any conflict or obstacles appearing at all. <S> That might feel a bit odd. <S> Again, going back to your question, I think you can do anything if you do it with enough mastery, so not having plot twists is certainly possible in a good story. <S> Just more difficult to pull off. <A> Let me offer an analogy - are track loops necessary for a good amusement thrill ride? <S> Generally speaking, they are not necessary, but they are making the ride more... thrilling. <S> On the other hand, a good thrill ride would likely have loops, but it's not the number and size of them that makes the ride good. <S> So, put twists in your story, but don't add twists just for the sake of it. <A> I'd say no. <S> You don't need plot twists. <S> But you might get them anyway. <S> Let me explain. <S> Your characters should show some kind of change. <S> At least your protagonist. <S> Or, if he does not change, he should change his world somehow. <S> And those characters that change should have goals. <S> So, should your antagonist, although it's usually not a good idea to have an antagonist that changes -- it may reduce the protagonists win/loss if the antagonist suddenly comes over to his side. <S> The characters' goals should be hard to reach because they are being thwarted by the antagonist. <S> This is often because the antagonist has the same goal as the protagonist: find the treasure, win the competition, etc. <S> You can build suspense by making the reader ask about your protagonist: how on earth is he going to make it out of this? <S> The protagonist's goal needs to be hard to reach, but not impossible. <S> And it needs to be valuable to the protagonist, and the reader needs to understand why. <S> As a writer, you need to have an evil streak when it comes to your characters and how hard you make it for them to reach their goals. <S> And, once you've piled on with hard obstacles and powerful foes the fact that the character does manage to reach his goal might just come as a huge twist in the end anyway. <S> Although, beware of "Deus ex Machina"-effects. <S> The problems and obstacles should be hard to overcome, but not so impossible you need to bring in "the gods" to save your protagonist. <S> As I understand it your story has a narrator. <S> Even he has to be just as good a storyteller as you are, and he cannot give away the end too soon, even if he knows it. <S> You may also be able to pull a "Braveheart" on the reader, not giving away who the narrator is until the very end... <S> The important part isn't, however, if you have twists or not. <S> The important part is that you have engaged readers, and you get that by making them feel -- fear, suspense, joy, dread, angst... <S> Goals and obstacles are one great way to take a seemingly straight-from-A-to-B-story and make it into a nail biter.
| I don't think it's a problem if the goal is achieved, though the character finding out that what they wanted all along isn't actually what's going to make them happy is often key to a fulfilling story. Readers love to fear for their characters lives or success.
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How many books should writers read? It is well known that the postmodern novels often use citations and references to other cultural objects, first of all to the other novels. Sometimes it is necessary to read several of them in order to understand the majority of senses in a particular chapter. How do you think how many books should the postmodern author read and how culturally spacious his mind should be in order to write state of the art literature? <Q> Quite honestly, if you do not read widely and voraciously, you have no business trying to be a writer. <S> To do otherwise would be like a chef who only ate once a week and only at McDonald's. <S> It would be like a actor who hardly went to the theater or a ball player who never went to a ball game. <S> And I do want to stress widely here. <S> There seem to be many people who only every read in one narrow genre and expect to be able to write in that genre. <S> I don't think that is going to work. <S> You need a wider view in order to understand what writing is. <S> And if you had the kind of love of stories and the kind of love of language that it takes to be a writer, you would never be content to confine your reading to a single genre. <S> Now as to the amount of preening erudition a post-modern author is expected to do to be accepted in the post-modern author's club, I can't really say. <S> Probably a lot. <S> Post modernism is a conceit, and I suppose that conceitedness is essential to produce it, but I suspect that if that conceit does not come naturally to you, it is probably impossible to fake it. <A> There is no postmodern canon that you have to work through to be able to participate in postmodern intellectual and artistic discourse. <S> If you want to create postmodern art (which is always at the same time theory) <S> then that desire will drive you to follow the intertextual references in the texts you read. <S> For a postmodern author, there is no end to the web of references, so there is no end to what you might read, except your own disinterest. <A> I don't disagree with any of the sentiments mentioned here. <S> But as a 51 year old writer, I frequently have to choose between spending my time to read books or to write stories. <S> Usually I opt to use the time for writing stories even if it means severely curtailing my reading time. <S> But everything is relative; I just think that being able to point to the number of books you have read is an empty brag. <S> Maybe at the age of 25 or 30 I felt differently. <S> How you incorporate this background in literature of course depends on the subject matter and literary approach. <S> That said, I am partial to books that show an awareness of other literary works (i.e., the postmodernist stuff). <S> But ultimately there are so many books out there <S> -- you shouldn't expect even a well-read critic to catch a lot of the references. <A> In an age in which the sheer volume of content being produced is overwhelming, I don't think it's possible for a reader to "get" every reference you'd want to make. <S> It's a similar issue in TV and movies -- sometimes, Saturday Night Live does a parody of something I've never seen. <S> We're a long way from the days in which we had three channels and a handful of major publishing houses, so everyone watched and read the same things. <S> But I would suggest, similar to one of the other answers, that reading a LOT is never a bad thing. <S> And get outside your comfort zone from time to time. <S> I do nonfiction, and I'll occasionally grab a novel just to see a different approach to writing. <S> I don't think anything you read would be inherently bad. <S> Even if you pick up a trashy novel or poorly researched political polemic, you'll see a few things that work and some that don't. <A> I guess I'm going to disagree with the others as my opinion is: <S> Read as much as you need to. <S> When you are happy with the ideas you've developed for a story, stop reading and start writing. <S> My stance may be a little controversial, but it suits me fine. <S> When I read a lot, I find that it strongly steers my writing and my imagination. <S> If I read a book with a great romance, I'm easily tempted to put a romance into one of my stories. <S> When I read yet another terrible fantasy book then I want to take my story and plonk it into a modern or sci-fi setting (which is actually what I did). <S> I have to limit the amount that I read or else <S> I'd never finish a book. <S> Worse, I could finish writing a book that ends up being a mish-mash of ideas I've accumulated from my reading. <S> I would hate to finish a novel only for it to be extremely derivative, and everything feels derivative to me when I read widely. <S> Building upon the previous advice <S> : Take inspiration from sources outside literature. <S> A single lyric from a song is often enough to spark my imagination into overdrive. <S> Sometimes it can be the view out of my window, or something I've seen in the news. <S> Personally, I find non-written media to be far more valuable as sources of inspiration. <S> Disclaimer: These are techniques that work for me but obviously YMMV. <S> Reading widely is generally recommended for the more disciplined author.
| Read deeply and intensely, but don't worry about how many (or how few) books you have read.
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Resurrecting a story: Rewrite or Edit? I started a book about 2 years ago, got about halfway through, and then got sidetracked. I know this is a typically bad habit of novelists... Fortunately, the book idea that distracted me made it to the finish line. Now, I want to return to the first book, but the energy of the book I carried around in my head has disappeared. I have to get to know the characters all over again. I do want to write this story, and I've had a lot of cool ideas over the last 18 months I want to incorporate. Also, I think I'm a better writer now than two years ago. So my question is, should I start over at page 1 and rewrite the story using my first draft perhaps as a guide but basically rewrite everything, or should I open my chapter files and edit them as needed knowing there will be some massive makeovers? <Q> Rewrite it. <S> If you feel you're a better writer now, two years later, you'll waste too much time editing and fiddling around trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. <S> Don't be afraid to toss something in the trash and retry the idea with a new perspective and voice. <S> I was in a similar situation with an old completed novel and decided to just "fix" what already existed. <S> Ended up cutting half the book and it changed so much I might as well have rewritten it. <A> I think you should fathom your own feelings about this. <S> For me, the answer would depend on how I felt what I had written before and what didn't work for me then. <S> If that first attempts was inherently flawed, I would not reread it <S> (so as not to get pulled into that frame of mind again) and write everything anew from what I have in my head. <S> In the meantime that story will have developed in your mind, and you want to write that new form, not be hampered by the old one. <S> If on the other hand you still feel what you did then was great, then rewrite and expand. <S> But that will be difficult. <S> From my own experience, rewriting is the most difficult thing in writing at all, because you will have to make things work that didn't work. <S> So how do you feel about your old story? <S> Follow your gut. <A> I'm sensing two structural problems. <S> So let's tackle those first. <S> For any story you work on, you should have: <S> An outline of the story. <S> In your outline, you should know, chapter by chapter, what is going on. <S> This can be as detailed or as vague as you want, but to your eyes it should be a play-by-play. <S> Character bios. <S> Every character that appears (though more detailed for protagonists and somewhat less for main supporting characters) should be described. <S> Their personality (psychology), their look (biology), their flaws, and their strengths. <S> Everything should be described, even if it's as simple as (looks like 'Neo' from the Matrix). <S> A reference bible! <S> Building on the previous point, you should have some kind of documentation describing everything in your book. <S> From the scene locations, to the items being used. <S> This can be as vague as "Scene location: rural America", to as detailed as "Three mahogany trees lined up in the back yard, interspersed with herbs and vegetable gardens". <S> The more fantastical the setting (ie. <S> Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or even historically accurate) <S> the more accurate you need to be with your details. <S> So if you describe or refer to something in your book, you need to get the details right every time. <S> Now, having said that. <S> I would have to agree with the other answer(er)s, mostly. <S> If you feel the story itself can improve with a rewrite, then this shouldn't be a discussion. <S> Don't toss the old, though! <S> Keep it as reference material. <A> I wouldn't rewrite it if you don't have to. <S> Perhaps you could start by reading your existing draft and making notes, perhaps in the form of an outline, as you go along. <S> If you didn't leave yourself an outline of the second half before you set it aside, then it might be helpful to make an outline before digging in to writing the second half. <S> You might even want to experiment with leaving a gap of time between the first half and the second half. <S> It could be rather fun. <S> Of course, if you find that a rewrite is necessary, that's okay too. <S> But at this stage it might be helpful to crank out some sort of draft of the second half before getting too involved in making improvements to the first half.
| If you feel you've improved as a writer, then rewriting might make more sense.
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How do I develop my skill at writing essays? I am interested in writing essays. When I read Emerson's essays, I see that he has a unique style of writing. The quality of prose is consistently maintained across the essays. I write very pedestrian prose. Though I am able to convey ideas, the beauty of expression and the literary flourish is missing. Questions 1) What is the best way to improve the quality of my prose? 2) If the answer to the above question is to read a lot of essays, how should I read them? Should I read actively, dissecting every sentence, and analysing it? Or should I just read and expect it do wonders to my writing? <Q> 2) <S> If the answer to the above question is to read a lot of essays, how should I read them? <S> Should I read actively, dissecting every sentence, and analysing it? <S> Or should I just read and expect it do wonders to my writing? <S> Both, I should say. <S> First read just for your enjoyment. <S> Afterwards analyse the whole and dissect a few sentences (every single one seems a bit excessive). <S> Make sure to look for what you particularly enjoy in the essay. <S> Then read your own essays and identify what you like and dislike about them. <S> See how they compare to the ones you enjoy: use of figures of speech, organisation of ideas, etc. <S> Note that you shouldn't be trying to immitate the master, as you compare your work to his, but to see how both use the techniques above. <S> It is important to you find your own voice and style, but that does not mean you cannot learn techniques from this process. <S> 1) <S> What is the best way to improve the quality of my prose? <S> Read and analyse what you've read. <S> But mostly read. <S> A lot. <A> The answer is the same to all questions about improving your craft, and that is: Practice. <S> Reading won't make you a good author, only writing will. <S> What you should do is analyse and dissect your own mistakes and do better next time. <S> So: Write. <A> When I say critically, I mean that you should read to understand the author's syntax, tone, diction, use of figurative language... <S> the list goes on. <S> But I like to believe that one's writing style is intrinsically unique, and so the purpose of this should be to allow your writing to become more nuanced, not to write exactly like them. <S> Here is something for you to try. <S> Pick a piece that you're currently interested in, and use that piece as your source material. <S> It will probably feel foreign to you, which is the point: while it'll help you to understand the writer that you're interested in, you won't magically begin to write like that author. <S> That being said, you should, through the process, see your own style come forth as you begin to modify the prose with your own flair, as will undoubtedly happen when you read something that feels forced and stilted. <S> I'd call that your emerging style, and it will become crucial as you begin to write your own essays. <S> You shouldn't want to be someone else, but by trying to, you might find what makes you "you" as you discover the aspects of their style <S> you like and the aspects you dislike.
| My advice is to write often and read critically across genres. One exercise that can help embody the mind of another writer is to write on a topic in his or her style; emulate the style completely by copying the syntax and word choice precisely.
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Is including a large number of twists a bad thing? I've been doing some research into twists, and after not knowing how to create one, I'm starting to get a handle on them. Unfortunately, now I'm at the other end of the spectrum, and wondering if I can have too many twists. Background: To understand where I'm coming from, you have to know that I plan and develop my novels extensively before writing a single word. I know every little turn of the plot, every scene down to the dialogue said. Then I write it. Creating novels this way allows me to look at the whole plot at once. Mark Baker's answer on this question has introduced me to the concept of drifting off course so that I can twist back to the story. This means I just look at what I need for the story, then find a way to drift away from it so that I can twist to it. Yes! Twists abound! I'm now realizing that doing that is going to yield a lot of twists, and I'm wondering if there is any problem with that. I want very much to simply say that the more twists the better, and here's why: I recently finished reading the SYLO Chronicles , by D. J. MacHale. Excellent books, if a little lacking in the area of character development. What made them so great though was the unending twists. The entire setting was a mystery, and every chapter something changes, either making less sense, or making more sense in the wrong direction. Even the final chapter, after the main conflict was all over, was a twist simply through the writing (you'll have to read it; I won't spoil it). The point is, I loved those books. Nothing was certain, there were twists everywhere, and I loved it. However, I realize that might not apply to all people. Question: Is there anything wrong with including a large number of twists? I realize twists aren't for everybody. I know that. What I'm wondering is if there are any actual red flags concerning the number of twists to include. <Q> Readers of popular fiction (usually) want a clear protagonist, a clear goal, and a clear path of the protagonist to that goal. <S> Readers also want the protagonist to struggle for his goal, so that when he achieves it, this achievement will feel deserved and satisfying to the reader. <S> So twists are a good thing. <S> But when the protagonist no longer progresses towards his goal but is stuck in an endless succession of twists that keep him from achieving anything at all; or when we read more about the characters that cause the twists than about who we thought was the protagonist; or when we no longer know what end the novel aims for – then you are overdoing it with twists. <S> In the end, every twist must only distract the hero for a certain time and then help him forward. <S> After a twist, the hero mustn't return to where he was before, but "solving" or "overcoming" the twist must provide him with a means to progress, either toward his goal or in his development as a person (which in turn helps him toward his goal). <S> I assume you write popular fiction for my answer. <S> In literary or experimental writing there are no rules or conventions. <A> No. <S> Simple answer. <S> If it makes sense to the reader and people want to read on, do what you want with the plot. <S> Twists can add a great deal to a novel. <S> If you can keep thinking of them and the reader believes in them, include them. <S> Of course people have different preferences, but does a reader want to know exactly what is going to happen, or does he/she want to be surprised? <A> A common and simple way of thinking of plot is as tension rising towards a climax, where events take a turn (or "twist") and the action falls towards the resolution: <S> Usually stories in long novels aren't that simple and do not have only one "twist" or climax or turning point, but rather a series of complications (or "twists"): <S> At each of these turning points (or "twists"), it seems as if the protagonist has resolved his problem and reached his goal and the climax of the story is over, only to be thwarted by the antagonist again, and each time the drop and desparation of the protagonist is deeper and the stakes rise higher and higher, until finally he or she overcomes the antagonist completely. <S> A clear and well-executed example of this structure is Mission Impossible 3 .
| The purpose of twists is to increase the hero's struggle, to raise the suspense, and to make the story generally less predictable and boring.
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What do you call someone who is neither/both an antagonist and a protagonist? In the story I'm writing, I want to include a character who is a free radical. At some points she helps the main group and at some points she hinders them. She may even end up joining the main group if events lead to it. So my question is, since she isn't really entirely an antagonist nor a protagonist, is there a third category that she would fall in? <Q> In classical theory, this character is known as the trickster. <S> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster <S> They are the chaotic character. <S> They create problem for the protagonist because they cannot be relied on, but nor are the necessarily an enemy. <A> This is best described as a Supporting Character, because they are neither good, nor bad. <S> They simply quote "support the story line" <A> I think that the answer depends on whether this is a, or the, main character in the story. <S> The main character or main plot-driving character is the protagonist. <S> Someone who opposes their goals is an antagonist--and often there is a "the antagonist" vibe, where the primary character opposing the protagonist is "the" antagonist. <S> Now, it's not always this neat. <S> Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure , for example, arguably has two protagonists. <S> In the 1993 The Fugitive , Tommy Lee Jones' character is arguably the antagonist, except toward the end he turns around <S> and he's helpful. <S> In The Great Gatsby , the main plot-driving character, Gatsby, is separate from the character that we identify with, Nick Carraway. <S> And so on. <A> I think this would count as Deuteragonist. <S> Not the main character, but not a complete antagonist. <S> The biggest example for these are sidekicks and allies, but they don’t have to be helping the protagonist always. <A> I would consider them somewhat of a contagonist as described in Dramatica. <S> The contagonist doesn't necessarily help the contagonist but they do hinder and interact with protagonist. <A> Anybody who’s “poly-tagonistic” in a sense, in my opinion, is simply human. <S> We all battle our whole lives attempting to discern right from wrong. <S> And if you aren’t, then you’re most likely a nihilist. <S> It’s the Tony Stark method. <S> Anti-hero!An individual who desires to be a savior, unknowingly creates all his worst fears that he manages to physically manifest, forcing him to become,”the hero”A lot like our government.
| Nevertheless, I think that the designation of protagonist/antagonist depends on who the main plot-driving character is, whether the character you're trying to classify tends to champion or sabotage their goals, and how important that character is.
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Should an author have one website or two? I have seen that sometimes an author will have one website with a lot of content and a separate website that does nothing but offer the book(s) for sale. What are the advantages of this approach? What are the advantages of having only one website, and offering the book for sale directly on that website (which would have supporting articles, perhaps some unrelated content, perhaps some interactive features, more detail about the author, and perhaps some sections from the book(s) to whet the reader's appetite)? <Q> Often the author website is the author's own, managed by themselves. <S> It is a place where the author blogs their private opinion, portraits themselves as a person, often with a glimpse into their private lives, and presents their œuvre. <S> Even when the author website is managed by the publisher, the purpose of the author website is to provide a hub for all information surrounding an author. <S> The book websites are part of the publisher's marketing strategy for that book. <S> They often have a crunch page to convert visits to sales. <S> Everything on a book website is designed to make the visitor click the buy button. <A> You should include free info related to the subject of the book. <S> This is to build a following/traffic/list for the book. <S> You should also be promoting the sale of the book at every appropriate opportunity. <S> By all means include author information. <S> When you have a second book (or if you have more than one) you should have a separate site for each book AND a separate author site. <S> On the author site you should, among the normal author info, include a list and description/sale copy for each book with a link to that book's site. <S> Can this all be done on one site: <S> YES <S> but I prefer the multi-site version which provides better search engine optimization possibilities, especially if your books are focused on different keyword phrases. <S> Although your books may be related in some manner, the specific, "long-tail" keyword phrases are likely to be different and therefore give you better search engine visibility. <A> I have four. <S> I now profoundly wish I only had one. <S> The idea of a "site" is now becoming moribund anyway. <S> The essence of a "site" is a home page, but the importance of the home page is diminishing every year simply because, across the board, home pages get less and less traffic each year. <S> People navigate the web using search and by following links in social media. <S> No one types a URL into a browser anymore. <S> Thus people go straight to the page of interest, not to the "site". <S> Having multiple sites, therefore, is just a maintenance headache and expense that is unlikely to do you any good.
| If you only have one book you've authored, it's best to just have the one site based on that book.
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How can I gradually grow the romance between the two main characters? What are some ways to increase the romance between two stubborn, but very different characters? Thank you! <Q> The best advice I've ever heard about building romantic/sexual tension is to start it from the get-go. <S> The moment your characters meet, there should be a certain je ne sais quoi that unconsciously pulls them towards each other. <S> Even if they are stubborn or in denial about their feelings, people in general have a way of revealing their true emotions without even realizing it. <S> A touch here, a teasing comment there, a moment of absolute forgetfulness when your heroine stops to notice the hero's hair blowing in the wind... <S> Little things like this should snowball throughout the story until neither character can deny their attraction any longer. <S> Just be sure to take it at your characters' pace, and remember that a good love story is one that grows organically between your hero and heroine :) <A> Romance in books is as diverse as real life, there's no one way about it. <S> Try imagining your question in terms of a vacation, you can go on a lot of vacations, all vacations are different, you can go to the same vacation but experience it differently, and you can have different ways of experiencing or going to that vacation in the first place. <S> Ask yourself these questions: <S> What is the end goal of the protagonist? <S> Do they want to save the world like James Bond? <S> Do they want to rediscover themselves? <S> Or is the objective just to 'get the girl/guy'? <S> How would these two characters being in a relationship help the protagonist in reaching their goal? <S> Remember that the story you're writing needs to be focused on this goal, not following it leads to tangents or confusion with the audience, if the romance doesn't add anything, it might be better off not having it. <S> Typically by answering these two, you will find that you can come up with a reason to have a romance in the first place, which is something a lot of authors forget - plugging romance 'just because'. <S> If the character is looking to save the world, the reasoning behind having that relationship is that she has some secret key to solving his problem. <S> If the character is struggling with anxiety, then perhaps the romance revolves around trying to break this anxiety. <S> Once you solve the core root of the romance, you will be able to figure out a path. <S> When writing, I find its better to pick two points and draw a line (that can go everywhere as long as they meet up) rather than draw a single point, and try to find a point to stop at. <A> They could tease each other, and outside people, and maybe the characters themselves, might think they don't fit well together. <S> Behind the unfriendliness and envy they could feel some devotion. <S> They try to compete with each other. <S> After a while they start to copy behavior. <S> Later, one of the persons can solve a mishap only with the help from the other person. <S> Now the teasing changes to open devotion.
| Character bonding typically occurs when there's a reason for it however, I would highly suggest against just throwing two characters together just for the hell of it - unless you're writing fanfiction or a romance - however even in these cases, romance has an objective that leads the story.
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How can I keep my dialogue nuanced and informal without breaking the illusion that the story is a translation (from a fictional language)? The story I'm writing is in English, but it's set in a constructed world with a range of different languages. The general conceit is that anything the viewpoint character (of which there's more than one, with more than one language) understands is portrayed in English. The trouble with this is that many of my characters speak in a fairly informal way (in a "less formal register" of their own languages). Intuitively, I've represented this through the use of somewhat informal English. So, these characters say things like 'y'know?' and 'alright', and 'yeah'. These phrases are also used in different ways by different characters, helping (I hope) to give a clearer picture of the sort of people these characters are. My concern is that these specific phrases are unlikely to be directly translatable in the fictional language, and so by using them in the "translated" final text, I'm misrepresenting what my characters "actually" said. I also find it a little jarring when English idioms turn up in translated versions of non-English novels. I find myself diverted into trying to guess what the original phrase was, and my immersion in the story is broken. I'm concerned that my fictional translations will have a similar effect on the reader. I'm torn, then, between using phrases which break realism (but add nuance to the characters and how they relate to their culture) and not using these phrases (and losing those nuances). Another possibility I've considered is to do direct translations of the phrases they would more likely have used, but since these will only be meaningful when the reader is already familiar with them, I'm concerned that I'll need to do a lot of setting up (and the reader will have to do a lot of adjusting) before this can even begin to express the subtleties that the English equivalents can. Are these my only three choices? If so, are they really as problematic as I think they are, or am I overthinking this? If not, what should I do instead? <Q> When writing fantasy or any form of fiction that exists in a world vastly different from ours, try to imagine the text you're writing as a translation. <S> Yes, even for your own main character. <S> Remember that you're writing in the perspective of your main character. <S> If your character can't understand something, then the reader shouldn't either, unless you're going for an omnipresent narrator. <S> For example, if you're writing for an audience of Americans, a foreign language can use stereotypes London-English, using terms such as 'Oi' or 'Ey?' <S> scattered to vary the language. <S> You can also study certain language patterns done by various English dialects or how different cultures speak English. <S> For example, a first language Chinese speaking person will have a widely different speech pattern than a native English speaker. <S> In general, if a character is speaking another language - you should keep in mind that the Main Character needs to be able to understand it. <S> Since this is a translation, you can use quirks or simply introduce that the character is speaking a different language. <S> The first thing he heard when he entered the bar was the distinctive dialect of a Native Klangton. <S> "Oi, what do ya think yer doing with that?" <S> As long as the Main Character has an understanding of the text, assume it was translated in the process - like a biography of the events. <A> Basically, you want your choices to call as little attention to themselves as possible. <S> The best way to do that, under the circumstances, is probably just to "dial it back." <S> In other words, write the bulk of the story in "vanilla" English, and then sprinkle a few invented terms and/or idioms in, to show it's not really English, and a few slang terms, or instances of deliberately poor grammar, to show it's informal. <S> If you hint at these things, your reader will fill in the rest automatically, as opposed to if you hit them over the head with it in every sentence. <S> The theory behind this is to remember that the actual word choice is just an avenue to conveying the meaning, and that realism isn't a matter of duplicating reality, but simulating it. <A> In addition to what Chris Sunami said, I would point out that a scene is a lens, not a window. <S> A great scene works by focusing your attention on just one thing. <S> You can have many different things going on in a story, but in each scene you want the focus to be on just one thing. <S> All you have is words, and words line up one after another. <S> There is no foreground background in prose. <S> If you try to have multiple things going on at once, what the reader actually receives is a narrative full of context switches. <S> The effect is not rich, it is distracting. <S> It does not immerse the reader, it expels them from the scene. <S> Any tricks of language in a passage of dialogue, therefore, draw attention away from what is being said. <S> In some cases, they may be part and parcel of what is actually being said. <S> How certain characters speak is indivisible from how you interpret what they are saying. <S> But there is a limit to what you can convey synchronously through a single stream of prose. <S> A light touch is essential. <S> And, as I seem to keep saying a lot, setup is essential. <S> Because you can only describe one thing at a time, any complexity in the reader's reception of a scene depends on the setup you have done. <S> If a character's diction has to be decoded in a particular scene, make sure that you have decoded it already so that the reader recognizes it in content rather than being distracted by having to decode it in the moment. <A> Translator's footnote. <S> * <S> [Translator's note]: Dargo was using a heavy Tuvelarian accent, characteristic to the small, isolated rural settlements of Tuvelar. <S> To reflect this, I'm using the Texan country accent in my translation, considering many cultural parallels between the two regions. <A> I am an American English speaker, I have a few friends who speak New Zealand English, British English, and Scottish English. <S> For the most part, we can talk easily without issues but every once in a while, they will say a phrase or a sequence of words that I just go... <S> eh.. <S> WHAT? <S> I will ask them to rephrase what they just said and they will clarify, some times the clarification helps other times I am still lost. <S> Point being that, certain phrases that are cultural specific won't be understood by the other. <S> You could turn it into a comedy and make them joke at each others "weird way of saying certain phrases" or you can make them curious about cross cultural things and learn about each others sayings. <S> We have many chinese proverbs in the english culture.
| If you want to differentiate each language, add certain quirks that we can relate to other languages in our world.
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How do you write dialog for a character with malapropism without it seeming forced? I have a character who has a tendency towards malapropism but I find that in every sentence she speaks I am re-reading it and finding words to replace. ie. ( actual - translation ) "Inquisition, should we dispute a miko for this? If their mummy can provide a guessing the moral of the heights will be increased." - Inquiry, should we recruit a miko for this? If their kami can provide a blessing the moral of the knights will be increased. . "Keep moving to your assigned vocations and repair the final push." - Keep moving to your assigned locations and prepare the final push. . "If you persist I'll have the sane as our dandy, with less built." - If you insist I'll have the same as our lady, with less milk. And when I re-read them I am thinking whether I am forcing it too much rather than making it seem natural for the character. So how do you write dialog for a character with malapropism without it seeming forced? <Q> If you think it sounds forced, it's probably forced. <S> Try reading your writing out loud to yourself - it can really help you find knots in the flow of dialogue. <S> Thoughts on how to fix this: <S> The words you're replacing them with don't seem similar enough. <S> I.e, milk into built is a really far stretch to me. <S> Inquisition to inquiry, too - since the syllables don't match. <S> (As best I can tell, all the examples of malapropism I've seen had words of similar lengths.) <S> Too many per a sentence. <S> I'm saying this because - without the translations - I can't make heads or tails of what the sentences are supposed to mean. <S> Most examples of real malapropism seem so close to being right that it often takes me a moment to spot the wrong word. <S> Smaller, common words shouldn't be swapped. <S> Again, looking at real-world examples, it usually seems like everything else in the sentence is fine other than one or two 'trouble' words - words that are either complicated, or harder to pronounce. <S> So in the sentence: <S> "If you persist i'll have the sane as our dandy, with less built" - if you insist i'll have the same as our lady, with less milk <S> I feel like same wouldn't be a word she'd replace, as those aren't the words one usually has to 'think' over. <S> But again, after writing her sentences I'd keeping reading them over to yourself and editing and reading again until you think it sounds natural - in fact, saying the sentence normally and seeing if there are any words you trip or hesitate over might help you find words to replace that you previously hadn't thought of. <S> Fun fact: as a child I always said Jurassic instead of drastic because I thought it was supposed to be pronounced dur-astic. <A> The thing that bothers me in the examples given is that the misworded phrases, quite frankly, make no sense, at least to me. <S> If the translation was not provided, I would never guess, that dandy means lady (the word having exactly the opposite meaning), and built is a substitute for milk . <S> Even if you call milk silk , it would not help, because the phrase is so laden with senseless malaprops, that is starting to sound like a jargon or code, which the reader does not know, and do not understand. <S> And people tend not to read things they do not understand. <S> In order for intentional word substitution to work, it must be clear for the reader, what was the correct word that got butchered. <S> Then it might even have some primitive comic effect: <S> Alrighty, folks, let's excrement with this... <S> Or (this one is from real 2.5-year-old art student): <S> There are two kinds of paintings: extract and reallipstick! <S> Writing a character who talks code undecipherable by anyone but the author is precarious unless that is the whole point of the story (there are mental disorders which make people speak in a similar manner), and he is a key witness to a murder case, whom no one understands. <A> Is this a comedic story or a straightforward/dramatic one? <S> If it's a comedic story, then just run with it, because everything is supposed to be exaggerated. <S> Your characters may not even have to note the malaprops. <S> If it's a straightforward one, then the other characters should notice the slips. <S> If your character speaks frequently in malaprops, you may be editing them out because you subsconsciously know that it's a weird way to speak, and your other characters are behaving as though it's not happening — which doesn't work for a non-comedic story. <S> You can get away with more of this in a dramatic story if English (or whatever you're writing in) is not Mr. Malaprop's first language. <S> You might possibly also be able to do it if Mr. Malaprop himself is aware of it because it happens when he's very nervous (or something similar) and can't stop himself. <S> Then it becomes character development: he knows it's happening, he knows how it sounds, but he can't fix it. <A> It would help, I think, if there were some pattern to the missteps. <S> My wife, for instance, often says the opposite of what she really means. <S> Another real-life pattern is "spoonerism" where the first letters of two words are transposed: "Dine-and-fandy" instead of "fine-and-dandy." <S> Then there's what we might call "Tourette's lite" where the person accidentally inserts inappropriate words into inoffensive sentences --this can have an actual psychological role in the case of a very repressed person. <S> I don't think anyone just swaps out random wrong words <S> --and it makes it impossible to understand. <S> With some pattern, realistic or not, the reader has a hope of figuring it out. <A> My suggestion is: don't write the dialogue with malapropism. <S> (As with any hook, don't overuse this.) <S> Then, if you think you need more cases of it, figure out how regularly her malapropism is going to show up. <S> Go through all of her dialogue and roll a die (or whatever) on every sentence to see if she screws up a word. <S> If she does, change up a word, but also make sure you change the rest of the dialogue to ensure that the reader understands what's going on--maybe have the narrator's text make the meaning clear, or have one of the other characters correct her. <S> This is something that could easily throw the reader off, I think.
| Write all her dialogue (initially) just as normal as the other speakers, with one exception--when you're plotting it out, select a couple of 'hinge' parts of the story where her malapropism is going to have a definite effect on the plot.
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How to use narcissism productively in writing? I write mostly fictions. However, I am an apathetic-type narcissist, which means I cannot understand other people's feelings and thoughts easily, if at all. As a result, all my characters who are not modeled based on myself are dreadfully unconvincing, and even I notice how improbable their motivations and actions are sometimes. However, characters who are built to resemble myself seem pretty well-developed and both reasonable and conflicted in interesting ways. Aside from trying to improve my understanding of others, is there any way I can use narcissism productively in writing beside the character construction of the protagonist? <Q> Absolutely. <S> Write everything from the first-person POV, and state clearly that you do not give a damn about others (that is actually going to be my next writing endeavor), then write a prequel, in which you are five-year-old and describe in details what in the world your parents did to you to make you this way. <S> Then a sequel... <S> Just kidding. <S> The actions of other people are based on logical choice more often than on pure feelings and unhinged emotions. <S> Most people I know would back away from the edge of the rooftop, altruists and sociopaths alike. <S> No one wants to be cold, hungry, and sick, and most of us want to get published and be held in highest regard for our efforts. <S> As for the feelings, you do not have to relate to them to understand them and their origin. <S> You might not share an unconditional love which your crazy cat-lady neighbor exhibits for her 50 stinky cats, but surely there is something you treasure (not necessarily of a feline origin), so you can extrapolate. <S> Observe other people in real life, try to understand why they do things they do, even if you think you cannot be sympathetic and compassionate. <S> Use logic. <S> Many people do. <A> People, I find, write best about what feels familiar to them. <S> I can't relate to your personality, but given the details provided, it might be hard to get to know to know the motivations of others. <S> The advice I normally give is to read authors who write characters similar to how you structure your own, while noting their development and motivations. <S> This, coupled with an intimate understanding of your own characters (through, perhaps ostensibly trite and cliched, writing exercises provided on many writing websites) is usually adequate in creating dynamic characters with clear, tangible desires. <S> In your situation, perhaps staying true to your intuitions is best. <S> Think about <S> , for example, how narcissism causes one to view others. <S> This could be important in how your protagonist characterizes other characters. <S> Narcissism could be used, for example, to call into question the way the protagonist views other characters, or how other characters view the protagonist. <S> Are others in your stories narcissists, or do they loathe them? <S> It'll depend on the point-of-view of the story. <S> The way you describe others might give insight into how your protagonist views others. <S> Hopefully this gives you some direction! <A> Get rid of all those characters. <S> I write novels that only have two characters: the protagonist and his love interest. <S> The protagonist is me, the love interest is not a person but a function of the plot and provides the protagonist with both a motivation for action and an occasion to grow. <S> All other personell is just part of the setting and rarely gets more than a sentence or two. <A> I really doubt that you can. <S> Literature rests fundamentally on the sympathetic observation of human life. <S> Whether you are writing literature or pulp, your success depends on creating convincing characters and without the power of sympathetic observation, I don't see how you achieve that. <S> Writing is in many ways an odd vocation. <S> It requires a high degree of sympathetic observation of human life, and yet its practical demands include long periods of solitary work. <S> A writer must have great sympathy with and keen observation of human beings but also be comfortable with long periods of reflective solitude. <S> Few writers are extroverts. <S> They could not abide the solitude. <S> And yet the writer much have the sympathy and sensitivity of an extrovert. <S> Writing, in short, requires a life live inwardly with a gaze directly outwardly. <S> But narcissism seems to be the exact opposite of this: a life lived outwardly with a gaze directed inwardly. <S> It seems the least apt starting point imaginable. <A> Have you considered using your narcissism to its fullest extent and writing a thriller novel from the psychopaths perspective. <S> The 'protagonist' could be like the Dexter character on TV. <S> He doesn't seem very empathic nor do others find him all that nice, but who cares. <S> He had a hit show (I personally never saw it) <S> so obviously not all protagonists have to be heroes. <S> Professor Moriarty is another great example of a narcissist who in my opinion was more interesting than even Holmes. <S> Why change what is natural for you, embellish it and good luck. <S> Literature needs more bastards we all hate, way too many cardboard heroes already.
| Seems obvious, but it is difficult to master An exercise, as the previous answerer noted, involves observing people and writing your thoughts/impressions/structuring a scene involving these characters and their interactions. What I'm trying to suggest here is that you might utilize the protagonist's narcissism as a framing device.
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Is there a way to improve my grammar without so much cost? I'm definitely poor at English and I always have grammatical errors. After posting a question about what apps can I use to start writing my stories, I searched in this site if how can I improve my grammar, and I came across to this link . English is not really my first language, but I'm desperate to write an English story. But the only problem is, I'm not really so good at English, but that doesn't mean I gave up on my goal. I still want to write an English science-fiction book, but I'm having issues with my grammar. Is there something you can recommend me of how can I improve my grammar? Especially that I'm prone to grammatical errors, I still want to find something that can help me without so much cost. You can even recommend to me if there's a software or app that I can use? Thank you for the help. <Q> I would highly recommend today's high end grammar-checkers (like grammarly which I see 5000 adverts every day for). <S> However, I feel I should make this point: <S> Those spell checkers are useless if you don't understand grammar yourself. <S> You need to understand grammar to make the best use of them. <S> Without an understanding of grammar, they're pretty much useless. <S> They're for checking errors you missed and not for fully fixing incredibly incorrect sentences. <S> You don't need a degree in English grammar to be a writer. <S> Here's what I did. <S> I followed a grammar course online, looked at grammar resources, and identified my own errors. <S> This was the top search result I got Using your new understanding, identify your problem areas. <S> Really hammer down on those areas to ensure that in your next piece of work, you don't make the same mistakes. <S> When editing, carefully look for any grammar mistakes. <S> I hope this helps. <A> Honestly? <S> Just write a lot and have someone ruthlessly criticise your grammar, with explanations of where you went wrong and why. <S> There are a few suitable subs on Reddit where people (like me, who spends a lot of time on /r/fantasywriters) offer critiques for free. <S> EDIT: <S> Try these.. <S> www.reddit.com/r/writers <S> www.reddit.com/r/destructivereaders <S> (probably your best bet) <S> www.reddit.com/r/fantasywriters <S> (sci-fi and fantasy overlap <S> so you should be good to post here) <S> www.reddit.com/r/shutupandwrite <A> <A> Sorry, there is no magical app or button or program which will fix your grammar. <S> If you want to learn how to write better, in any language, the only solution is to practice, have your mistakes corrected by someone else, and then practice some more. <S> Any computerized solution which fixes your mistakes is only feeding you fish — it's not teaching you how to fish for yourself. <A> In person would be great if you can find a class, or a person willing to help you. <S> Do not neglect to consider auditing a class. <S> This is much cheaper than enrolling. <S> At the university in my town, there is a program for matching people up in language pairing. <S> For example, if you speak Farsi, you can help someone learning Farsi to practice, and that person would help you with your English. <S> If there is no program like this where you live, you can put up notices on bulletin boards, especially the public library. <S> Do not neglect the option of free or low-cost English classes for English as a Second Language. <S> You could try your local Literacy Volunteers organization as well. <S> if you want remote interaction, English Language Learners StackExchange is the place for you.
| The best way to get good grammar in writing (in my opinion) is the following: Get an understanding of grammar. A community college Writing Center would a great place to hang out and get help. You may try out Scribophile -- a community, where people review the texts of each other (costs USD 9,-- per month).
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Is it needed to add breaks in a depressive story? I'm writing a somewhat depressive story that has no comic reliefs and no happy scenes/moments (except the ending and one or two in the beginning). The only scenes that aren't sad or negative are the romantic scenes (although it becomes sad when the reader knows the story around it), the action scenes and the neutral ones (neither sad, nor happy). However, I feel that leaving it that way would be so depressive that the reader would become overwhelmed and put it down. So, can a depressive story still be completable without reliefs, or are they necessary for a good story? <Q> I think you should make a very clear distinction between tragedy and futility. <S> Classically literature has recognized both tragedy and comedy as essentially heroic forms. <S> In a tragedy, the hero strives for a goal only to be overcome by opposing forces, or by their own fatal flaw, but still they strive, they follow the heroic path, they try. <S> It is more of a counterpart, a form of irony. <S> It is also very human. <S> We do laugh in the face of danger and despair. <S> As my mother's family liked to say, "you have to laugh <S> or you'd cry. <S> " But the reader does not really need relief in a true tragedy because there is still a heroic arc. <S> Even the tragic hero, the doomed hero, strives as if there were hope, and there is a moral dignity in that that draws us in. <S> The post moderns, however, indulge in something quite different: futility. <S> The do not believe in the heroic hope, in the moral dignity of tragedy. <S> For them life is simply futile, and so they write stories of futility, of unrelenting bleakness and cynicism. <S> Can there be comic relief in such a story? <S> I'm not sure. <S> What would there be to laugh at? <S> If there were comic elements, presumably they would be a comedy as cynical as the despair that drives the whole story. <S> It might be comic, but would it provide relief? <S> Which of these, tragedy and futility, is depressive? <S> Both, perhaps, but in very different ways. <S> In a tragedy we are depressed because hope was not fulfilled in a particular story arc. <S> But this is not a denial of hope. <S> It speaks to its uncertainty, not to it futility. <S> One may come out of tragedy with hope, even with joy, and certainly with an affirmation of the dignity of the human spirit. <S> But with futility there is none of this. <S> Futility is inherently and fundamentally and comprehensively depressing. <S> It discovers no hope, no dignity, no affirmation of anything except futility. <S> The depression of tragedy is relieved by its positive affirmations. <S> The depression of futility is only confirmed by it lack of affirmations. <S> Comedy, I think, can only corroborate the general effect of these two genres. <A> I would say it all depends on your idea of the book. <S> If you want your book to be depressing all the way, then you are good, and your story can be a very good one. <S> However, I personally don't appreciate books like that. <S> Even if your characters are (for example) locked at Nazi concentration camp, there must be something that brightens their day. <S> It could be memories, or plans that they know never going to be fulfilled, or bright bird sitting on a tree - anything would help. <A> Please distinguish between writing for yourself (e.g. a journal) and writing for readers. <S> If you want to writ for readers, then imagine your target readers as you write, and communicate something to them. <S> My first target readers were the members of my book club. <S> You just have to find an imaginary (or real) target reader that makes sense for you.
| To me, a book should have both up and down moments. If there is "comic relief" in a tragedy, it is not really to lighten the mood.
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Software for writing theater-like scenes I do my writing in MS Word. I must incorporate some theater-like scenes into a book. In the theater-like scenes, there will be three to five characters speaking lines. Very, very occasionally a tiny bit of narration. Do I need different software, or maybe a Word plugin? <Q> For what you want to do, script writing, you have several options, paying or free. <S> The best paying software truly specialized is Final draft <S> It is a quite old soft, very well planned and relatively easy to use, but come with a price. <S> For what I know it was at a time a kind of de facto standard in the industry, if that means something. <S> It is also quite an old software now, <S> so you have a certain maturity. <S> I use a pretty old version, never upgraded but when I was using it, it was a fairly decent free version of Final Draft (got some quirks here and there) <S> If you use either LibrOffice or OpenOffice you have a decent plugin <S> Organon <S> that you can find useful. <S> You can also simply use "template" for Microsoft Word, LibrOffice and OpenOffice. <S> They are that said generally more limited than Celtx or FinalDraft. <S> Remind that at the end of the day the tools you are using do not so much matter. <S> What you want is the job done, if you have a pretty good enough mastery of Word doing a script template is a matter of 5 minutes. <S> For writing a whole script (movie or theatre) <S> Final draft/Celtx are certainly profitable but just for occasional stuff, Word is quite powerful. <S> Here is a decent explanation of how to have some script writing function in Word. <A> Another free alternative is Trelby available for Windows and Linux. <S> A free, multiplatform, feature-rich screenwriting program! <S> Trelby is simple, fast and elegantly laid out to make screenwriting simple. <S> It is infinitely configurable. <S> Another paid alternative is Fade <S> In available for multiple platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone/iPad, and Android.) <S> It features support for multiple languages, tools for outlining, organizing, and navigating, plus extensive screenplay formatting and robust functionality for managing rewrites and revisions. <A> I use Scrivener . <S> The key difference to Word is that it allows you to structure your text better. <S> You can divide it in sections and move around, if you want. <S> I started to use it for writing fiction, but now I tend to use it for other documents as well because that structuring makes my thinking clearer and faster. <S> It also has scriptwriting features, but I haven't used them. <S> You may want to download a free trial version and check them for yourself.
| The best free option I am aware of is CeltX
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Are rhymes bad in prose? They are the good in lyrics and poems, but what about prose? An example from my own writing: I fall to the ceramic floor, blood and bile dripping from my lips, my stomach full but my muscles lacking the slightest drop of energy. But that's all right. I don't have to move. I don't have to do anything. Because I'm happy. Because Kazuo and I will be one from now on. We will be together . Wholly. Forever . <Q> What rhymes? <S> None stand out in that piece. <S> Prose is full of words that rhyme with each other, but you only notice when they occur in the same rhythmic position, as they do in poetry. <S> It takes rhythm to make rhyme. <S> EDIT: <S> To demonstrate what I mean, since Neil disagrees: <S> Old <S> Mrs Smith went to the post office and sent her nephew letter. <S> There are two pairs of words that rhyme in this sentence. <S> went/sent and letter/her. <S> You are highly unlikely to notice either one of them because nothing calls your attention to them. <S> Old <S> Mrs Smith to the post office went <S> And to her nephew a letter she sent <S> Put the same thought into verse, however, and the rhyme jumps out at you because the rhythm throws it in your face. <S> There are all kinds of rhyming pairs scattered through ordinary prose. <S> They don't surface as rhymes until something in the rhythm of the piece pairs them up. <S> Note some other pairs in this post that you did not notice reading it, and I did not notice writing it: <S> surface/piece, notice/office, <S> what/ <S> that/at, none/one, stand/and, words/kinds, with/Smith, <S> other/either, highly/unlikely, nothing/rhyming/something/writing/reading. <A> If the rhyming distracts the reader such that it detracts from the story, then it's not a good use. <S> As with other literary devices, used in moderation and with intention, rhyming can be used to give import to a particular line. <S> "We will be together. <S> Forever. <S> " <S> Too much can seem silly. <S> "I explained the strain sprain I received on the lane, again." <A> Are rhymes bad in prose? <S> Sometimes yes, it depends on the prose and the rhyme and how it's used. <S> Poetic devices like rhyming and alliteration can be used in prose <S> but it's not at all easy to do well. <S> The rhymes here, "together" and "forever" are noticeable, and I think they do the piece a disservice. <S> I'd simply remove the last two words. <S> I disagree with Mark's answer : Rhyme exists whether or not there's rhythm. <S> It's just not nearly as noticeable in prose, and readers are seeing it out of context. <S> (It's also worth noting that poetry doesn't have to rhyme.) <S> You've written a potentially powerful paragraph, but then end it with "We will be together. / <S> Wholly. <S> Forever. <S> " <S> All of a sudden we're getting into something that reads to me like something you'd put on a greeting card or that a high school kid would write in an awkward love poem. <S> I'd just stick with words that move the story forward. <S> The imagery here is powerful, there's no need to bookmark it with a rhyme. <A> First of all, congratulations. <S> That's an interesting piece of prose. <S> Secondly, yeah, rhyme can improve the quality of prose, because it gives it a sense of finality and emphasis. <S> However, this must be kept as minimal as possible and only used whenever necessary. <S> It will come out best if it seems unintended, as if the words just happened to rhyme, without the writer trying too hard. <S> All the best!! <A> As @MarkBaker said, there are lots of "accidental" rhymes in prose that no one notices. <S> But if you structure your prose to call attention to a rhyme, I think in practice it's not prose any more, it's poetry. <S> Maybe a very short snippet of poetry, but poetry. <S> Or at least, I think that's how the reader will perceive it. <S> So the question becomes, When is it appropriate to include poetry in your story? <S> To which the answer would be, If it's the sort of thing that people write poetry about. <S> If two characters are describing how to repair diesel engines, and one of them lapses into poetry with no explanation, this would be very strange and probably ludicrous. <S> (If you had just been explaining how the one character is totally fascinated by diesel engines and loves diesel engines more than he loves his wife and children and so on, it might work that he is writing poems about diesel engines. <S> But that's a pretty far out case.) <S> If a man is talking about how he just met the most beautiful girl in the world <S> and he is swept off his feet <S> and then he makes up a couple of lines of poetry about her, it could work, if you do it well. <S> The example you gave ... <S> I don't know. <S> "Together forever" is a commonly used rhyme, you see it on jewelry and greeting cards a lot, kind of a cliche, so it might work. <S> Or if as this guy is dying he makes up a couple of poetic lines about his girlfriend (or whatever is going on here), that could work if you do it well. <S> I don't think your example is bad. <S> I just don't know that it adds much. <S> (I am reminded of a book I read years ago, "The Blue Adept", where a character is unaware that he has acquired magic powers that are exercised by casting spells in rhyme. <S> And so he accidentally causes strange things to happen every time he inadvertently says words that rhyme. <S> Like one time he casually says, "It has somewhat the form of an electrical storm. <S> " I thought that was a pretty clever plot device.)
| If the rhyming in some way adds to the story, then it's a good use. Rhyming in prose is neither inherently bad nor inherently good.
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Is 'temping' a culture-specific term? I have a character working in a short-term temporary position in an organisation and refer to her doing the work using the usual UK word, 'temping'. Will this be understood by readers in the US and other English-speaking cultures? If not, is there an equivalent culture-neutral term or should I spell it out? <Q> I believe the word "temping" is culturally-specific, but not along national lines of culture. <S> An American with experience in corporate environments where temps are common would know the word. <S> A Brit without that corporate experience might not. <S> In either case, the word is pretty self-explanatory. <S> I would use it without hesitation in anything I wrote. <A> All slang is culturally specific. <S> The meaning of most of it can be figured out by context though. <S> Certainly "temping" falls into that category. <S> But vocabulary recognition simply does not happen on a word by word basis. <S> It happens in the context of the story being told. <S> As kids, we pick up new words all the time, not from having them defined for us, but from hearing them used in context and seeing what they mean and how they are used. <S> (This is why learning to speak a second language idiomatically from a book or in a classroom is so difficult. <S> We don't get to see use in context.) <S> You can make up entirely new slang and just use it in context <S> and if you set the context right, the reader will pick up its meaning. <A> Why not be safe? <S> Explain the term the first time you use it. <S> E.g. Joan was working in a temporary position. <S> She hated temping. <S> Something like this doesn't feel strange to those that know the word, and it helps those who don't. <S> The question, always, is who you write for. <S> If you want to reach the widest possible audience, avoid jargon and slang, or explain it. <S> And, please, don't think that because a handful of other writers here on this site know or understand that word, the common reader will, too. <S> If you want a useful answer to your question, you need to sample your target audience. <A> We have Temp Agencies in America, that, as their name implies, find temporary work for people. <S> " I first heard the word in ordinary conversation when a friend referred to an acquaintance as a temp. <S> So I recognized the verb "temping" immediately. <S> However, I'd never heard "temp" used as a verb, so out of curiosity, I did a google search to see if "temping" as a verb occurs in American English. <S> Yes, it does. <S> Here's an American article that came up: http://www.bestessaywriters.com/essay/the-temptations-of-temping/ <S> I also found "temping" in this online American dictionary: <S> http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/temp_2 <S> (Underneath the definition, the user can click on "See the British English Definition", which in this case was the same as the American definition.) <S> So, I'd say you're safe to use it for your American readers. <S> Perhaps you can do a country-specific search to determine if it exists in other English-speaking countries.
| The people who work in temporary positions are referred to as "temps.
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What are the pros/cons of writing in English in a non-English country? I live in a country that doesn't have English as its main language. I have two choices in writing, either write in my mother language or write in English. Why should or shouldn't I write in English? My first few thoughts were: Do publishers often publish works that are not in that country's language? More people speak English, so one would assume you have a bigger audience in English. But, it is also logical that it is easier to connect to people in the same language and it will gain readers faster. Of course, language skills are also an issue. What level of English would be acceptable (and editable) for publishers? Where would they draw the line and say, no, this is too awful? Is it possible to publish a book in a country you don't live in, but it's an English-speaking country and so better suited for an English book? How do publishers address this? Do they pay attention to country when getting a manuscript? So, to summarize, I think it would be a good idea to generate a list of pros and cons so people thinking about writing in English instead of their main language can read it and make a better decision. <Q> Personally, I find that one of the biggest downfalls in writing is worrying about your audience too much. <S> You will eventually build everything around trying to appease your readers, making the story you're writing seem stale and boring to yourself. <S> Or, you will lose yourself in fixing tiny unnecessary details to try to make a masterpiece. <S> If you're deciding on what language you want to write in, consider these two questions; What are you most comfortable writing in? <S> What language do you read the most in? <S> Experience in reading in a certain language will play heavily into how well you write, however I will still prioritise what you feel the most comfortable writing in. <S> After all, if your writing is good enough to be read in one language - it can be easily translated to a multitude of others. <A> What do you want to achieve with your writing? <S> One answer is to spread a universal (useful to all people on Earth) message to as many people as possible. <S> Then you can write in English. <S> If you want to change your particular society , then you can write in your mother tongue. <S> If you like a particular genre and want to have fun writing in it, write in the language of the works you like most. <S> If you want to write to have fun (and you are not willing to work like a prisoner in a concentration camp to perfect your skills), write in whatever language you are most comfortable in. <S> If you want to write to preserve your language from dying, then you can write in your mother tongue. <S> If you want to earn as much money as possible , write in English. <S> If you want to write poetry , I'm not sure you have an option. <S> There are several successful prose writers, who weren't native English speakers. <S> I'm not sure there are any significant poets, who wrote in English and weren't native speakers (correct me, if I'm wrong). <S> If several of the aforementioned motives apply to you, you may write in both languages. <S> There are skills (characterization, plotting, worldbuilding), which are language-agnostic. <A> There are separate aspects to this question: writing, publishing and finding success as a writer. <S> The answer would be different depending on which aspect we have in mind. <S> If the question is only about writing, then I agree with other answers - write in language that you like. <S> If it's not your native language, there are many ways to improve. <S> If the question is about publishing, then English may not be a good choice for you. <S> If you want to get published in your country, look around and see how many books in English by local authors are already published. <S> Publishing in English-speaking country may be more fruitful, but then it's a whole new topic <S> "How do I find a publisher in different country". <S> You can always spend some money and self-publish and/or e-publish, if you like. <S> If the question is about finding success with readers, that's probably the most difficult one. <S> First, in my opinion, you should love to write. <S> If you don't love to write in your native language, then don't do it. <S> Second is the quality of writing, and this is where native language normally has a big advantage. <S> Should you go ahead and write in English, make sure you have a test audience that would read your writing and criticize you. <S> Publishing will come third (see the paragraph above). <S> And if all 3 steps are good, then you should find your success!
| You should write in whatever language you are most comfortable with.
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Writing a story online I've been wondering, is there any outlets available that allow you to publish a book online in a similar format as Webcomics? A sort of, 'Webnovel'? Is there any appropriate name for this, where you release a chapter every week or so? Edit: I've found a term that may be relevant: Serial Novel. <Q> It is called a blog. <S> Many authors have serialized novels in their blogs, sometimes between other posts, sometimes on a blog dedicated to the novel alone. <S> Before blog software existed, authors used to create a page on their website and add new chapters at the end. <S> This is no longer common. <S> When you set up a blog, you have two options to sort the chapters or updates: from newest to oldest (so that visitors see what is new) or from oldest to newest <S> (so that visitors can easily find the beginning), and some blog software allows the visitor to choose the sorting. <S> The software behind this is usually also a blog software such as Wordpress. <S> What magazines there are in your genre, language, and country, I do not know. <A> Wattpad works. <S> It's a website that will allow you to publish online and read other users' books, too. <S> That's what I use. <S> I haven't actually heard of any other website like that... <S> Hope I could help! <A> There's FanFiction or FimFiction <S> (if it's set in someone else's work) or FictionPress if it's an original piece. <S> Wattpad and a personal blog have been mentioned, but there are also the collection of NaNoWriMo <S> (National November Writer's Month) sites out there, and plenty of other sites available. <S> I, personally, use FanFiction to sharpen my writing skills and have people read my work. <S> It's a very active site, and there are plenty of writers there willing to offer feedback. <S> There is also a 'beta finder' of sorts, but I personally wouldn't use it (most never update their information, or simply never get back to you). <S> I've had quite a few writers trying to entice me to join them in the NaNoWriMo competitions, and as I understand it there are some groups that are super active and supportive within that circle. <S> I have no personal experience there, so I will not act as if I do. <S> There's also Google Docs, where you can place the story online and share a link with whomever you want. <S> I'm sure there are other more private options as well, but none I can think of off the top of my head. <S> If that isn't what you're looking for, you might want to google around, see what other options there are. <S> This is the internet, there's always another way. <A> I use Wattpad for posting samples and excerpts, but it is a dedicated writing sharing platform, which allows you post full-length works as well with no limits, and it is modern-looking, feature-rich, and free. <S> If you want more control over your work (who sees it, can comment on it, etc.) <S> you might want to explore a blog option per @what's suggestion. <S> There are free options as well.
| If you don't want to manage your own blog, there are also literary online magazines that publish many authors.
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How do you write a character that HATES being born into a well-off family? We've seen this character archetype before: A character despises being born into a well-off family. ("Well-off" can range from rich-to-anywhere-on-the-middle-class-spectrum, regardless of whether or not their family has committed any atrocities against lower social/economic classes.) If successfully pulled off, the character will feel fresh, realistic, and open up the reader's mind to a whole new way of thinking. However... most characters within this archetype end up sounding like spoiled angsty brats. My Question: How do I write this character archetype without making the character seem like a spoiled, overprivileged brat? <Q> Show, don't tell . <S> Simply show the reason. <S> A nice girlfriend leaving him after others started calling her gold-digger and money-whore. <S> False friends who are there to mooch money and bask in glory of "being pals with the rich guy". <S> Getting accused of buying his way into some elite group while he worked hard to get there. <S> Getting blackmailed for money. <S> Getting a close person killed through an expensive gift (sports car, paraglider). <S> Parents expecting him to "live up to his status and not mix with the rabble" depriving him of actual friends and throwing him between vain idiots. <S> Generally think of whatever curses the financial fortune can bring upon him, show them - then show his behavior afterwards - and then let the reader draw the conclusions without ever telling a word about his personal feelings. <A> Give them a reason to despise their wealth. <S> If they just flip a switch one day and decide that having money is the pits, the reader will have a hard time, not only relating to them, but believing them. <S> Which will give them that spoiled air. <S> Perhaps they've seen the world outside of their little bubble (By choice... like maybe volunteering at a homeless shelter, or taking day labor work, or by circumstance... <S> maybe they're in an accident while away from home / country and have to 'Rough it' to get back), and now they are having a hard time relating to the lifestyle they've taken for granted before this point. <A> We hate those things that keep us from the things we love. <S> To write hatred simply as hatred, therefore, is never convincing. <S> You have to start with love, and the thing that keeps that character from the things they love, or that harms the things they love. <S> Then their hate makes sense. <S> We have to save the old dance hall/beach/donut shop/park from the evil developer who turns out (shock twist!) <S> to be the heroine's father. <S> Cue the dance number! <A> Sometimes it's a lot more low-key. <S> Your main character may just not like how it makes them an outsider. <S> Going skiing with your family is fun, you have a good time, and then you come back to school <S> and everyone's talking about their winter break. <S> So-and-so played a video game and you all laugh at their anecdote about a particularly gruesome death <S> , your best friend stayed at their grandmother's and you all nod appropriately about how family is good in small doses. <S> When you talk about a spectacular fall on a black run, you can sort of see the disconnect in their brains. <S> They don't relate to you. <S> You are an outsider. <S> You seem like you're bragging, even though you're just trying to tell a funny story. <S> Little things build up. <S> You discover your friends are uncomfortable inviting you to their house because it's smaller than yours. <S> They turn down a dinner invitation because they can't afford it, and suddenly you have to constantly question yourself every time you hang out. <S> Would it be appropriate to ask them to spend their money? <S> If you offer to pay for them, it hurts their pride, and creates another rift. <S> Even if you don't flaunt your wealth, and you're not oblivious to the real world, a coworker might resent you, because you didn't have to work through college. <S> Your character doesn't need to be angry, they don't need to be angsty, they don't need to be spoiled. <S> They just need to be uncomfortable with the fact that they are more well off than the people around them. <S> Hesitate a second more whenever money comes up, not because they can't afford something, but because they can, and they aren't sure if they should or not. <A> Decide whether it's the wealth and comfort of the family which they dislike, or their family which they don't click with. <S> The former scenario would alienate a lot of your readers unless you got it spot on - you're bordering on "poor little rich me" territory here which has far too many cliches already. <S> The latter conflict is much more relatable and you can use the family's precious prestige as the protagonist's foil. <A> First, you create a character that thinks and acts like a non-well off person from a poor or middle class background (adopts their values, hangs around with such people, etc., even though s/he can afford "better." <S> Then you have intrusions by people from the person's blood family who feel like some unwelcome, half-forgotten distant relatives, except that these people are parents and/or siblings. <S> And, of course, when the person dates, it will be someone the family looks down their noses on, but someone who has obvious "non-wealthy" virtues that the audience can relate to. <S> And so you have the audience rooting for your hero/ine against their rich, spoiled relatives. <S> Because "rich and spoiled" (especially the latter) is something your main character clearly is not. <A> Make your protagonist a good person who comes into conflict with his upbringing at all and only the places where it acts against his own moral standards, rather than one who has a knee-jerk reaction against his family. <S> In other words, he's acting in reaction against the corrupting effects of wealth on his family, rather than directly against his family himself. <A> If the character's family is unpleasant enough, the reader will typically side with the protagonist that divorces them. <S> In your case, the unpleasantness needs to be intrinsically tied to the wealth - so that if the character chooses to not participate in their share of the family wealth (think of how many of their friends they could help this way) it's because it comes with so many strings attached that even the protagonist's friends understand it's just not worth it.
| If a character hates being a member of a wealthy family, it is because that family, or its wealth, or its responsibilities, keep them from something they love, or harms the thing they love.
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Is there a template for how to write a movie summarization? Is there an official or de facto standard for how to write a movie summarization for an encyclopedia, magazine, newspaper or other kind of media? For instance, are there widespread templates, recommendations or rules of thumb? Is there a difference to summarizations of books or stage plays? Which elements have to be included, which can stay unmentioned? Does the text have to have an internal division in which sequence to tell what? To what degree are additional trivia like infos about the playwright, actors, pop cultural meaning, influences, technical aspects or a personal statement worth mentioning? <Q> No there's no such thing. <S> You'd write something very different if it was for the back of a DVD then if it was for film review. <S> In general I'd follow the rules that dictate how to write a proper synopsis. <S> So that means that you'd establish a setting, a protagonist, imply an emotional arc, touch on some of the major set-pieces in the film and provide some context on the production of the film itself. <A> By their very nature, such templates tend to be specific to individual publications. <S> For example, the general shape of a recipe is universal and well known, but the details like whether to include a picture or a wine match, or substitutes for key ingredients, or a list of nutritional values, are specific to individual publications and to their business model and the market they serve. <S> Non-fiction should almost always be written for a specific publication. <S> You don't write the piece and then try to sell it. <S> You sell the idea of the piece and then follow the publication's guidelines for how to write it. <A> There may well be such guidelines but they'd probably be publication-specific and situation-dependent. <S> They'd also have to be developed ahead of time. <S> For example, an encyclopedia would have only a certain amount of space available for entries, and might even have guidelines about entry length. <S> The format of a synopsis in film review would be determined by the reviewer, but the publication's editor would certainly have feedback. <S> Are you writing for a publication that focuses on actors? <S> On special effects? <S> On the design? <S> Does the review talk about, say, the cinematography? <S> The dialogue? <S> If so, then mentioning the cinematographer and the script writer makes sense. <S> Otherwise, perhaps leave them out; but some publications might want to use a capsule summary to give credit to people who otherwise might not be mentioned.
| It depends on the medium you are writing for.
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How do I turn a premise into a story? My brain is probably just broken, but it has a question. It tends to invent odd scenarios that become quite interesting. It also knows that the story will only be interesting to others if it has characters and they do stuff... but it doesn't want to do that work. For example, it seems like it would be interesting if a guy in jail was confessing to something he did as a kid that got him going down the wrong path, say... tricking Santa Claus into giving him a certain kind of present that he knew would slow Santa Down. This enabled him to catch Santa, which was fun, but also got him into lots of trouble. Seems like a funny scenario. But my brain doesn't really create characters very well, and even when it creates them, it doesn't have them do interesting things. In the Santa case, it might be funny if the kid took Santa hostage and made the reindeer do funny things. But then Rudolph (with his nose so bright) pretends to be a police car outside, and the kid surrenders. While my brain can see the scenario, it doesn't do well at inhabiting the scenario and seeing what characters are doing. Don't even get me started on high-level story arcs. Anyway, if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them. So would my brain. :) <Q> "But my brain doesn't really create characters very well. <S> " <S> Mine doesn't either. <S> Try creating characters on the page instead of in your head. <S> Just write a scene where the kid does something. <S> You might find that the kid does or says something that surprises you. <S> The character now has a trait. <S> Write another scene and keep that trait. <S> See what emerges next. <S> Rewrite a scene. <S> Write a new one and introduce another character. <S> Tweak the characters, their traits, needs, prejudices. <S> This is exploratory writing. <S> Maybe none of this will make it into your final draft, but that's okay. <S> You're discovering who your characters are at this point. <S> This is the fun stuff. <S> Enjoy. <A> This scenario seems to be character-based to me. <S> You may not yet have developed your characters "fully", but that could come through actual writing and a bit of outlining. <S> It seems that you have simply had an idea, but yet to create it. <S> Have you tried turning your "odd scenarios" into actual writing and not just summaries of "a situation"? <S> It may help. <S> You may, as you write, naturally stumble upon background information about how/why the guy would end up wanting to hold santa hostage (childhood trauma, bad manners, loneliness?) <S> and this, among other things, may shape your character going forward as well. <S> How was he sentenced to go to prison? <S> what was his trial like? <S> Were there any trouble determining if an actual crime was committed based on the "is santa real?" question? <S> Depending on the mood you create, this could develop into a comedy or maybe a psychological thriller based on delusions - just brainstorming.. <S> Most likely, none of this will become clear to you until you actually write a part of the story. <S> You can always remove parts of the story that you are unsatisfied with, but almost all writing helps your understanding of your characters and your story. <A> The part that is most obviously missing from what you describe is "why?" <S> Character provides the why. <S> But equally importantly, the why provides the character. <S> A character is a person who would do this thing in this way. <S> You can start with the character and then ask yourself, what would this person do, given their character? <S> Or you can start, as you have, with the action, and ask yourself why would someone do this thing in this way. <S> Once you can answer that question, you have the core of your character. <S> Once you have the core, you can fill in whatever detail you think appropriate that are consistent with that character.
| For me, the characters create themselves when I write about them (it takes time) even if I "sketched them" somewhat differently.
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How to handle translation of a language in a comic, while preserving a sense that the language is significant? I am producing a comic in which a fictional language is frequently spoken. This language (and which characters are able to speak it) is significant to the plot, so it's important that the reader knows when it (rather than English) is being spoken. It's likely, though, that there will be scenes spoken entirely in this language, and since I obviously want these scenes to be understood by the reader, too, I'm not completely sure how I should handle this. My question is, should I should fully translate the language in these cases (such that the "original" language is lost), as is the norm in written fiction? My gut reaction is no , that the original form of language should be depicted alongside the translations in some way, so as to emphasise its significance and make clear which language is being used, but I'm finding it hard to justify this to myself. I suppose one argument is that comics don't have "viewpoint characters" in the same way that written fiction does, but I don't know how well this holds up to scrutiny. It's certainly very common for comics to present events through a particular character's perception. For example, if the protagonist is hallucinating, a lot of comics will show the hallucination rather than the reality. Presumably there must be a precedent for this sort of thing, but I don't remember ever reading a comic which featured a fictional (or even foreign) language in this way. <Q> This is how it was handled in the Asterix comics. <S> Specifically Asterix and the Goths : <A> This has been handled a few ways in comics: Have the text in word balloons be a translation of the original, with a footnote indicating "translated from other-language-name". <S> You can graphically remind the user of this as you go along by having the other language be in a different typeface, have the word balloons be a different color than usual, or a combination of the two. <S> This is common in superhero comics. <S> Leave the text in the original language, letting the reader figure out what's happening by context. <S> This clearly takes longer and details will doubtless be lost, but it has the advantage of keeping the feel of the original language. <S> (See the works of Alan Moore for a great example of this, in particular "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume 2" does this a lot.) <S> It's a comic book, a graphic medium, and you don't have to choose! <S> A little design work to leave extra room on the page <S> and you can have both languages in the panels. <S> It's possible to subtly overlap a word balloon in one language with a translation in English, a graphic cue to the reader that they can read the meaning in English while seeing the original language, either in full or in part. <A> You have two choices that I can see, and which one you use will likely be dependent on the amount of foreign-language copy you have versus the amount of space you have in the panel to display it: 1) Write the foreign language in the speech balloon with asterisks. <S> The asterisks refer to a footnote at the bottom of the panel translating the text. <S> I think this will be clunky and a little annoying, so unless there's some reason to display the foreign language in all the balloons, I don't recommend it. <S> the text is surrounded by «guillemets». <S> This has in fact been covered in a comment to a different question on this site: <S> How does one present spoken dialogue as a secondary language to signed speech? <S> This is a common punctuation for dialogue in a secondary language in comic books, usually with an asterisk to denote the language. <S> – <S> Joel Shea <A> I'd highly recommend simply italicizing and using a script-like font to differentiate between the special language and the common language. <S> The first time this is done, you can denote the difference by using an asterisk note within the speech bubble itself, and then simply alternate between the italicized script and your normal font afterwards. <S> This approach is used extensively by scanlation groups in translating comics, when the author uses a different language within the comic itself as a part of the plot. <S> So, for instance: <S> This is the common language of the Nihamo people. <S> There is nothing special to see here. <S> This is the language of the Astralonian Royalty. <S> We are rare and our people have been hunted for eons. <S> Our language appears in a different font, but stackexchange does not allow use of different fonts. <S> Your readers should be able to pick up on this quickly and easily, allowing them to distinguish between languages at a glance and readily understand any given dialogue. <A> Another suggestion: use a heavily stylised phonetic language. <S> The most extreme example of this I've seen is in a novel rather than a comic, Riddley Walker by Russel Hoban. <S> The entire book is written in a debased form of phonetic English invented by the author. <S> It's readable by anyone that can speak English, but it's a hard slog. <S> It feels very alien at first. <S> An example. <S> "Its some kynd of thing <S> it aint us <S> but yet its in us. <S> Its looking out thru our eye hoals. <S> May be you dont take no noatis of it only some times. <S> Say you get woak up suddn in the middl of the nite. <S> 1 minim <S> youre a sleap and <S> the nex youre on your feet with a spear in your han." <S> At times, things are given extremely unfamiliar names or translations that the reader needs to puzzle out. <S> Again, most people will be able to work this stuff out, but it's a stretch. <S> "Spare the mending and tryl narrer" Experimenting and trial and error "the yellerboy stoan and the chard coal" the sulphur and the charcoal <S> Riddley Walker is quite a famous book, partly because of its inventive approach to language: searching online should reveal many further relevant examples and discussions. <S> Attempting something similar would likely be a fair amount of work, but the effort may pay off with you able to exactly what you want. <S> Have a language that seems alien to an English speaker yet which is comprehensible and flexible enough for you to convey a rich variety of meanings. <A> If you're using multiple languages, you can also color the speech bubbles with different colors to indicate what language is being spoken. <S> White is English. <S> Blue is French. <S> Red is Russian, Green is Celtic... <S> so long as you are consistent, it should be good... <S> you can even have fun with language families, like Chinese and Japanese being too shades of a similar color... <S> All Romance languages are shades of Purples. <S> One of my methods allows this for American English vs. The Queens English, where the American character's words are spelt like they would be with an American spelling and the British character speaks in British Spelling. <S> For example, in my previous color statement, a British Stack exchange member would respond "+1 <S> For the Colour for language families idea. <S> Smashing good show, it bloody well is. <S> " Or they'd dock me a point for using inappropriate slang words together...
| 2) Indicate in context or with an asterisk that the characters are speaking Foreign Language, and within the balloon,
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The use of the tilde in English? The 'tilde' key, or (~) is commonly found in programming and in other languages to express repetition of characters, for example, 'Woooo!' would become 'Woo~!' and in Japanese text, the tilde is commonly used to portray a flirtatious mood. It can also be used to show approximation, e.g. '1~20'. However, is there any use of the tilde as a punctuation in the English language? Would it be appropriate to use it to convey emotion, or express repetition or is there a certain use of the tilde other than approximation between two numbers? <Q> If you use it for other purposes in a text, I'd recommend putting in extra context to make the meaning clear early on in the text. <A> The tilde symbol is commonly used for: Expressing approximations. <S> Mathematical and programming processes. <S> However, it has more uses in other languages. <S> In Chinese with instant messaging stuff, sometimes you can put a little '~' on the end of your sentence to be cool, casual, and stuff, but that's not done in English. <S> Also, the Chinese keyboard on your phone gives a lot of these crazy faces like ~\ (≧▽≦) /~ <S> that use the tilde. <S> I wouldn't use it in fiction unless you absolutely have to. <S> It isn't used in the context of fiction and generally in English, only used for approximation. <A> It seems that in old manuscript documents the tilda represented the repetition of 'm' or 'n' as shown in the example here (Susannah). <S> [From parish register of St Mary-in-the-Marsh in Kent.]
| Other than indicating approximations for dates and numbers (e.g., ~100 CE), I am not aware of any commonly-recognized uses for the tilde. It generally is never used in fiction and would probably confuse the reader because of that.
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