General Q&A about the craft of professional writing, editing, and publishing. Questions about all types of writing are welcome -- fiction, technical documentation, scholarly articles, poetry, scriptwriting, blogs, and more.
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I'm working on a novel that involves folklore/mythological creatures from mainly the Norse and Scandinavian myths, but in the world of the novel, there exists beings from all cultures. I wish to wr...
My school is doing a romance writing competition and there is no cliche allowed. But that is the only way I know how to write romance. I mean, I haven't read a single book that hasn't had a bit of ...
Background I recently noticed in my latest masterpiece novel there is quite a lot of things happening by chance. For example: The main character just happens to pass by an old, frail warrior w...
This question was asked by a member of my critique group at the beginning of the month and I've been stewing over it for a while now. I still don't have any better ideas, so I'm turning to you. How...
Just as I heard from various sources, a plot has to start with what the reader will find through most of it. And that's what I did, the first scene shown is the main event that triggers the story. ...
Capitalization in a text has been something heavily debated in the writing community due to its nature as being preference based, and finding a hard set answer is fairly difficult. However, should ...
So I am still in the primitive stages of creating my own world and story, if I even do it that is. I am still trying to get a feel for where I want to go with it. The biggest issue would be that,...
"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. Goo...
What are some tips you would recommend to immediately attract a reader, or make the story interesting enough to continue reading? I want to know if there are any specific techniques or ways that y...
I'm writing a story about fictional beings who have the power of the four elements. Only very few, very rare people posses the power of all four elements while most only have one. My main character...
Background In a huge amount of the books I read the author has coined a little term to help them describe something, or an onomatopoeia. Like: Kindish (adding -ish to the end of a existing word)...
I tend to use alliteration a lot. This is an example from a story I'm writing: "Let me get this straight," Aru said, sliding on her dress. She always felt frosty after failed fornication. "Yo...
I have an idea I'm working on, where there's a huge backstory that I'm not sure how to deal with. In my particular case, the backstory and main story are these: The backstory begins as stereotypi...
Background So, long ago in my writing I wrote a chapter where a book housing a specific missing chapter was found in a treasury. As you can tell, it's super ultra convenient to just have it in the...
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 frequen...
My story is bilingual Spanish and English, revolving around an emperor and his lover. My main character is royalty and it is fitting for him to have a long name, but he transitions from one title...
This is a constant struggling point of mine. Most of my settings take place in fictional worlds often inspired by various parts of human history. For instance, one of my stories is located in an A...
For example the scene takes place in the future and the year is 24,356. Would it be written as: "The year is 24356," said Bob OR "The year is twenty-four thousand, three hundred and fifty...
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 s...
I was taught around the age of 10 to always avoid the word "got". I was told that it's always possible to rephrase a sentence so as to not use it. I followed this advice fairly unthinkingly, but no...
A relative (who is no longer living) wrote a number of autobiographical pieces which I would like to publish in a book. They're very good but they need a fair amount of editing. I would like to i...
In a recent answer, "pronunciation key" was mentioned. I would like to provide a pronunciation key in my book. It would be about half a page. Where should I put it? I'm concerned that if I put ...
I run a critiquing group once a month and I've had several of my members say they aren't sure how to tell when their work is ready for critique. I'll be covering this in a workshop tomorrow night, ...
Here are the examples. The first version is the simile and the second the metaphor (I'm not sure, though, what kind it is). We faced away from each other awkwardly, as if we were on the first ...
I want to write a novel about [something or other] and now I wonder if it is possible to do [this or that].
In the novel I am writing, the story is told present tense and first person. The themes of the story present some unique points to the style, but something I have noticed as a write the first few c...
For example, should I italicize words like neg and kino? Words created by the pick-up artists/seduction community? (I'm writing a novel where I use these words.)
When I read showing in stories with people, they describe facial expressions for showing (among other things). What can a writer use in an animal fantasy? I'm sure it depends on the animal, but a...
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 ?
As a reader, I have found that when I disagree with an author's views or actions, this has influenced me not to buy their books. As an author, I therefore wonder whether readers generally view the...
Background Woohoo! The time has come, my first book of a trilogy is one chapter away from finishing. I've done a little editing as I go, clearing up the bad chapters, but haven't properly gone t...
I write primarily science, which I readily admit can be very bland. On occasion I read fiction, but have found over the years that my tastes have changed considerably. Overly descriptive scenes lea...
I'm writing a sci-fi novella about a scientist named Steves living in the 24th century. I'm mostly using the typical past tense to narrate the incidents happening to the protagonist. Whenever I'm t...
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...
I legitimately don't know the answer. Background I said something a little silly today, and was told I was incorrect: Writing requires no skill. You basically just have to write down what y...
For some reason, I can only seem to get in the "zone" at night time. Like 9:30pm and past that. Whenever I try to write during the day, I can't get myself to write something that's actually good, o...
I am a former Molecular Biologist and also worked for years as an ICU nurse. I personally liked Crichton's style of writing about science/medical mishaps but found his presentation of science/medic...
I was editing a friend's story and I ran into a problem. A character wrote a letter to her friend but inside the letter there was a dialogue (quoting her parents) inserted. I tried to change their...
Ok, so I have a character, Jack, and I don't know how to get him on the "back again" path. You know, when you move past what happened? Get happier? My character has suffered a series of traumatic...
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...
For example, what's the difference between: She closed her eyes and thought about her life. He was so confident and handsome women circled him like vultures. And this: Closing her ey...
Let me open by saying that I wasn't entirely sure how to ask this question and stay on topic. This is my best attempt. I do believe this question will help other writers. As an author, I want to ...
I published two books with a publishing company, and I was wondering whether I could publish my next one with a different one. Can I?
When 2 or more characters speak in unison you can generally do something like this "awwwww, she's so cute!" the girls said in unison in near perfect harmony but what about when the line is on...
An academic paper is referred to as using the authors name and publication year. For example, Smith (2008) studied the property of blah-blah Smith and Johnson (2013)'s article investigated blah...
In novels which contain a constructed language (conlang), there are areas where the rules of pronunciation can be specified. These areas have the disadvantage of either being before the story and r...
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 ove...
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?
