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 about to start a new story, and I feel it would be better if I started in media res. (aka at some point in the middle.) I know this is a fairly common style used to hook readers into the story ...
My second-grader has been asked to write a "fairy tale." We are both clueless about what makes a story a "fairy tale" different from a fantasy story. Is there some special, defining element to a fa...
I understand why publishers often ask for exclusive submissions. They're counting on a story that has been submitted to them to be available for them to purchase if they decide they like it and it...
I'm having a problem that is not addressed by The Chicago Manual of Style or the AP Style Guide I have access to: How does a writer express laughter in fiction? I have seen no consistent answer. I...
How can one organically develop a strong relationship (father-son, to be precise) between 2 strangers over the course of a novel without making it seem contrived?
While writing some documentation I stumbled upon the need to describe the location of a field in a Mongo Collection on one of our corporate servers. After spending a bit of time on this I arrived ...
The villain so far has only appeared in two chapters. However now he's making a return in a chapter which is mostly about him, his actions and his past. Now. What are mistakes I should avoid when w...
The specific example that I was thinking of is writing about people traveling through a snow-storm. I tried to write one, and I found myself using phrases like, "The blasting wind blew against thei...
In a novel, particurlarly fiction, what are the basic ways to reveal something that happened in the past? What ways, (flashback, protagonist telling, etc.) are the most used and most effective? Spe...
Are there any 'active' irc channels designed for writers? I say active, because I've found a couple channels, bit they were all empty.
I am the sort of person that is really great at coming up with amazing ideas, plot-lines, worlds, etc. for stories, but I'm not so good at putting them to paper - at least not in a novel. I'm reall...
I am writing my thesis. and I need to know the correct way of putting the reference. for example: this is a sentence taken from someone [2]. this is a sentence taken from someone[2]. ...
I've written a few scripts for film, but think I need to collaborate with someone. I always run out of ideas. Where would I find a co-writer?
I'm Chetan. I won't say I'm a good writer, but I'm on the journey of becoming one. Okay here's the problem: I have a story in my mind and I really want to write it. But, I'm thinking of starting wi...
I know why; they're cool, and they have a deep yearning to be free and with the air, which'll be a major theme in the story. But... I don't know how to explain their wings. I don't want them to be ...
I have a sentence: ... to further everyones agenda; revenge. Is this the correct punctuation? Or should the semicolon simply be a comma? I know this is an incredibly dumb question and I should kn...
I use Microsoft Word to write stories then I send it to a publisher. But, I want to know how many pages would the book version would be because I want to make long stories and/or books.
A family member has had a verbal offer of publication for a book (a collection of pieces), though no contract has been signed yet and the printed book is probably quite a ways off. If all goes well...
Okay. In the story there's a flashback where one of the main protagonists loses his best friend in a battle where he was the only survivor. His best friend is a important character and, because of ...
So. This is one of my first projects, so I have to ask this. The story takes place in a dystopian future, where a young man and a young woman meet each other. They then try to overthrow the tyranni...
I'm writing an essay but I struggle with thesis statements and paragraphs. My teacher wants my thesis to be significant, specific, single, and supportable. I often know what I want to write, but st...
I'm from Brazil and I plan to write my first book. I'm thinking about writing it in English, because then it could be published worldwide (I know, dreams). The problem is that I don't know if it wo...
Excuse me if I am on the wrong StackExchange site. I write about Physics in English and typeset that with LaTeX. So I have a variable c, and there are two of them in the same expression. I want to...
I volunteer as an editor for the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN), an organization that creates free open source software such as the Firefox browser. MDN has a large number of technical topics awai...
How do I index an author who published articles with and without middle initial? For example, I cite an author who published as J. Bloggs, An important paper, Some Journal, 1993 and J. Z. Bloggs...
I have a project that I am working on in which I need to write quite a few fictional informal email correspondences between pairs of characters. I am not using these characters in any other context...
What is the usual and customary way to write an e-mail to my lead for the telephonic conversation that I had with client or consultant? I need a formal format for the minutes of a conversation that...
I have been asked to write a report on the company I am working at during a placement from University (I am on an engineering programme). There was not much guidance given on what the content of th...
The oxford comma is the second comma in the sentence I like the colors red, white, and blue. Every grammar textbook I've ever seen, as well as the major style guides, feels that this is "proper" de...
I've seen 'owl' mentioned many times in the context of writing. Some libraries have an 'owl's nest', some universities have writing workshops by the same name. If you google 'owl writing' you wil...
I was writing up my story and i wanted to know how much should the Protagonist's Birthday be part of the story. I have seen many stories in books,movies and games in where birthdays play very impor...
In a nonfiction snippet I'm writing about metrology, specifically the term micron being used in reference to the unit multiple micrometre (AmE: micrometer) I need to cite Resolution 7 of the 13th C...
Hope this is the right forum to be asking a question! I have been writing every since I can remember, my stories, writings, letters, poems, lessons and emotions were captured from as young as 14,...
Is it okay to use the term "proposed method" in academic paper if I already done implementing the method? Or what phrase I can replace to this?
I have written four poems and will keep writing more. How many should I put under one collection, and around how many pages should it be? Any ideas on how I should go about the self publication pro...
All the books I have wrote, I've always been shy to show my friends. I don't want them to think poorly of me with what I write. Any advice that could help me?
I am writing a personal statement to apply to a grad school. At first, I thought that because the role of this statement is to show an image of me as a person, using the tone I usually use when blo...
I'm writing a first person story and the main character will hear a number of odd names said. The odd names will be put into Google and her spelling will be corrected, but I was wondering how to ha...
How would you use "Show Don't Tell" imagery to portray a person who is watching something (an encounter) that makes him 'freeze' in his spot? All I can think of is: He is frozen in his spot as he w...
I am about to apply to a grad school, and I have prepare the SOP for it (think it like a cover letter to apply to a job). I know the rule: show what I've got, not tell how I think I'm cool. I've tr...
I am in the process of applying to several graduate school, so I need to write several Statements of Purpose (SOP). English is not my first language and my writing skills are average at best. Are t...
For some reason my writing is really boring. I think its because I write in the character's point of view and I suck at that. How can I fix this?
The main problem for someone moving from non-fiction to fiction is the development of a plot. It is especially frustrating to someone who already knows how to string words together and "write well"...
How does/can proper character development add to the suspense felt in the reader?
I have a friend who is a freelance editor and I was planning on employing her to look over my novel before shopping it out to publishers. However, I don't know if publishers like this or not. Do t...
I am a children's book illustrator. I am hired to illustrate a series of books by the author. The first book has already been illustrated by some other illustrator and published by a publishing hou...
I'm writing a grant in psychology/cognitive neuroscience. I am considering including a fragment of a book at the beginning, to illustrate the question. Regardless of whether this is a good idea, is...
I am writing a book about lions and other African predators. The main focus in the one I am working on is lions, but I do quite often refer to 2 big cats that aren't lions. Those are cheetahs and l...
I am creating a table of contents for a book, and there are 4 ways of splitting information up. The biggest zones are 'Chapters', those can span several pages; these are bold, underlined and in lar...
I've been working professionally as a part-time freelancer journalist for the past couple of years. Over that time I feel I've got a good grasp of how, technically, to construct an engaging piece o...
