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.
Filters (None)
We're all familiar with stories about good and evil, where characters are unambiguous. The benefit of this sort of a story is that we can enjoy the conclusion of the good struggle, without being t...
I am writing something similar to a review article about a scientific insight that connects and streamlines a number of seemingly different previous results. In the introduction, I give an example...
For each line of dialog, I have three pieces of text: the dialog itself, and two things I call Subtext1 and Subtext2 for now. Dialog: Self-explanatory, the only thing actually "visible" to the rea...
Should we use present tense or future tense when writing an article? I know this question will be off topic if I asked without example. So I will add an example: You should use a very clean fo...
What are some words that can help me vividly describe a motorcycle accident as if it was being seen by the reader? What are some words that can describe that crash, with such detail that the reader...
When it comes to citing text from someone else's work, the rule is to provide a proper citation and source. Once you do that, you're off the hook. But when it comes to copying images it seems to be...
I'm writing a story where my two main characters have been merged together so that they share a single body. They spend a lot of time discussing things and arguing on what actions to take. This has...
Consider the following: During my year at UH Manoa, I felt prepared for my computer science courses given my previous experience with programming, but I wasn’t sure how I could apply myself...
I'm writing a conversation between some no-good thievin' teens, and one of them has stolen a wallet, which has turned out to be that of an FBI member. They converse, written in indirect speech, wh...
I'm trying to have a dialogue where one character says something to the lines of "You're being really hard on yourself. You're only human." That line doesn't feel right when dealing with an anthro...
Depending on the weather, the days events, and other factors, I find myself with a different emotion everyday when I write which I'm afraid is making my novel a little bit choppy. For example, one ...
When creating a figure caption related to a software screenshot, can I use title case or should I match the case that is in the application? For Example, "Figure 1-1. New Virtual Machine – Select ...
Friends. I am female, and have recently decided that my first book's titular character is going to be a boy of an age between nineteen and twenty. I would like some help as to how to go about wri...
Over the past few years, it has come to my attention that I lack the ability to identify cheese. And by cheese, I mean cheesy things in movies/books. I simply don't see it. My friends have informed...
How would you cite a figure in MLA format if you are the author of it and the figure was not based off of any source?
In the publishing industry, is it usual for authors to have a complete prescriptive non-fiction manuscript before seeking an agent, or after seeking an agent? I am a professor interested in writin...
So basically my novel consists of the following genres: Urban fantasy New Adult (somewhat; it's a high school setting but with details that exceed the boundaries of young adult) Romance (somewha...
I've recently begun studying subplots, and I've realized I don't know how far I should develop them. Does a subplot need everything a main plot does? Does there even need to be a conflict for the s...
I'm writing a novel where I imagined two or three subplots (or storylines). Now I found that one of the subplots has evolved and grown so big that It can be an independant plot itself and could (or...
I'm in the process of writing an essay on Othello, and am using the Folger Shakespeare Library's annotated Othello. As far as I can tell, the correct MLA citation for the book is Shakespeare, ...
I have just completed my first manuscript for a children's book. It is a long traditional bedtime story to be read over several days or weeks even! I don't really understand why I must limit the nu...
You guys may have heard this term before. I often see critics talking about it in some Studio Ghibli's movies where the reviewers say that the antagonist is the force of nature itself. But I also ...
I've just received the written feedback from an editor in a large publishing house. On the whole it's very critical, with the occassional "could be good" thrown in at the end of sections with a lis...
I am considering to write a handbook on a certain subject. I will use concepts and methods used in other books to write this. So, nearly 80% content will come from other books which are bestseller...
I am beginning to write original novels after writing fanfictions and posting them online for about six years. My usual process is: write chapter, edit chapter, post chapter, repeat. This means tha...
In movies and TV shows and the like, there are often details that the writers work in that are hard to catch at first sight, but can be found if you happen to look for those details. For example, C...
I am writing a story for publication that has one of it's key features is these other worlds/universes being the basis of the videos games we see in real life. As such I was hoping to have 2 books ...
So I'm writing a story, a fanfiction to be specific, and a main character is an aggressive, emotionless, constantly angry man, who swears a lot and doesn't care much about anything. I want him to d...
My novel technically has two inciting incidents: One in the first chapter, and another five chapters later. The later incident really kicks off the story. What can I do to make sure that everything...
This is a bit hard to explain so here's are are two examples: She let out a sigh of relief. He arched an amused eyebrow. My theory is this: you only need to directly state the emotion wh...
I don't know if other people wanting to be writers experience this, but I get driven by my obsession. It used to be Hunger Games, then Star Wars, Maze Runner, and finally Guardians of the Galaxy. ...
The question grammar for describing plots had a few comments that touched upon the differences between literary novels and entertainment novel which made me think. So I searched the SE for any prev...
If I want a character to respond with anger, I want the reader to understand why the character is angry. I want the reader to be caught up in the the events that lead to that anger and be given rea...
Im writing a fictional dieselpunk story based on the WW2 era in a world of my own. The protagonists are two squads (one from the "Axis" and the other from the "Allies") with the characters within t...
I was thinking about a translation of a book that is in the public domain. The author is Adam Smith. There is already a French translation of some of his works. Does this mean that I cannot publish...
Does a physical description have to be specific to make a character feel real, or can the physical description be general and the details be left to the reader's imagination?
I mean, what exactly defines a flaw for a character? I know that the character's flaws should have at least some impact in the story, instead of being just a mere detail, but what makes flaw X bett...
Note: As with any aspect of writing, I'm sure there are those who disagree with it. If you disagree with the conclusions I've come to below, I would like to hear your thoughts. However, I would ask...
I have a story I'm writing, and since when I started, it changed many times the route and focus, and in some of these changes, I found two possible paths for the story to advance on, and I already ...
In my first big novel-kind-of-thing I'm currently working on, I have a run-of-the-mill, super-non-special "Hero" - the Antagonist. A Jon Doe, someone, who knows how to handle everyday stuff and can...
I found a previous post about introducing terms, but it doesn't quite answer my question. I have a more specific question about the punctuation used when introducing a term, and not how to stylisti...
My writings tend to be a blend of multiple genre's. I know some can work well together, like sci-fi and fantasy, but are there genre's that should not be blended? Also, is it confusing to reader...
I am having a hard time with adding detail, I feel it may leave a good chunk of the story out, but I don't know for sure if I should really add it or not. If I do end up with too much detail, my re...
I've asked a couple of questions on this site over the past year or two about publishing. I've been thinking about going the self-publishing route. It still seems like the quickest and easiest wa...
About five years ago I self-published a novella "The Spoils of War". In the middle there's a section where the MC is packed of to Pakistan because the family don't want to face the embarrassment of...
Let's say a piece of writing is being composed. That piece of writing can, of course, be crafted with a slew of different techniques and artistic choices, but, one of those is the language used. Ho...
I've always struggled with this. I like to write at the top of my knowledge without leaving those not having the benefit my experience behind. It may sound arrogant but if I write for the lowest c...
I need to know because all of the anime that I watch have at least one character or more from another planet, and they're not usually friendly. I don't want to come off as one of those who "follow ...
I recently asked this question, about inner conflict. Mark Baker supplied an answer to that question which redefined how I saw inner conflict, and as a result, the whole process of making a novel. ...
I just started to plot out my scenes like this in bullet points Tess runs away Tess fights the bad guy Tess gets injured and so it goes on. So far I got 30. I know that I need a lot more. I am...
