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)
I know the basics here, and in technical circles it usually comes down to locking the Engineering Manager and the Sales and Marketing Manager in a small room and seeing who makes it out, but I woul...
Rewriting a scifi story to fit with actual science, should I do it as I go, or just write first and make the needed changes while editing? My world exists in my mind, clear and palpable. but I am ...
I am a little puzzled. I want to set my story in a real era that happened; like say, the American civil wars during Lincoln's time, and involve the then prominent figures like Lincoln and McClellan...
It's easy to show hesitance, fear or angst, you can have a character smoking 5-10 cigarettes in a row, linger for way too long, act out, or something like that. But how can you show a character tha...
In my story there are some words in there that even Grammarly couldn't understand, but they make sense in the story. They're slang, or things teenagers might say. Here is an example of what I am t...
I want to achieve the following: To produce a work that is well-organized and full of substance. To produce a work in which each thought flows smoothly to the next. To produce a work that is perf...
So I'm writing a story that features an alien character, who happens to be a really "internet troll"-ish type with a somewhat godlike tech and a personal army of robots. He/She (?) is fond of Eart...
Is there such a thing as an online repository for rejected novel manuscripts? I think it would be a useful and educational resource -- especially to finally see examples of the so-called 'mistake...
I have read Steven Pinker's Sense of Style, which is a great book. In chapter 4, he talks about how to form lucid coherent sentences, and in chapter 5, called "Arcs of Coherence", he extends his ...
I know several sites that provide plenty of example sentences for a given word, but they are usually rather colloquial. I also have one dictionary that provides example sentences from classic Eng...
In a story that I am writing, due to some time travel issues, the protagonists will have to wait a number of years before the next stage of the story happens. Things that happen between then and no...
We write the best way, not when trying to perfect every sentence as we write our first draft, but when writing down our thoughts and not revising them till we finish that draft. Now in some books I...
I notice in a lot of media there is a strong emphasis on the greatness of evil characters. They can often end up more popular than the good guys in the book or on the show, and overshadow everyone ...
In general, how long does it take a traditional publisher to approve/disapprove your manuscript from the time you submit it to them? The literary work is fiction and is about 330 pages. Also, is ...
“Check this out, Daichi.” Kiyoshi waved the letter at me. “From a girl.” [I looked at it.] A rabbit sticker sealed the manila envelope. Graceful handwritten words read: To Kiyoshi. Th...
I have this weird problem: I know my characters, I know what they're like, and I know how they would act in any given situation and in the plot I use them in, but I don't know how to describe their...
In my current novel, I'm dealing with very scary creatures that never fail to fill my protagonist with fear, but I always have her doing the same thing. My character always seems to simply widen he...
Example from my writing: Not everything was rainbow and roses, of course. Sometimes rain would fall on my head or a thorn prickle my finger. Of course, not everything was rainbow and ros...
When is it appropriate to switch between past tense and historical present tense when telling a story in first person? Should we try to keep the same tense throughout, or can narration be in histor...
Is it possible to interleave a story with some context and with the first persons thoughts and feelings without distracting, confusing or boring the reader? Content wise, i think the essay-ish pie...
TL;DR: How much time and development is necessary for a character I intend to kill off and replace with a second character so that both feel important to the narrative? I've looked over this a bit...
I'm working on a matriarchal setting in which sex is viewed less stringently than our world. It is more acceptable, even expected, for women to be experienced in these matters. I am going for an in...
Warning: long question. To start it off lightheartedly, here is the topic as doggerel. There are plenty of questions with titles like these: "What is this form?" — "Can I do this in poems?" — "How...
Is it legally OK that my character's name by coincidence matches someone's in real life, famous or not? (For example I am naming a character Aaron Hale.) The character's appearance and everything e...
I recently re-read a story I did from 2012, and reading it cold made me realize how much I liked it. There was just one problem: the narrator mentions real athletes. Writing from an alter ego, in a...
I've just approved my typeset manuscript and re-reading the book, I'm aware that it sounds very far away from my internal voice. Whilst it has all of the elements in practice, the colour and fluenc...
I have come up with a way to make it easier for myself and others to come up with titles. I am in need of advice to tell me whether or not if it is a good system for coming up with a title for a sc...
I've asked dozens and dozens of people similar questions, but I am interested to hear the response from SE. At the time of the 20th century, a time with some of the greatest journalists and golde...
Note: This question was previously about breaking the fourth wall. I discovered that my interpretation of that phrase was wrong. I have therefore rewritten the question. (The above is in place to ...
I write fiction set in 18th-century England and America. Obviously, they speak English, and equally obviously, they speak it very differently than we do today. For example, I need to know which con...
Is it possible to get better critiques on a blog than showing my story to family members in real life? I have a blog where I post the progress of my story without posting the actual thing, would i...
I want to write a story featuring two main characters--Al and Bob. In the beginning, Al, the paragon, will be a kind, friendly, competent and well-liked, whereas Bob, the protagonist, is unliked,...
I am writing my first novel, which I think likely will end up being several volumes. Although I have a lot of experience in poetry and short stories, this is a very different challenge! My questi...
Simply put, I've been noticing a general truth in bookstores: Nearly every new book on the shelf is part of a series - this is doubly true in the Fantasy and Sci-Fi genres, but no less true in othe...
I have a website and I want to sell some books from different authors. Can anyone suggest who I should contact to get the legal rights to sell the books? I am selling them to other countries as wel...
In a school setting, what is a way to allude that a school is full of students, without making new characters or overusing pre-existing ones? A school is the main setting of a book. The main and s...
Hello everyone! I want to know how to format text to something normal as depicted in the image. How can this be done quickly? Thank you for your time!
English grammar is generally pretty black and white, but there are a few areas under debate. For instance, should a series of three have one or two commas? For example: The coach was black, du...
Before anything, please pardon any grammar (or other kinds of language) mistakes I might make, for English is not my mother language. I'm making a fictional world, medieval-like with a wide variet...
I find myself writing these a lot: "Thanks." She tilted her head shyly to the side. As soon as she did, her chin-length hair slid off her face, revealing the bowl-sized bruise that made her...
One of the answers to this question movitated me to ask this. I don't agree 100% with the answerer, however, I think he has good points. Do you really weaken the focus if you mix dialogue and acti...
i'm writing a story and i want to write two prologues the first one when the MC was being born and then later on when the MC is around ten years old before starting the main story. can i do that?
I am using Blogger currently. I have paid for a domain name, but my hosting is free and to be honest I don't really want to pay (being a student). I am a self-proclaimed cinema buff and I love writ...
I'm as novice a writer as one can get so please bear with me. I have read many times that a writer shouldn't mislead the reader otherwise the reader will lose trust in the author and lose his engag...
For example, if I make the claim: "there are experts in the field that think X is fascinating." and if I insert a footnote source, like this: "there are experts in the field that think this way[...
I have a 200 page manuscript which I need to translate from English to Portuguese. I am looking for the best software application authors use for this purpose.
I'm trying to describe an action (a gust of wind blows) and its result (the flame is doused) and its subsequent effect (the room is plunged into darkness). However, I'm facing some issues with how ...
I'm writing a paper that goes something like this: To quickly summarize MIT is located in Massachusetts FIU is in Florida, The tuition cost for MIT is 45 thousand versus 6 thousand for 30 credi...
I plan on writing an ebook that's exactly 100 pages in length. This book will be comedy, basically my humorous take on situations. I think it's adequate as an ebook since ideally you'll read a pag...
Occasionally, it feels easier to write individual scenes of a prose and later connect them somehow. Does this method have any significant benefit and/or throwback over the regular "perpetual" way?
