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 am a new-ish author. I've written a lot of books, but they've never been published. Anyway, for this new book I'm about to write the first scene is a flash-forward to the end of the book. I reall...
In my story, Tsidia is a slave who managed to inspire people into making slavery illegal, thus setting her free. Is there a word I can use to describe her status in a way that highlights she was th...
I use a pseudonym and was wondering what the decorum is for setting up a book signing or for signing some in-store copies if I happened to stumble across them. I assume the stores have some minor ...
OK, I'm not sure if this question is OK for writing SE. But here goes. I'm an indie developer trying to make a story-driven game. I want to make the main character slightly unnerving. Not creepy ...
I'm currently working on a fanfiction/ comic, and a more recent scene I've been working on is a specific character re-awaking in the middle of the night to an Owl's call, and, unrelatedly, describi...
I have been working on a post-apocalyptic novel for about a year. My female narrator/protagonist, named Eris, was isolated for almost all of her life until meeting a rogue group of survivors and h...
When writing a novel how would one best represent background dialogue from a radio or television that is perhaps only half heard by the characters but still important for the reader? Should I have ...
I won't get into all the details, but my book is about four characters that realise that the universe isn't what it seems. They fight for power against someone who has held a long-standing dictator...
If I have a character, typically it is a bad guy, but not always, and you see this in movies a lot, but there is always another character with one of the main characters, so we can have some dialog...
In my story, my narrator has only recently met other humans and the biggest creature she has ever interacted with are dogs. In the survivors' camp, she encounters their horses and is pretty freaked...
I want to write a fantasy novel. I have the story(Only the main conflict) but I'm unable to make any progress. My question is in novel writing what are all the things you do before literally start ...
I have a character, a secondary antagonist who is following his sense of duty and pursuing a former asset. Said asset is injured, tired and cornered, seriously considering making a stand and going...
I've read the answers to this question but they focus on getting ideas written down pretty much as they occur, that's not my issue, I have both digital and analog methods for doing so with me at al...
I'm in the early stages of developing a fantasy story. At a high level, it involves the tried-and-true, if cliched, plot line of "Scrappy group of rebels fights for liberation against the oppressiv...
If a post-graduate student has three unpublished studies, one of which is expected to have a high impact index, and the rest low impact, what should the student reserve his/her best work for, in or...
This statement is an introduction to the review of related literature chapter for my case study at school. Maybe presents is a better word for accounts, but that's it? The style is OK for a formal...
I'm an author, but recently I started this book, but I had to put it on hold it's a Nigerian/American book and mostly I write in 1st person's pov but I'm thinking if I should write the book in the ...
My question is, are there any good rules on how to vary your sentence length/structure to keep your writing interesting? Eg. start out with shorter sentences and then start to lengthen the sentenc...
I recently re-watched the Overwatch animated short "Honor and Glory". You can tell the writers were proud of the line "Live with Honor, Die with Glory", as the characters say it a fair few times fo...
There is a particular trope that became quite infamous across many media: the "it was just a dream" revelation, where, usually at the end of a important story arc, everything turns back to the star...
I am new to this group but not new to writing in many forms... I have a great story that flows from my fingers -- got it to about 1500 words - but it must be 1000 for a competition. This has take...
terror is a real and powerful thing. A monster is ever-so-slightly scarier if it violates you in some way. there have been many of these types of creatures seen in myths and fairy tales. This goes ...
Through much of my novel the protagonist spends considerable time cruising over various landscapes at speeds exceeding 500 km/h. To you or me this is significant but to the character, it's "just a ...
My characters are in a difficult situation that can be somewhat relieved by a colleague. MC is wounded, leading secondary protagonist to take a bullet for him. She is gravely injured, MC takes SP ...
My MC, injured (having been shot earlier) is extremely tired after carrying his partner, who took a bullet for him, towards safety. She suspects that the ex-fil location they are heading towards ...
So, for my Senior English Class, I need to write a news article about technology. However, I'm unsure as to whether or not I need in-text citations for said paper. Do I need in-text citations for a...
I'm in the process of start writing my story and I'm not sure if I should do it if I'm not done with the main plot of the story. Also I don't know since what part should I start writing off, The st...
Lots of writers give writing advice -- but why do they so often contradict each other? For example, some say that "good writing is rewriting", while others (like Dean Wesley Smith) say that rewrit...
I am writing a short story which features a character known only as Old Man, but there is a part of the story where someone calls the Old Man by his name. Only once, and I was wondering if there wa...
Suppose you are part of a development team working on a fighting game, and you're given the role of creating about 30 or 40 unique characters from many different backgrounds from the ground up. It'...
This country has a long line of female rulers going back since its inception. Due to a divine connection with the goddess, only queens can inherit the throne, and rules as both leader of the nation...
A narrator is writing a letter about the last 6 months of his father's life, a narrative which includes around 5 individual scenes, some of which have extensive back and forth dialog. How should th...
I am making a dramatic monologue for a school project in this my character has committed a murder and during talking to his brother lets it slip but in a no direct way (straight up saying I killed ...
So I'm wondering if this supporting character, who I use for exposition purposes, can be made more vital in some way. When does a supporting character become necessary for the plot? What criteria d...
Hi more experienced writers than I, I have been struggling to figure out how to outline a story (script) I am writing to put all my ideas together. I would like to make an Anthology where it start...
Writing a book is only half the job. Selling it is the other half. So I was curious, what are good practices to sell your book? To sell all your copies. To make a demand higher than supply. Many w...
Does the amount of pages and/or the number of copies printed determine the cost just as much as trim size? I was thinking of using KDP or possibly Advanced Print & Finishing (bestbookprinting.c...
I have an MC who, because of certain circumstances, everyone sees him as harsh and cruel at first. As they get to know him through the first few chapters, they eventually see he's nicer than they t...
I work full time as a writer and a friend and long time collaborator of mine has asked whether I can help co author their book. This job would entail two or three evenings a week on top of my job....
How fast a magazine pays is a function of several factors like their response time for stories they accept, their payment policy (eg., paying on acceptance as opposed to paying after publication), ...
I have seven main characters, each with a different role and outfit. They get their equipment from one shop, and go adventuring soon after. How do I explain each outfit without making it sound like...
I want to write a story mainly in third person, occasionally switching to first person. How would I do that most effectively?
In context, a guy and a girl have a date, and in restaurant, they are having this moment, where girl feeds guy with "Say 'Ah!'". What is the best way to describe this motion from the guy's perspec...
Lillia usually arrived to school on her own. The other girls from her hometown got a later train more often than not. She purposefully arrived early to be able to complete homework she had n...
It is very important that my protagonist is mute. A lot of this character's motivations are informed by - though not entirely focused on - him having suffered laryngeal cancer and recovered due to ...
Shortly after I published my first book, under my own name, somebody released a bunch of erotic fiction using my real name as their pseudonym. It is difficult for me to point people at my books on...
So far, I've been learning rules and guidelines for plotting a good story from John Truby's excellent "The Anatomy of Story". Truby structures plot using 22 steps (a summary here). Among them, th...
I understand you should always follow a quotation with a citation in academic writing, but how close together can two of the same citations be? Here is the sentence in question: “BitTorrent tra...
If you are starting a freelance product description writing business, do you generalize or specialize? In other words, do you offer writing in an area like "product descriptions for tech companies"...
