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 am going to publish an article on this website. I was going through author guidelines section and I found this piece of information: By sharing any contribution you agree to grant 90min.in...
I'm working through my chapter 1 for about the 5th time. As a generality, I love my story and characters, all of them, even the psychotic ones. But, it is becoming more and more of a slog to make...
Just a general question, but would anyone actually read a side story to my main novel about a side character? He plays a big role in the story actually, but he doesn't get much recognition in the ...
I am trying to create a game that has a small plot (maybe more of a theme). The plot just describes why the characters are fighting each other. Other than that I have not fleshed out the story. Ho...
I have a problem with the protagonist of one of my stories. In the story he's in, he dies at the end (self-sacrifice), so I readily made sure to flesh him out the most possible, because, at least i...
I completed my first fiction novel a short while ago (heist/romance). I've been trying to get a literary agent by viewing their websites and following their submission requirements. However, it has...
I have a word count goal for my fantasy novel (climate fiction/fantasy) of 100 - 120,000 words. It doesn't need to fall in this range, but that is the typical length of books I read when I pick up ...
I am writing an adventure story, adding one chapter weekly. This is the third story posted on that specific site, and I have followers, some of which post comments after each update. I was very pr...
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 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...
As a reader I have spent far more hours, well... years reading in English than my natural Portuguese mother language. Now that I am writing, in Portuguese, I find myself fishing for words I know ...
So I have this idea for a plot twist and I really like it. I think I drop enough hints here and there to indirectly say to the audience: "Hey, I know what you might be thinking of, but maybe consid...
In my fantasy world there are other other sentient races besides humans. Some of them are "original", or at least not as common in mainstream stories. On the other hand, I have also included more t...
Chronologically, the story begins with the protagonist as a child and description of her world, which is important to the plot. Since I thought "girl abandoned by parents meets a man who explains ...
Beside omniscient narrative that explains the world, what are other techniques to introduce the details of a world to the readers? (That is still part of the story) I've been thinking two things, ...
So, I've been thinking about my story, and suddenly I got inspiration for the continuation of the chapter (I'm not even sure what chapter it should be). So, basically, I ended with progressing 3 ch...
I decided to included some offensive language in one of my novels as many novels do. I was wondering however at what point does it become poor dialogue or just plain bad English. Obviously I'm not ...
Are some people, either due to lack of world experience, or creative talent, incapable of forming content for their writing, even for basic practice? If not, what would cause them such trouble whe...
I am doing an argument essay on a quote that I agree with which is about being yourself, and the quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson. I am having trouble getting started. We are to use the ethos, p...
Shakespeare did it, he did it quite a lot of times, but there are a few problems with it: He was a screenwriter in an age, where we couldn't afford building enough sets (or cities that don't catc...
I have written a book about a medical doctor who died. This doctor's spirit however comes back and takes control of normal, random people to continue his medical profession. Hence, the spirit is a ...
According to psychologist Carl Jung, there are divisions into one's mind. The "Self" (often described as "Higher-Self" or "Soul") is what hold all of those divisions together (or try to). It is wha...
One feature of my world is a plant that lives in a magmaous (rather than "volcanic") cave. It photosynthesizes by absorbing infrared radiation from the magma. However, the world is roughly at a me...
So I recently had a discussion with a reader and who pointed out a significant flaw in my work that I hadn't seen. When I first started writing my series, I had a trilogy in mind - based on explor...
I was just reading about how when a character has something they truly care about, that the stakes are raised more now that they can lose it, which leads to suspicion. But what really drives peop...
How often can you employ this before it starts to seem too convenient and fake?
when writing knowledge base articles to support software users - is it ok to reference the screenshots I am using with the term "Figure"? For example, using '(See figure 1)' in the body text when ...
At work we provide three types of technical document, aimed at different kinds of users : The Quick Start Guide. Single laminated sheet, illustrations and basic explanation. The handbook. A5 form...
I want to use something like V.O. or O.S to indicate my character is in a shadow, what should I do? I like what the Wachowskis did in the Matrix, which is a major influence for me. Would readers ...
I plan at several parts of my book to have war chants done in the fictional language of my main race/species. Would it be better to write the chant in their language? Put the fictional language w...
I'm writing (to self-publish) a technical book aimed for computer-literate people with no technical background (but who want to get into the field). In the beginning, I found myself re-writing cer...
I've had several people ask me why my fiction story does not have a table of contents. I never really thought about it, seeing as plenty of fiction stories do not have one either. Is a table of con...
Okay, so I have noticed that my one character, Liam, laughs a lot in my novel, due to something he thought was hilarious or to ease his mind. But he laughs too damn much. Would you guys like a ch...
Let's face it, I like edgy writing that borders on inflammatory. I read less for entertainment than I do for expanding my world view. I don't have to agree with the points or even like the style of...
I'm in a writing group. I see repeating word-choice patterns among the fantasy writers. Example: frequent use of certain words (like 'utter,' everyone seems to use that word... ), or certain sympto...
I've devised a trilogy on an Earth-similar world experiencing Earth-similar problems. I am nearing the end of the first draft of the first novel. I am not certain how much of a bang needs to happen...
I have a really good title for this book, but I'm scared it implies the book is religious when it's really not. The title is "The Only Way To Heaven Is Up." It mostly focuses on people overcoming t...
My protagonist has an unique power, he can feel the souls of other beings with his mind. One day this guy meets a girl with the most wonderful soul on earth, she is happy at all times and loves eve...
In the slug line, how do I write a time change??? "7 years later" {then} INT. HOSPITAL - DAY Also: how do I write verbal sounds of a character that are unintelligible, etc, be they in th...
I'm not sure if this is okay, (also: we hear...) I realize that typically the sentence would say the same thing if removed but it seems to work in the midst of an action line like: Close on Bat...
My name is Alex and I'm writing a fantasy novel. I don't know if I should use first or third person narration. First person writing is good for protagonists and important characters, but third pe...
In today's digitized world, does it pay to go analog? I mean who would waste time in writing using Pen and Paper when you can easily type the stuff using a variety of fonts in Word processing softw...
Can I rewrite and sell the material of an already published book about the history of literature in the form of Q&A? The purpose is educational/competitive. Will this be a breach of the Copy ...
I am a book writer. I wrote this year a book and it is the first time I want to get my book published. Now, I have the soft copy of book in MS Word format, I set the page size to A4. The situation ...
I want to root for the protagonist. I want to feel the weight of his burdens so I can turn around and celebrate with him when he overcomes them. However, occasionally I come across a protagonist wh...
I wrote my very first novel several months ago and I sold it to a publisher two weeks ago. Now I am thinking of writing something new. The problem is I can't get the idea of writing a sequel out o...
I have characters in my novels that quote the Bible and a couple lines of old nursery rhymes. Do I need to obtain permission in order to use these quotes in my books? What about quoting a popular...
I'm speaking of more than one action line with no other text between them. I guess I'm asking if this is done because they relate to very different actions or actions of different people, etc. plea...
I was wondering if anyone was aware of a quality guide or text translator that would allow for realistic accented dialog speech? Say I wanted to write a character with a Texan Drawl or a heavy Bro...
