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 try to, but always end up shutting down and thinking it's stupid. Especially when I haven't been writing it for long. Help!
I've finally decided to give a protagonist a happy ending, but what is there to avoid? What makes a happy end too cheesy? For example, if the story is about a anti-hero, who destroys his enemies, w...
What is essential for a character-driven story - except, obviously, appearance?
So what do you ask them? Do you have a questionnaire?
Sales reports for my book from the publisher (about 2 per quarter) are grossly inconsistent with visits to the novel's Web site (about 100 per month) and people who've told me they bought a copy. ...
For example my story is placed in WW3, well the second chapter is placed in WW3, and yet I struggle, to write a plausible WW3 scenario. I have planned to make it about false flags committed by one ...
In preparation for IELTS I want to write on "It is important for children to learn the difference between right and wrong at an early age. Punishment is necessary to help them learn this distinctio...
Please, before flagging this question as subjective or generic, take a moment to read it through. IMO this is a valid, specific question, albeit a bit complex. To try and unpack the admittedly obs...
Suppose the outline of my PhD thesis looks like this: Acronyms Preface Introduction Part I: some topic Chapter 1: ... Chapter 2: ... Part II: another topic Chapter 3: ... Chapter 4: ... Con...
Can I use famous art work images that were created prior to 1900 in my book and sell the book legally? Are all artworks prior to 1900 Public domain? I want to use images of paintings made in 1800 t...
I want to write a short horror story. What are the best ways to set a dark tone or mood to the story? Just in a short introduction, if I want to introduce a character or place as a place I would no...
I'm working on an engineering project and lots of the design decisions I've made are based on application notes or application reports made by manufacturers, like this one: http://www.ti.com/lit/...
How do online journalists report on things if they aren't actually out in the field reporting? I'm assuming they simply watch mainstream news, listen to government/organizational websites, etc?
I'm currently writing a story with a strong theme of spirituality and divinity. At around the halfway point my protagonist has a religious experience which changes them. This experience is a highly...
I would like to publish my book. I would like to publish it as print on demand. I don't like the idea of giving my book away to a publisher. I want to have control and remain responsible for market...
Once copyright registration has been filed, does a separate copyright need to be obtained if original book is reprinted by copyright owner in another language?
So, the character is an anti hero, he loses all his morals, and becomes the very thing he fights against. How can I make the downfall of this character more emotionally moving/impactful without m...
Is it acceptable practice to write a fiction novel set in an imaginary universe in first person plus have the main character be an alter ego of yourself? (The main character has my voice, essential...
As I was reading different stories, I came to wonder about what is better for the reader to identify with the character. Indeed, it is often unclear whether the MC (main character) is like the rea...
Can I use '14, '15, '16, etc., instead of the full four digits?
Are there any rules for proper indentation in thesis? I am physicist so my thesis includes number of images and equations. Now I think you should not indent first paragraph after: Title of cha...
One common setup for a story goes like this: We have the heroes on one side We have the villains on the other side The bad guy has an evil plot that will cause some undesirable result The heroes ...
I am currently writing a high fantasy novel. Writing this novel, which is set in a different world, I am having some trouble giving the Tolkien feel of a multi-cultured world. I have tried to use,...
cue Team America song Okay, now that you know I like to have fun with my writing... I'd like to write a montage in prose fiction. It would be a sort of a wizard training sequence, or something t...
So for the novel I'm writing, the main character is a college student living in Michigan. Is it okay for me to have her go to a college that really is in Michigan? I wouldn't be displaying it in...
I want to rewrite my sentence in technical writing style. Could you help me rewrite my sentence? Thank you in advance The proposed methods has 4 variables need to update in a optimization proce...
Let's say I have a 6 page document. (MS Word) I want the first 3 pages to be numbered i, ii, iii and the remaining 3 pages to be numbered 1, 2, 3 How can I achieve this? I tried the automatic n...
I would like feedback on if this portrayal of male emotion is unrealistic. I have been told (beta readers) that men don't cry in real life (already know this is not true), he is crying too much, to...
I have a scene that initially takes place in the padded room of a mental institution. A guard opens the door, the prisoner knocks him out and steals his gun and starts firing from the room into the...
I'm a newbie in the field of writing. After writing a book, I need to visit a number of publishers. So, how do I secure my written work from being stolen or copied before it's published? Is there a...
In a math book, is it OK to have a diagram wider than text width (so overriding the margins)? Also, how do I center a wide figure so that it occupies both the left margin and the right margin (not...
Let's say I'm writing a story that isn't a fantasy story, it's more of a realistic thriller. However, I want to include a character who has psychic powers like telepathy and psychokinesis. Is it ...
My style of writing is - I think - more investigative into characters and what drives them. I think however that this could be problematic for readers because nothing major happens in every single ...
My book starts at the end of my main characters research on a topic. And I wanted to give a feeling of him being neck deep in research. I thought of those stereotypical moments on tv shows where a...
I am in the beginning stages of writing my first book, and it is a true crime novel about something that happened down the street from my own home. My question is to anyone else who has written a n...
There are a few books that are at least 100 years old and without an audio book format. Is it legally possible to do the voice for it and sell it on audible?
I would like to start writing blog articles online as a guest writer. Most blogs have guidelines that have to be loosely followed; like what the niche should be, if it needs to be a list, and a bun...
For a character that whistles when pronouncing the "s" sound, how can I write in the lisp effectively? I tried using multiple "S"s, but it reads as a snake-like sound, which I don't want since the...
I am writing an email to my professor in hopes that I can make up an exam that I missed. I missed the exam under fairly extreme circumstances, catching the flu and not being aware it was on that d...
Paul McCartney, upon composing the melody for "Yesterday", felt certain that it was too good to be original, and that he must have heard it before and just couldn't remember it: McCartney compo...
I wrote a few short stories over the past few years, and I have shared a few of these with beta readers and asked for feedback. I have one that I decided was ready to go find a home, so I found a j...
I was wondering if anyone has used yWriter for Mac and has downloaded it from Softonic. I feel a little iffy about this site(pic attached). I suppose a better question would be: Is it safe to downl...
My question is similar to this one, but with (hopefully) a clearly defined use case: sharing and reviewing basic tech docs with a minimal, intuitive GUI. I'm producing technical documents using MS...
My story involves a government run program for the paranormal and the main protagonist is a demon. My problem is that I don't want people to think "Hey , you stole that from Hellboy".
I am writing fiction and considering using past tense by default but then switching to present tense for action scenes. This answer leads me to believe switching tense can be done. I assume that c...
If you are publishing erotic fiction in KDP, how do you avoid getting the "Adult" rating that will stop the book being easily searched for and stop it showing up in any suggested reading lists? I ...
I'm writing up a new story (which I've asked for help on in a few other places) which is a little outside my forte. The majority of my current work is saturday-morning cartoon stuff, light fantasy ...
In narrative essays, should I make all the paragraphs narrative? For example, the introduction, the body, and the conclusion are all narrative paragraphs. What if I started the introduction with ...
I'm searching for a tool that would make real-time suggestions based on "real world" text. The only corpus-based tool I know of is Writefull - does anybody know of any others?
I have written a picture text book for children and there will be around 20 books in the series. I have a publisher that has shown interest, and wants to know whether I want my books to be publishe...
