Posts tagged style
When I study the style of Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and other authors, I find that they use very simple language and simple words. But when I look at present day authors, such as Stephenie ...
I am seeking suggestions to improve my "dry" writing style. I recently submitted a manuscript that was intended to be a review article on a particular scientific topic in the field of biomedical s...
Time and time again, I have been told that my unfounded focus on description distracts from the main story line. I mostly write stories in English, which doesn't happen to be my first language bu...
This is more or less a follow up to a question I had previously asked. Reading British writers from the last 19th century, like Bram Stoker, and the early 20th century, like Bertrand Russell, Winst...
I am writing a novel. Should I need to add Face Description ( or the personality ) of all the Characters? Is there a template that can help me? Are there any novels that does not describe faces or...
I am writing my bachelor's thesis in software engineering. It is split into two parts: a theoretical part where I analyze existing literature, compare models and draw conclusions; and a part where ...
I have done a little research on the different points of view, and want to delve further into the ways in which the execution of a story varies between first person and third person omniscient. T...
Please do not make this a duplicate, I know there's a couple of questions like this, but they are not quite like my question, and their answers don't answer my question to the fullest, hence me ask...
In my writing, I tend to format lists of items: The school has a vegetable garden in which the children grow cabbages, onions, potatoes, and carrots during their free time. as actual vertical...
I developed a news platform for people to know the most important 5-10 news stories every day. The apps/platform is targeted at people (like me) who don't read much news but would like to stay info...
Would the line: "Peter!" cried his father. make grammatical sense? It seems to work intuitively, but I'm just not sure. It's also a tough question to google, as it turns out, so any reply wou...
This is an excerpt from a novel I have started writing. Penry laughed. His face changed instantly. His disbelief changed into happiness, into almost the serenity in my dreams. It seemed to b...
Are they "if-else statements" or are they "if/else statements"? I'm partial to the latter, but I can see the logic of the former - both "if" and "else" are acting as a unit modifier for the noun "s...
It seems like many manuals and technical documents prefer passive voice over active voice. Is this true, or is it just my perception? If so, why?
Life doesn't happen in chapters — at least, not regular ones. Nor do movies. Homer didn't write in chapters. I can see what their purpose is in children's books ("I'll read to the end of the cha...
Summary Starting from the position that -- with modern web delivery -- the line between technical communication and marketing content is fading (as all the content is available to business and tec...
My novel is developed in an East Asian environment (specifically Japan) and my main character is not Asian, she is from Central América and is Mixed Race. Now, my main character is going to refer t...
Is directly showing a characters inner thoughts and conversations with themselves too telly or cheesy?
Re: editing a cookbook Other than trademarked names, should ingredients in the recipe lists be capitalized? Thank you in advance.
I am an adoptee writing a story about meeting my biological mother. I had to get on a plane to meet my mother. A couple of days before the trip I met with members of my adoptive family and other ...
I'm a journalist, and my writing work often involves writing reviews. Similar work in the field often focuses down on the mechanical, objective qualities of the thing being reviewed and that's been...
There are some works that have a certain kind of voice, which is due to their rhythm. But is this due only to word order and like things, or do their authors actually choose synonyms to achieve rhy...
I've recently got a crushing critique. The critic pointed out I was obviously unfamiliar with the basic tools of the trade and that my style was non-existent. She insisted that "everybody can inven...
I was wondering if using length in this sentence would add to take away from the message. Also am I constructing the sentence correctly. A sudden outburst drew my gaze from lazy sky to chalk dr...
I'm writing my first novel and I wanted to try and write around 12-15 chapters about 10k-ish (give or take a thousand or two) words each. The idea behind it being each chapter covers a very large a...
How do you use adverbs properly in fiction writing? In a related question, a reply states: When to use [adverbs]? When your alternative would be pretentious. There are strong nouns and verbs, ...
I have the following sentence: Pocket squares are a standout amongst the most vital apparatuses for a man of style. It's important to have the correct pocket square for the correct event. ...
When writing dialogue I usually just make one character say whatever I want them to say and then write "said" at the end, but I feel like I'm doing it wrong. What is the correct way to write dial...
I am writing a story about a character that travels as an ESL teacher and am wondering how you can explain scenery without getting to much into it.
Following the first answer for this question What does Show don't Tell actually mean I followed to the Chuck Palahniuk exercise and tried applying it to my current work. From this point forwar...
I'd like to write a scene where my character is thinking back and forth between decisions, and I'm not sure what the correct way is. Do I write all of his thoughts in italics, or just every other...
How should you end a business letter? If you are writing a letter to your grandparents, I would use With Love from 'name' However, if you are writing a professional letter to someone impor...
Sometimes when I'm reading, I get myself reading automaticaly. This happens in certain books more than in others. I'am reading but I'm not assimilating what is writen, and then I have to read it al...
The Chicago Manual of Style: When a word or term is not used functionally but is referred to as the word or term itself, it is either italicized or enclosed in quotation marks. Proper nouns...
This kind of thing comes up a lot in my engineering job. We're writing a document that is a Plan for something we'll be doing in the future. For instance, a Test Plan that describes who will partic...
I have a few questions about the page numbering of the last few pages of my book. I have a section with further resources. It contains one page with information about a site and three more pages ...
Proposition: Stories are information packets aimed to "entertain" people, and just like every other form of communication, they have: A basic and lasting knowledge for interpreting the informatio...
I have developed a sci-fi/fantasy mixed universe with many characters, good amount of background lore and I have a plot for at least two different stories each for a single/multi novel length. So f...
I think this sentence is awkwardly worded: Do(es) you/your company add job questions on job applications currently? I think it should say: Do you or your company currently add job questions on j...
To me, it sounds fine to say "She wore a black shirt and red skirt", without the indefinite article before "red skirt". However, in "She wore a black shirt and red skirt revealing slim legs", I wo...
The anti-adverb advice for English should be (and often is) stated as specific to -ly manner adverbs; Ben Blatt has found the more highly-regarded writers use just as many adverbs, but use fewer -l...
I am thinking about setting my story in a postapocalyptic world where all art and literature are gone, and people are mostly illiterate. People lost the ability to formulate deep thoughts, became i...
How many pages and chapters should cover the Ordinary World also known as the normal world of the Protagonist? Ordinary World is the term used in the Hero's Journey for the ordinary world the hero ...
Traditionally, I've only written essays that have one thesis statement that are supposed to answer one question. Now I'm being asked to answer two separate prompts in one single essay. First promp...
Example in my own writing: Kazumi didn't reply to her boyfriend---or rather ex-boyfriend's---message. Instead, she stayed at Burger King, reanalyzing Kouta's abandonment over a coffee. No, ...
My goal is to introduce the reader to a ‘wonderful’ fantasy world with an underdog main character full of panache…and delve into the constraints and debilitations of living in such a highly stratif...
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...
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...
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 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...
