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 working on a series of novels and it didn't take long into writing the first one that I realized the need to do some more outlining. My question is how complete does my outline need to be bef...
I am planning a series of fantasy novels which will be told in linear time with relatively small time jumps. One novel in the collection, however must span several generations while keeping the sa...
Here's the set up. You're reading a traditional fantasy. Something is attacking the land of the elves. At long last the invaders are discovered, and they are... intelligent rabbits. My idea isn't...
I began writing a novel. It's something I'm preparing for a long time and I now have enough material. Given the fact that I will concentrate on my main character's poitnt of view, and that I want t...
I may take on the task of leading a one session (2 hour maximum) workshop on poetry. What would be the most important aspects that should be covered in such a workshop? I would assume that most fol...
So in my story, theres a character (name's Tris) in love with a girl, but she died. Her name was Lais. Later when he's older, he saves a little girl who looks the same as the girl who dies. He ad...
This is a sort of act related question. I have an important drug that causes the protagonist to encounter people and things he normally wouldn't, and it is the foundation of a convoluted plan by th...
Having thesis statement in the intro; what would you think is it a good practice to have in non-academic writing Thanks
I have adopted the use of italics to denote internal monologue. A reviewer suggested that I italicize a word of spoken dialog to denote emphasis: "What… what in the Sam Hill is that?" I know...
For the dedication of my upcoming book, I have written For my child. Do you think that period should be there?
I recently read a novel with a section that went something like this: "I have often wished that I had born into a different family; that I had never studied art at college; that my voice weren't so...
I've been writing some fantasy. Now, inevitably because its a big piece of fantasy, its all very involved with the world, culture, story and general bits. Personally, I'm really enjoying writing it...
I would like to start a chapter with a text message. I believe based on the style guides I've read that you should indent text messages, but how about if they are at the start of a chapter? Usua...
I recently read the question "What does show don't tell actually mean?" and in the answers, there were a few examples of showing that had extensive description. However, there are numerous websites...
I have been finding it very difficult to come up with topics/ theses for my essay assignments and I think reading the works of more experienced scholars may be useful. However, I haven't been able...
This is a question that doesn't directly apply to me, though I can easily see myself having this problem. I thought I'd run writer's block for a loop and find the answer before the problem arose. :...
For example, in the following exchange, "Shut up!" she yelled. "I can't think when you ramble." (For context, it's for a novel or online story publication.) I want to emphasize the two words ...
The sentence is: “Where do you want these?” Jon’s publisher asked, bobbling a box with the word books scrawled across the side. What do I do with the word, "books"? Do I quote it (as above)? Sh...
There is no "style guide" of any kind for this report, or any reports in this company. Formal reports aren't too frequent. This is a mostly internal report, though it may end up with a consultation...
When can I go from thwarting, to destroying? For example, say the protagonist was working towards a goal, but towards the end they killed the people they had spent the novel with, as they became s...
I am wondering whether it's necessary to use commas in the sentences below when addressing or introducing someone: “You look after each other, okay children?" “You look after each other, okay...
I would like a utility that could analyze a document and give me stats like this: WORD: FREQUENCY: a 47,268 the 37,201 gross 215 irregardlessly 1 ...
I'm trying to write a newspaper article inside my work of fiction. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to write ages and dates in this article. I took journalism in college, and I know that if I am su...
I see that a lot of people like Scrivener better than yWriter. I know Scrivener is better, but my dad refuses to buy it, and I don't have a credit card. So, what does make Scrivener better than yWr...
Two different "authorities" produce widely different word counts - which is correct? I am using "Times New Roman" with 1 inch margins. One authority "says" one word equals 6 characters. Since ea...
The story I'm writing is all about discovery, so 95% of it needs to be unknown by the reader at first. But I just don't know how to make a short description of it, for example when telling to a fri...
I wouldn't say he's bland by any means, but this character is definitely talkative, and he's supposed to be. He's not the main character but does show up quite a bit. He tends to lecture and ramble...
Allow me to explain what prompted the question before you immediately say that it's not okay and it would confuse the readers. The protagonist of the novel - also the narrator - has the ability to...
So, I'm in the process of writing a Sci-fi novel, and I use a website to upload chapters before I complete it. On the website, I use chapter titles simply because "RE Lavender has just updated Fac...
Certainly there are many Science Fiction writers who touch upon the subject of beings supreme to Man...but always Man is central in writing.
I want to write a story about a man in a bad place in his life and how he finds his way back to his destiny. This seems to be to be a redemption story. Looking at Monkeys with Typewriters, it seem...
From this question: However, unless you're an established author, you don't have the luxury of declaring your work to be fantasy or science fiction like Fowler does; someone else has to do that...
Puns introduced by authors make a text look witty to a reader. Professional writers skillfully manipulate words and phrases to demonstrate their smartness and, most important, gain the affection of...
I know that names of countries, states, cities, and counties are always capitalized, but what about governments and organizations? In my novella there are basically 2 sections of space, and each ha...
Background Info: My main character starts out the story with kind of a sad back story, it's not in a tragic way, just the normal kind of misfortune; losing family members, having to drop out of col...
I am writing a paper but I don't know how to move back to the main section after I'm done writing a sub-section, like this: 1.1 Main section 1.1.1 subsection 1 1.1.2 subsection 2 As I write long...
I am writing a semi-fantasy novel, which is set in medieval India and today's New York. I have never been to New York, and will not be there, for far period. How can I do research to embed the cult...
I've recently been struggling with a very strange problem in my writing: I can't find the main conflict in my novels. This has inspired quite a bit of thought and reflection on exactly what a main ...
This protagonist born and lives in a peasant village in a medieval-like age, where education and science aren't known much. But a certain awful event occurs in this village that leads this characte...
Like totally chronological (starting in the beginning of the world's story events and going on to the future), or in the present-past-future order, or another? Is there any specific time order be...
This may seem like an off-topic question, but it's really more about writing than about the grammar. I use a lot of dialogue in my writing, sometimes too much, but while I'm writing it, though the...
(I realize there have been similar questions before, such as this and this, but the answers to those unfortunately did not help much with my specific issue.) I have three characters. Sally speaks ...
I'm writing a story that has a character telling a story in this story, they mention a label from a statue they remember vividly, can I write the label in a separate paragraph. I've noticed other b...
So I was thinking, and I've been wondering if some ideas are so overused readers don't get the 'thrill' of reading them anymore. I'm really into last-man-standing type novels, I love them. I've wr...
I am writing a story from a 3rd person perspective as the omniscient narrator. When my antagonist is revealed first, people believe him to be a certain person - X, not that any one says that to him...
In my setting, a city was founded by people from all over the world, and developed in almost complete isolation (long version here). The story in itself starts several generations after the foundat...
I'm a newbie reader and often find myself needing to open the dictionary at least once every few pages. Although I'm a newbie, my vocabulary is at least of an average proficiency so I wonder what i...
I had a discussion with someone who claimed she'd once read (though she couldn't remember the source) that men can identify and empathize with male as well as female protagonists, while women ident...
I'm writing a fantasy novel, in which the story progresses over a number of years. Throughout the story, I want to display an evolution of the magic, much like technology evolves in our world. The...
I was thinking about my own style of writing. Turn out, in every role play I've written, I have a good writing style when I use the first person pov. I'll add some "voices" to the main character. (...
