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Writer's Digest lists all 20 plots. That's all there are. If you find a story, it will use one (or several of them) but for many centuries, this list hasn't changed. For example, the nanobot story...
There are no completely original plots. There are authors who have managed to put an original spin on an old idea, however. But when you boil the basic plot down, it's going to be the same as thous...
No country for old men (book, haven't seen the movie) had a killer and a guy who found some money. Don't want to spoil it, but I don't think it can be fit into any of the tradional plots - no resol...
What happens in your story seems, from your description, to be action/thriller. Where your story is set is an imaginary world, bearing some resemblance to the real world in the 1950-ish era. The ...
Low fantasy is a label that's somewhat commonly used for stories set in secondary worlds, where the tone of the story is dark and the worldbuilding leans towards realism. Frequently these stories w...
P.G. Wodehouse is a master of this. "Big chap with a small moustache and the sort of eye that can open an oyster at sixty paces." "It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a...
Douglas Adams has numerous examples. "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." "[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says that the best drink in existence is the Pan G...
Another is Alternatives to Sex. It has chapters, but they're not what you'd consider traditional chapters -- much shorter and they broken by the shape and pace of the narrative.
I have found genre forums very rewarding. For example, I write Science Fiction and I am a member in two SF Forums. I have found that SciFi Fans are enthusiastic and quite capable when I need help ...
It sounds like you are struggling between two possiblities: Fixing typos but having your concentration on the forward movement of your writing broken, or Moving on but facing a daunting task of c...
Look, like most of these things, the answer is "what works for you". Personally, I have to keep pushing on -- if I look back, my Inner Critic starts asking for other changes, and as Satchel Paige ...
The AP Stylebook is the ultimate resource when it comes to AP style. You can purchase it in several forms through the AP Stylebook website. The print version for $18.95 plus shipping The online ...
I found this page after searching the web: How to Reference a Book in AP Style. It outlines how to cite sources, but annoyingly enough, doesn't cite the information it gives. I suspect it's from th...
Remember that although AP Style is used by many different publications and media, it is FOR journalists writing news articles. As such, there really is no such thing as attribution to sources becau...
"Purple prose" is overwrought metaphors, melodramatic and clichéd phrasing, and cartoonish actions. She gasped, her snow-white breast heaving, and her emerald eyes filled with tears. "How could ...
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=writechallenge Updated every time you click
This, I think, is a writing prompt tool unlike any other. Whereas most prompts just start you off, this one can assist you with the continuation of your story. It provides multiple ways to get a ...
Some Preliminary Words... I'm not entirely sure that withholding a character's name is the best way to go about producing an aura of mystery. In fact, this is something that I've seen in a lot of ...
I wrote a similar story recently, leaving the character nameless as a method of dehumanisation as opposed to implimenting mystery. I think the best way to do it is to use more thought-based 1st per...
How about using the second person instead of the third person?
Well, there is a book and a movie adaptation :- '12 Angry Men'. That one exactly does what you have in your mind. none of the character's names are used. there are 12+ characters in the plot! Hope ...
I guess it depends on how it's being presented. If a character is speaking the time it would be whatever flows naturally. Most of the time people talk about time in relation to now, so three in the...
AP Style requires a.m. or p.m. -- lower case, separated by periods. There is no need for an additional period if the sentence ends with the time. The briefing began at 2:30 p.m. This would b...
Short answer: cynicism is a version of "playing hard-to-get," which some people find attractive. You seduce by allowing yourself to be chased. Long answer: Someone who's cynical can be an attracti...
I pretty vividly remember the fight scene in about all of Robert Ludlum's novels. If the name doesn't ring a bell: he wrote the Jason Bourne novels ("The Bourne Identity" is the first in the serie...
