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"Could" in the first one is just the past tense of "can," as you correctly note. In the second example, you are referring to a possibility in the "farther back" past. "Could Tom's mother have been...
In general, I think @lostinfrance's answer is excellent, this is just a supplement to that: You can't necessarily ever know if your book is ready or not in terms of content, but you do need to mak...
As others have noted, at absolute minimum you must have someone look over your work for technical mistakes (spelling, grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary). You must do this even if you self-pub...
"Private" doesn't mean just one recipient; it just means "not public". When you throw a by-invitation party in your home it's a private affair even if there are 50 people there. Email is the same...
I'm not entirely sure your example demonstrates the lack of public stakes. The world of the novel is the immediate world the character inhabits, a social world that encompasses all the characters w...
The readers only know what you tell them. If you want the reader to realize your narrator isn't telling the truth, the truth must get to the reader around your narrator. Your narrator can be cau...
Which form you use is entirely writer preference. Neither 'said James' nor 'James said' is wrong. They are both grammatically correct, along with various other similar dialogue tags. Which one yo...
If the moments of that events are jumbled and chaotic, then write it down that way. crashing sounds oh my god what just is that smoke? people running my heartrate starts to spike the ground is...
This is a common thing if you forgot the details. Its human tendency of mind. You can not recall whole things and feelings until or unless you live them. In your case you lived them but due to your...
Use your imagination. I mean, your imagination should be informed by experiences you've actually had and remembered, but you expand and explore and combine these experiences using your imagination,...
"Show Don't Tell" is an axiom of fiction writing. Here is a short example of why. Example of Telling Bob was feeling sad. Example of Showing Bob picked up the newspaper, read the headli...
If it's something that big I would blockquote it (as you've done here for your post) and indent it, and then leave off quotes. It's not dialogue, which has specific practices for multiple paragraph...
The best advice I can give you is to write a post that fits into the blog where you're going to publish it. Universe Factory seems to favor short posts, and I see a couple of multipart posts, so I'...
Welcome to the site, Bruce! In this case, describing pain in the first is no different than doing it in the third person. The only difference would be that you would use 'I' rather than third per...
but the story involves an enemy who can perfectly anticipate your moves. This happened more than once on Leverage (a totally fun Robin Hood heist-of-the-week show; I highly recommend it). The ...
Worldbuilding SE can help you with a specific solution to your logic problem, but in terms of writing I'll offer a general solution to how to solve such a problem. If you're not sure how to move t...
If you have a WordPress site, you should be able to create various users who have different levels of permission. Give your two or three trusted friends their own usernames with Admin or Editor per...
Again, it is widely believed that you need to describe everything. But when you feel like it is necessary to add to your plot, go ahead, write about that poop! If not, you're not going to want to a...
As others have said, if it doesn't advance the plot, leave it out. A story doesn't have to mention every little thing the characters do. A story that did would likely be mind-numbingly boring. "Th...
It would be interesting to write a story, just once, composed entirely of scenes taking place in a bathroom. People do a lot of interesting things while showering or taking a piss or a crap. They c...
Top Three : Most Often Confusing Items Not knowing what to show. Why would a writer pick certain details instead of others? Not knowing why structure is important -- it's for readers -- and cons...
I thought of three things. From least to most appealing: 1. Letting it linger As you say, once person X is found, the story is complete. You can write an epilogue like you mentioned, but you can ...
Writer Preference Both ways are correct. In your first example, 'smashing it like an egg' is a dependent clause. The second line converts it to a compound verb and an adverb clause. In your secon...
The answer depends on the work's intent. If the characters are thinly characterized and stereotyped because the work's main attraction is a sensationalist plot crammed with dramatic events, then w...
I tend to write my stories "backward." In a 12-chapter novel, I once wrote the first three chapters, then Chapter 12, Chapter 11, Chapter 10, Chapter 9, then chapters 4-8 in some random order. I k...
