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I'm having trouble deciding if the manner I have decided to narrate my story is too complicated or not. I have a story set in a completely foreign and alien world (fiction story). I then uproot my...
Forget looking for your list among the bookstores and libraries. They contain legions of pretty book covers, but within those covers hides the full spectrum of writing qualities. Look instead wit...
I would start by making a distinction between a good speechwriter and a good speaker. Ted Sorensen explains it very well in this essay on Smithsonian.com. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ted-...
Sure you can! People do it all the time. To use your own example of Abraham Lincoln, there was a film from a few years ago (adapted from some other medium) depicting him as a part-time vampire hun...
In the U.S., "defamation" basically consists of an alleging (false) claims that can be taken as facts. This does not cover wishes or fantasies. So "I wish I could sleep with Jane Doe" (a famous a...
Let's face it, I like edgy writing that borders on inflammatory. I read less for entertainment than I do for expanding my world view. I don't have to agree with the points or even like the style of...
While no one can say for sure, my guess is that you are probably suffering from what seems to be a recurring problem for people posting here: confusing plot with imaginary history. Story never st...
There are two methods by which you can make the death of a relatively obsolete background character sad and meaningful. There is one thing you have to watch out for though: Cannon Fodder This mi...
I like to say that broadly speaking, Wikipedia is mostly trustworthy when statements are cited, but it's never a source. There are several parts to this. Wikipedia is broadly and mostly trustwort...
There's a concept that I'm rather fond of regarding story resolution called "promises to the reader" The idea is that every story promises things to the readers, and failing to fulfill those promi...
Two real-psych possibilities, Destructive Cult Syndrome and capture-bonding. Destructive Cult Disorder. From the wiki: Robbins and Anthony, who had historically studied a condition similar to...
Science and faith are not opposites. They are different modes of knowing. They are other modes of knowing as well, such as logic, mathematics, ethics, and the historical method. Each of them addres...
Probably the easiest way is presume the character is intelligent, well read in history and sociology, and unencumbered by "stick in the mud" thinking. An obvious choice would be to make her a profe...
I'm going to say no, but do it anyway. Which may be confusing, but let me explain. Religious groups are diverse, and you won't be able to represent that diversity in your book, because you will...
On another site, I wrote a critical review of a book that featured a "King Frederic II" of France who reigned between 1777-1819. I pointed out that this was a particularly unfortunate time to confu...
I am going to start by disagreeing with @Amadeus. The first job of a writer is not to entertain. At least, not necessarily. I don't think anyone reads All Quiet on the Western Front, or The Old Ma...
While there are injustices in every society, and the rich and strong oppress the poor and weak in every society (including our own), current ideas about what is biased or unfair treatment can't be ...
Given Joan of Arc and Loki on the stage, your setting is modern-day magical, you have a 600+ year old woman and a God. The reader will consider it a rip-off, a bait-and-switch if you don't reveal t...
It's dangerous. It can be done well, but there is literary danger in beginning with "An Important Scene", as opposed to an unimportant or even forgettable scene. The danger is in the utter lack of...
So how can I avoid a minor character, from whose point of view the story is being told, becoming the protagonist instead of the person whose story I want to tell? Well, you can't. Not really. The ...
Many works of the High Fantasy genre are set in a pseudo-European fantasyland, in a rather amorphous time-period that mixes early-medieval and late-medieval arms and armour (but never gunpowder), l...
I have a problem writing my alt-history story. It's a story about basically World War I. Yet, I wish not to convey ideas of the time, like how which country was bad, which country was good. Indeed,...
Professional writers can write pages of exposition without a problem, this is not too much, and 3 times as much would not be too much. As a matter of critique; you are weakening your prose with to...
There is no special secret technique to writing. No methodologies that you must follow. No "right way". The best ways to learn about writing are reading and writing. When you read, you are exposed...
Three main advantages: You won't have to actually research that country... If you set the story in Iraq, there is a lot of history and politics that your readers are already aware of, and your ...
