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There are examples of separate stories connected thematically. I think the question is, when is such a work a collection of independent stories on the same theme and when is it a single novel. One...
I need a change ~ 80% of the way through my story. At the moment, I'm just throwing my characters into different combinations and seeing if they come up with anything interesting. Two of my charac...
If I am not addressing your question about repetitiveness, clarify it and I will edit. I do see a few problems with your prose. In no particular order: 1) I don't understand the value of "urged"....
Well first I would question giving readers information that no character knows. This creates dramatic irony, and while it has its uses is very frustrating to the reader who instead of feeling like ...
So the story I want to write can really only be written in one of two ways. Basically it's the modern world, a handful of people develop god-like powers, and some of them want to use those powers t...
As others have said, avoid references to our pop culture completely, and invent your own. I think this is an example of making the world of your book much larger than that shown: as if the book i...
It depends on the genre. The purpose of a story is to give pleasure to the reader. Learning things is certainly one of life's pleasures. In historical fiction, for instance, readers often take the ...
I'd echo the above answers that it's possible to write a likeable pervert provided they're harmless, and provided the scope is narrowed to that character and does not creep into the narration of th...
Alternatively, am I approaching this from the wrong direction, and need to have the Empire represent legitimate antagonistic force? You've got plenty of answers here so I'll offer a differen...
Your characters are too nice. You can also argue, disagree (politely, rudely, friendly-rudely). You can misunderstand. You can interrupt. You can complain and ask them to get to the point. You can...
In his answer to my previous question, @Standback distinguishes two types of erotic storyline: stories in which the stakes are romantic or sexual stories in which the stakes are neither romantic ...
I would do some research first. But what some might call research, others would call fun reading. So, yeah, you should have a decent grasp on the real world history first. As well as a basic u...
I wrote a pretty long answer here, which I think applies: Should we avoid writing fiction about historical events without extensive research? In short - Look at other theories of history, and th...
Sounds like an interesting premise. I’d probably like that story for my Jewish family; it sounds like you acknowledge some realities of Jewish life in America that a lot of fiction is ambivalent a...
Tone and intonation can matter a lot Personality can set a tone for a character. A hero and an antihero might do the exact same things: they dress up as guards, infiltrate the Evil Overlord's base...
I think there are many factors in deciding whether to edit hymns, and there are usually good reasons to take a conservative approach, i.e., if it isn't broken don't fix it. Religion loves traditi...
I've always struggled with sensory details in my writing --I'm a dialog-and-plot kind of writer. But for me, writing details really came alive when I discovered your number three approach. When d...
I would find this approach highly unrealistic. For one, those reel-to-reel tape drives do not EVER record sound; they are strictly digital. I worked with them extensively in the 1970's; for a time ...
I believe it depends on whether you are trying to be personable or professional. If you want to have the reader feel that they are reading comments directly from you, in a personal manner, then the...
I am looking for some inspiration on where to start writing a novel. I have a general idea for a plot and characters, but I don't feel it's enough for sitting down and starting to write. It needs a...
Software developers deal with projects with millions of lines of code and collaborative writing projects deal with content on the order of thousands or hundreds of thousands of lines of text. I thi...
As always, writing style is only a means to an end (in technical writing, at least), so there exist no rules that must always be followed. Still, there are some general ideas that lead to good writ...
Option 1: I'm Back! For an IF game, probably the easiest way to allow character death is to allow some kind of backup, or a chance to be restored to life. Examples include: Cloning Technology - ...
I am a few thousand words into my newest draft and starting to question if I picked the right beginning. As usual, when I get back into the habit of writing regularly, I have also gotten back into ...
It's completely your decision, and the decision you make will help contribute to your writing style (which is why some writers are successful and some are not). So, therefore, you're asking for an ...
