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16.1k posts
 
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Q&A What things should one highlight as good in beta reading feedback?

Some time ago I came across a Beta reading worksheet. One common thing is to go through those (or other) points and tell the writer only the problems that one found using them. But IMO it's importa...

posted 7y ago by SC for reinstatement of Monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Acronyms in Technical Writing

Whether you put the acronym or the name first depends on how everyone refers to it. If it's almost always an acronym, but you have to explain it on first reference, write it as: New drugs to tr...

posted 7y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Acronyms in Technical Writing

I don't think there is any one rule that fits every case here. The golden rule, if anything, would be to not overburden the reader, but keep in mind what they can be expected to know up front. Not ...

posted 7y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A At what point does a POV character noting their surroundings go from showing/telling to an infodump?

One alternative is to "postpone and dilute". It is in fact likely that a very small amount of all the infodump is needed to get the scene running. Add the other elements as you go. To think of a p...

posted 7y ago by _X_‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to write a scientific journal?

In your question you talk about writing "a scietific journal" (to track your progress), but then you talk about publishing in industry journals. Those are not the same thing -- and when you submit...

posted 7y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do big creative writing projects with multiple people work, preferably in the videogame industry?

I wrote all this before I understood that the desired focus was on video games specifically: I don't know a lot about story writing for video games or coding, but I do have experience with colla...

posted 7y ago by Todd Wilcox‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A At what point does a POV character noting their surroundings go from showing/telling to an infodump?

Info dumping is putting in too much information that bogs down the story. How much is too much depends on a lot of factors, including writing style and genre and PoV. Example: As was customar...

posted 7y ago by Fayth85‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can we make reviewing HTML documentation easier?

Not sure if I can adequately answer this, since I know little about web development. But I'll try to give some ideas. I would use JavaScript to comment inline and SQL to store the comments. Doub...

posted 7y ago by Boondoggle‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I make my 'first draft' good enough to be published?

I'm a research scientist and professor at a university. We tolerate exactly this "rather curious approach" to research, of multiple refinements until we zero in on something interesting. We do expe...

posted 6y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I make my 'first draft' good enough to be published?

Building a car is a repeatable process. It happens on an assembly line and each step is the same. There are some small, intentional variations in the process to accommodate customization like pai...

posted 6y ago by Dan J.‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to make the reader think that the *character's* logic is flawed instead of the author's?

In my experience with writing, I've come to see huge dramatic potential in the distance between a character's actions and a character's dialogue. Put some distance between what he says he will do a...

posted 6y ago by FalseEpiphany‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to make the reader think that the *character's* logic is flawed instead of the author's?

One way is to have the character's plans that were based on that logic to fall apart later. Also, if you show other examples of the character having flawed logic, then the reader is more likely to ...

posted 6y ago by Acccumulation‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Chapter 1 Problems

Yes, you are doing something wrong. Typically the first thing you think of for a story is not where a story should start, because story ideas begin with big dramatic moments, reveals, discoveries,...

posted 7y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  edited 4y ago by Canina‭

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Q&A What are the benefits of including complete working code samples in documentation

There are different types of examples and they serve different purposes. One type is the quick-start example that this answer describes: a complete, but small, runnable example packaged in a form ...

posted 7y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  edited 3y ago by Monica Cellio‭

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Q&A What are the benefits of including complete working code samples in documentation

Working samples is an absolute must for all APIs. Period. Reference pages especially need one. Not including them overlooks the fact that API documentation is used by a range of people. It's short ...

posted 7y ago by ForEachLoop‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A I feel like I'm plagiarizing my story?

The question whether or not you may use ideas, characters, stories, and so on from other works has been addressed multiple times on this site; you will find them if you use the site search. The sh...

posted 6y ago by System‭  ·  edited 3y ago by Canina‭

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Q&A How do I translate into a gendered language where the gender would be a spoiler?

Go with אתה. While not natively Israeli, I am currently living in Israel. And from what I know, speaking the language and seeing what goes on here, when you don't know the gender, it's generally d...

posted 6y ago by Mithical‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A The problem with beginning

You don't have to just say "He ran", your opening sets the stage for where the action takes place and gives us insight into the character. You can state things about the environment, what the chara...

posted 6y ago by BKlassen‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Do authors often base their characters off of themselves?

While I couldn't give you statistics on how prevalent it is, certainly it is not especially rare. I can think of a few major, bestselling authors who have done this off the top of me head easily en...

posted 6y ago by motosubatsu‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A What website for posting writing is going to give me the least grief?

As a writer if you want to share your work with people at large you need to develop a very thick skin. The nature and to a certain extent culture of the internet in particular means that people fe...

posted 6y ago by motosubatsu‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is no religion a bad thing?

There's two levels to consider here - setting/story and character. Story Some post-apocalyptic settings have introduced religious organisations in, either pre-apocalyptic holdouts or new cults (e...

posted 6y ago by motosubatsu‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Could the cast of my book be more unique?

It's difficult to answer this definitively since there's information you've been unable to share thus far. So for more of a general "how to approach answering this for yourself" answer - I tend to...

posted 6y ago by motosubatsu‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to make the reader think that the *character's* logic is flawed instead of the author's?

Usually the narrator knows about the thoughts. And the narrator will know that the thoughts are illogical, and thus can distance himself/herself from the thoughts. Of course that only works if the ...

posted 6y ago by celtschk‭  ·  edited 4y ago by celtschk‭

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Q&A Sizing of a chapter and how many should I use?

Chapter length is a stylist choice There is no correct answer to this. The length of the chapters in any given book is entirely dependant on writing style. How you use them can effect the tone of ...

posted 5y ago by linksassin‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I make my 'first draft' good enough to be published?

If you are not primarily an "exploration writer" (or even if you are), there is a lot of advance work that can make your first draft better. This includes worldbuilding --coming up with rich and e...

posted 6y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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