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"Dangerous Liasons" (1988) and the modern remake "Cruel Intentions" (1999) show example of how it is done. The beginning is stronger in Cruel Intentions, where the main character basically just had...
For the agents--You will only need a perfect query letter and opening pages. If you find an agent that requests the full manuscript, you can explain your situation. If they find your story compelli...
I think, to humanise infanticide, you can present the whole thing as the terrible tragedy it is: the parents would have done anything to prevent this situation, they would accept any sacrifices to ...
I was wondering what you meant by Struggling with the number of themes in my work Because I think of themes as coming up organically and not being something you explicitly write. But now I wonder...
For starters, even the finest novels are not end to end deathless prose, all books have high points and highlights, so don't beat yourself up if not every page is crammed with shimmering gems. It ...
What I would do: Allow yourself to put your writing (as you have done it until today) on hold for a year or so. Use this time to try to approach writing differently. First, take a month or so to ...
At least in the USA, you can also file a DBA (Doing Business As) for your pen name, which gives you the right to sign contracts and do other stuff without revealing your real name. IANAL, but busin...
Yes...but... Yes, of course you can use your pen name. Your audiences need never hear anything different. None of your marketing materials need give your real name. The issue comes when you nee...
I think Standback has a great perspective here. Answer: Symptoms of crying are one thing. But you can do other things with this emotion, and you should. You can go into the character's thought p...
I think what you're sensing is a desire to ramp up the conflict. Especially for a longer series, you need the stakes to increase with each book. First there's the enemy, then friends start turning ...
(Nearly) Everyone needs to be a writer Research mathematicians write papers. Corporate workers draft emails and reports. Software engineers write documentation. Basically any educated worker ne...
One advantage of actually writing is you can edit, revise, add and delete to the story. You don't have to have a whole story in your head, or a plot, to start writing a story and finish it. Read t...
From what I understand, a few errors usually won't be the main cause for rejection. If there are a very large number of grammatical errors, or a fair number of glaring errors, that might tilt thing...
The publishing industry has become extremely competitive in recent years. The effect is that publishers only invest money in extensive editing and revising if they are absolutely sure that the book...
This looks like another job for our friend Stanislavski. Stanislavski had this idea that an actor should observe themselves through reflection at the end of the day to see what they were doing with...
Very likely a rejection. I have a book written by an agent that interviews dozens of other agents, the bottom line is that agents are looking for a reason to say NO, because they have 50 queries fo...
Introduction You asked: What would the headings be for? The main idea/topic of each paragraph or of each "section"? My answer here is going to attempt to show how headings are used and uses ...
I'd suggest giving some thought to how the magic actually works -- because figuring out a concrete magical effect will get you a long way towards answering the question "how does this escape the ch...
You do this in italics, without quote marks, usually as a new paragraph (like dialogue). It reminds me of when I visited Shirakami-Sanchi, that forest up North. If we see the thoughts of more tha...
DPT's and Rasdashan's answers offer good advice. I will just add that its important to remember that most conversations are Q&A sessions (essentially). When you talk with someone, you want to...
Get permission from the copyright owner to republish. It's nice to ask the author too but contact whoever owns the copyright, which isn't always the original publisher, especially for an older wor...
Welcome to the world of writers. That isn't sarcasm, by the way, that's truth. Let me tell you about my own tale, with a novel (series) called Altar of Warlords. This story has gone through a doze...
What keeps writers writing is the utter impossibility of not writing. Tolkien had no hope of ever publishing The Silmarillion, yet he kept writing and rewriting and editing and re-editing it throug...
You have several choices. 1) Write a side-story chapter. It could be in third person or first person in the POV of another character that witnessed the event. Third person conveys the detachment f...
This is basically selling oneself. So you have to show the advantages of your application (learnt skills, professional experiences, hobbies that are related to writing...) You should create some ki...
