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@Amadeus mentions duels. A crucial fact to the understanding of duelling, mostly ignored in the modern media: it was the seconds' task to attempt reconciliation. So, in fact, asking someone to a du...
Study how real cultures have done similar things. Consider how ritualistic warfare worked in many tribal societies in the real world. Many tribal cultures and even a few urban cultures all over t...
properties [of] a generic main character of character-driven/psychological novel Short Answer: A very long list. Oh, and a degree in Psychology helps. Long Answer: Assume that you are an MC i...
The simple approach. All you need to agree is what is the status quo at the end of the first part, which, incidentally, will be the status quo at the beginning of the second part. It is like a j...
Expanding on Cyn's last paragraph. In the case of bootcamp, you can skip it entirely and just give a summary at the end. The important element is making the reader know what all the boot-camp brou...
Have you considered racism? May not fit with your story, but maybe some kind of societal objection ... like wrong accent, hair too long, tattoos ... all arbitrary, but could influence someone to b...
In a modern setting, the prosecution may submit something like blogs or emails intended to prove the defendant was involved in some crime or had knowledge of it. But the judge, in reading these bl...
+1 to both suggestions. In addition: Play with an alternating viewpoint. There can be rich potential in viewing the same scene or battle from two different perspectives. Have the MC develop a r...
Let me point out a different risk of providing a too detailed description of how the aliens learned about it: The risk of unnecessarily contradicting established science, and thus losing exactly th...
Your issue is common to many novels and other long works. Your characters aren't just dropping into and out of your MC's life (like you often see in, say, TV shows where the MCs have friends for o...
Similarly, in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, we don't hear about Bishop Myriel, his sister and his servant after their scene with Jean Valjean, nor about Félix Tholomyès and his friends after he ...
As the author, you have full foresight of events to come in the plot. You know in advance which characters will be with your MC, where, why and when. If you decide to write about them it is becau...
I am writing a very complex sci-fi book and faced a similar dilemma. I don't think my story would make a good game, but I like games that are based on good stories because they seem to have better ...
I am a sci-fi guy, and I find this whole concept a little boring... it would be like if Robert Kirkman comes up with this explanation for the Walking Dead, would anyone in the audience really care...
Since this is a game, you can have your cake and eat it too: put the detailed explanations in sidequests or optional logs. The main plot presented to the player doesn't need to include anything but...
Slice of life describes the depiction of mundane experiences in art and entertainment. In theater it refers to naturalism, while in literary parlance it is a narrative technique in which a s...
Write the length you need to tell your story. If it turns out to be a short story or a novella, so be it. Instead of taking longer to tell the story, maybe what you need is to tell a story that...
A shepherd boy was bored of just watching sheep, so he cried out that there was a wolf, and the people from the nearby town came running to save him, but were angry when he laughed at them a...
Most first drafts are too long, and improvement usually involves removing a lot; and yet many beginning writers think they should make their story even longer. But suppose you've not made a mistake...
"It is correct to use commas in dialogue tags," said Dan, taking another bite of cheesecake. Note, however, you don't need a comma in cases like this: "I need to work out more," says the guy s...
I would say it is definitely a new paragraph if only to indicate 'he' didn't say 'I thought ...'. I teach that you start a new paragraph when you change speaker, place, time or character. Here the...
Yes. Not only should you start a new paragraph for every character, but you need to be clear about who is saying or doing what. You mention the excerpt involves 3 characters. We know the first p...
Are you changing narrators? Think of your Third-Person story as being told by a single narrator. Now when you get to the back-story, does the character who is being talked about take over the narr...
I see it as if you were reporting the dialogue between a couple of people sitting a table over from you in a public place. If you want the words, write it as dialogue. Quote it normally and attri...
For me, it depends on whether the backstory is completely true or not. Swapping to first person (almost a monologue) permits the new story teller to lie. Holding it in third person makes it 'true...
