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There is no "rule of thumb". There may be some rules, but in most cases it comes down to taste. What I want to add to other answers is that if English is not your first language, you should probab...
This is the kind of question that can be answered by looking at books you admire. Find the most exciting, vivid novel you can, and see how many exclamation points the author uses. Not very many, I ...
The amount of exposition appears totally fine to me. But I think you're using more words than you need to in order to provide it. I would cut the length of the section in half, and probably put i...
Mention it as the reason he cannot speak and then touch lightly on it. If cancer in remission means an altered diet, include that. I have a cousin who must get more sleep to help keep cancer at bay...
This isn't a standard short story, so present it in the most clear and understandable format, so your readers won't have to play guessing games, like so: Mark: I met Jim when we were in third g...
It depends to what degree you change perspective, if you're switching from one first person narrative to another you can do this smoothly enough. Switching from first person to third can be, and of...
An omniscient narrator can tell the whole story: sometimes the narrator's focus is on the MC, sometimes it's elsewhere. However, if the narrator only rarely strays away from sitting on the MC's sh...
Instead of worrying about it just do your best. Though don't assume you're going to get it right. In fact, you're probably better off assuming you'll get everything wrong. It's always a bunch of co...
As others have pointed out, you can't stop people from shipping whomever they want, but you can deflect some of the energy. If plausible within the scope of the story, center a romantic relationshi...
Portray the emotions of your viewpoint character. In general, when using a limited viewpoint you should only be describing the details that your viewpoint character notices. And how you describe a...
You can also use the royal "we", even if there was only one person doing it. "We conditioned the matrices using ..." "After these adjustments, we found a significant increase in ..." ...
introduce a... very well-endowed character. How do I write this so that I get the point across that she's that way, but not making it sound overly lewd or off-putting? I thought it was cute re...
This is just about the psychology of what makes a good story. A person is not a hero if they fight because they are forced into the fight. A person did not solve their problem if the solution just ...
I'd say the question of Active vs. Reactive hero is as much a question of how you present events, as of what is actually happening. Let me give you an example: Frodo, the main character of the wil...
People want things A character is both more plausible and interesting if they have goals and desires which move them to a significant enough degree that the plot is impacted by those desires. Eve...
One example I can think of for a truly reactive protagonist is Arthur Dent in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. For the most part, he is basically dragged around as events happen around and to h...
It's often been pointed out that Indiana Jones has a minimal impact on the plot in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Most if not all of the major plot points would have happened with or without him. Yet har...
Pretending to "have found and edited an obscure manuscript" is quite a common literary device. A few other examples include Neil Gaiman's The Dream Hunters (Illustrated by Yoshitako Amano, part of ...
We are not lawyers here, and I am not a lawyer, and you are asking for legal advice to avoid a defamation lawsuit (if it is published it is called Libel, if it is spoken it is called Slander). Th...
I really don't understand why you have to point out anything at all. As long as there is no clear indication of an erotic relationship, the non-prejudiced reader will not assume that there is one....
It's interesting that you identified Kirk and Spock as phillia as a lot of fan fiction terms are traced to Star Trek fandom having a Kirk Spok eros relationship as a core theme of Fan fiction. In ...
Explore your setting What is your setting? As a modern Greek, when a man is married, nothing short of kissing the other man on the mouth will make me suspect sex between them. Because normally (al...
You don't necessarily have to write about your ex. Just leave it as a husband who is an ex and whatever detail you would like to add to the character. You don't necessarily have to add your won sto...
The same way you can point out the same relationship between any pairing people think/assume are romantically involved, show how funny and/or gross they find the idea that they could ever be more t...
The problem is, you CAN'T prevent people from making slashfics about your characters. Supernatural is the greatest proof of this you could ever have. Sam and Dean Winchester are brothers. Not even...
