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My bandaid may not fit your wound, but here it is all the same. When I'm editing, I break it down into sections to make it more palatable for me and my ADHD-having muse. First I work on the plot ...
How important do you consider using a contemporary English name? Your book is a fantasy story, probably set in a world similar to our medieval times, but with magic. Brad is a modern name which is ...
You go through piece by piece because you will want to assess each instance. Sorry. That's my answer. Someone may have an easier answer, but easy does not mean better. Look at each instance. Just d...
You have already identified the plot as your main problem. As long as the plot remains unfixed, you feel no motivation for fixing the rest. As you have discovered, you can NOT fix the plot just b...
Separate concerns. If you think of editing as "fixing everything in my novel," it's going to be a huge and unmanageable chore, and there's nowhere to begin it that will give you even a sense of pr...
There are some questions that you should consider before you write your piece. Why is this person telling this story? Is this narrator reliable? Will this narrator tell the whole truth objective...
So how can I avoid a minor character, from whose point of view the story is being told, becoming the protagonist instead of the person whose story I want to tell? Well, you can't. Not really. The ...
Just by coincidence I starting reading a book this morning that could be of interest to you: The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. I'm only on the first chapter, but it seems to speak to your sit...
At this point: don't sweat it. You've got ideas, and you need to put something on paper (or the computer) to get yourself started. So take one of those ideas and go with it. Any half-way decent op...
The thing with the opening of a book is that it’s so important. An editor—or reader—is going to decide if your book is worth reading from that first chapter—or even the first page. Honestly thoug...
If you feel that choosing an opening is the only obstacle to writing a story that will just flow quickly and easily once you have done it, then just write some placeholder text and move onward with...
I feel it would be appropriate to start with the something in the vein of "two years earlier" though you may just want to date both events and let the readers work it out, that's more of a personal...
Loneliness: Writing is primarily a solitary activity. Many software developers are introverts already, so lots of solitude and isolation may not bother you, but for me, as a social person, it's ...
Spoilers ARE a modern concept. Even as recently as the pre-Industrial revolution; the early 1700's, social life was radically different than what you are accustomed to. I'm not talking about any Pu...
Isn't this essentially the same question you already asked? At any rate, my answer is the same: Referencing modern pop culture in science fiction Pop culture references in real life affirm trib...
I sometimes notice that a work of literature has been written by an immigrant. It's not just the sentences - it's something in the underlying world-view, the imagery, the way different things are g...
If the book is readable, flows well, and gets the point across, but you can tell that the writer is non native, and the reader is interested in the authentic experience and story of such a writer, ...
Constraints! I would be interested in both; the historically accurate vs the "alternative history" or "general past" setting. I'd also suggest there is a spectrum; at least I see it that way in my...
Don't toss out any literary device you have. Yes, this can work, and work well. In TV it's called the "How we got here" trope. Some examples are The Emperor's New Groove, Fight Club, Inception, an...
Yes, your instincts are correct. You are outlining your characters, which you need to know for yourself as the author, but you are putting that down on paper within the story - and - we do not need...
Wikipedia's Definition of High Fantasty Genre: High fantasy is defined as fantasy set in an alternative, fictional ("secondary") world, rather than "the real", or "primary" world. The secon...
Those are two different questions! Yes, stories get rejected because the stories are not appealing enough. No, if the writing is bad, the story premise probably doesn't matter, the writing will b...
The search term you're looking for is "Emerging technology". Focus on the field(s) that are of interest to you, since there are too many technologies to keep track of everything. Read up on the tec...
There are free academic studies to help you learn about the *diffusion of science into common use, both for scientific communities and the public. See, for example, The Diffusion of Scientific Inno...
Yes - everything in the brackets is redundant. If you were to omit '(we will come to that later)' then the sentence would still have the same effect on the reader's mind - that of making a promise ...
