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I am a reader more than a writer, and fantasy is my favorite genre. I used to write short stories and poems. Some of them are published in magazines and get good reviews. In 2018 January, I read ...
In my story, the MC goes through a number of events with a common theme, each told in separate scenes. At the end of the story, he tells a friend about the things he experienced. Both the events an...
I'm wondering if there's a technical writing term for when an author uses purposefully misspelled words to mimic the sound of the speaker? This has the effect of "forcing" the reader to hear the d...
As a novice writer to improve my writing I have taken one online course. I want to ask, what are good ways to improve as a writer other than writing courses?
As I mentioned in my other recent question, my novel in progress has three main locations. I feel those three settings are strong, fully imagined places, with interesting storylines. However, the...
One of my characters has a flashback to when he was 5 years old. At the time, he didn't have a name (he goes by a physical description instead). What's the correct way to refer to him in this flash...
This question is about genre and reader expectations. I'm not trying to change my story to fit a mainstream genre. I have already taken steps to broaden it's appeal, but it's too late to create an ...
As I've already mentioned, I'm working on a sci-fi novel. One of the main feelings that I wanted to represent when I started is the sense of a vast, empty, artificial world, mostly cold and uncar...
Every story is different (or it is just plagiarism); "plot structures" come from generalizing stories and the types of events that occur in them. There are serious analysts that claim there are on...
I would say there's a couple reasons to create a world. "Wonder" as a point of interest As you mentioned, the genre is one reason. Something that appeals to readers of Sci-fi and Fantasy is bein...
Yes, Back to the Future 2 literally does this; as does "the good place". As long as you stay on point and it doesn't rock the boat too much, it's fine. But this should probably be the first disaste...
The answer is: Yes , you can do it, and you can even do it well if you try hard and if you follow some basic "rules". Details below: So, your story seems to need the kind of plot where the main ch...
You have to analyze your own writing. You are weaving together three things. The Plot, the basic events that force characters to take actions. eventX happens, charA respond with eventY, leading ...
It is fine to keep the POV on the character and go on. The reader will find out things at the same time the POV does. What you should do is to make sure they understand that every information is s...
Generally you are correct, your piece has to be judged by readers to be clever, in order to be considered clever by the public. Entities with a larger budget can buy advertising that (without attr...
See editing as a different form of creation: from something not so good you create something brilliant. Frank Cottrell Boyce opened my eyes when he said that being used to writing films he was used...
The publishing model you're suggesting isn't actually all that new. Serialised novels - novels published in newspapers or magazines, one chapter at a time - were very common back in the 19th cent...
If you prefer action over static images, the first one has an actor taking action -- smiling in a certain way, in the just-happened past tense. "He smiled..." The second one is a description of a...
I did this once in a novel-length story. After the first two appearences my wife said that she has a strange feeling with the side character, but couldn't tell why. In the end she was like 'I knew ...
Frodo had a happy ending. He stopped apocalypse, saved his friends, his people and the world, and then gained admission to the Undying land. Tony Stark in End Game is a happy ending. He comple...
A happy ending is about the emotional response the work as a whole evokes in the reader (or viewer). A sad ending or any other type would be the same. It's the state you've reduced the audience t...
I agree that it probably isn't realistic that characters just happen to find random letters lying around every so often. So make it more varied. In one chapter the characters find a book wedged in...
Any book or article can be written with either personified (first-person) or non-personified narration. You just have to select one way or the other. Typically, reader can tell from the very start...
The reason for the "adverbs are the devil" rule is they are generally "telling", not "showing". The reason we want to "show" instead of "tell" is that it is the writer's job to assist the imaginat...
The first thing I'd like to point out is your question: how do I make the girl fall in love? In my opinion, the question should be more along the lines of "how do I make these two characters work t...
