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16.1k posts
 
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Q&A How to express Nihilism without explicitly stating it? [closed]

In my novel, the character is sitting in a café sipping coffee, and she is watching a busy street of people rushing towards London underground after the office hours. I want to express the thoughts...

0 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question description showing-telling script philosophy show
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Q&A What are the signs of accidental self insertion?

I am currently writing a novel where the main character will be far more powerful than most of the people in the world and I am worried that I will end up losing sight of what I am writing and star...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Maiko Chikyu‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question novel characters process fantasy character-development
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Q&A How can I hide a second narrative within my story? (using time travel)

I've been planning a story that follows two characters. At the end, one character (let's call him Joe) goes back in time and appears at the start of the book. I intend to explore themes of determi...

0 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Aric‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question fiction technique narrative timelines
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Q&A How many people who participate here on Writing SE have become successful authors? [closed]

I'm not asking for an exact figure, but I just want a rough idea of how well the people here have done. (I know the definition of successful varies, so I'm just going to use successful as a term fo...

0 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Adi219‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question young-author
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Q&A How to reference software programs in a dissertation?

Currently I'm writing my dissertation and I'm using IEEE to reference books in Bibliography. Some of my work includes text like this: [...]There are different vendors and open source software w...

0 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by gogasca‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question citations academic-writing
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Q&A Introduce a character and forget about them until the last chapter?

In my story, the main character gets help from / saved by two complete strangers. They don't tell the mc who they are or what they are doing, they just helped the mc out of kindness and disappear j...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by noClue‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question novel characters
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Q&A Question mark in use with colon

Do you use a question mark in hand when you use a colon, if yes how? I Will Fix Any Error Or Bug is the title of the service. Should I place the order in: I Will Fix Any Error Or Bug Sho...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by nicoX‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question punctuation formatting format
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Q&A What is the correct way to print song lyrics on a gravestone?

I need to know the correct way to quote a song lyric on a stone that is to be placed in a memorial garden. The first part of the song is in quotation because that's the way it's written in the ac...

0 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Marla‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question titles
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Q&A Can someone tell me the source of this story diagram image?

This image was found on a University of Hawaii Cinematic & Digital Narrative Production course and the professor found the image on Google search. Although the plot structure is not unique, t...

0 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by MXMLLN‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question structure graphics
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Q&A Is shaking of the head positive or negative?

When you say a character shook their head, does that mean they nodded, as in "yes", or they shook it sideways, signifying the answer is "no?"

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by Klara Raškaj‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question description script dialogue
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Q&A Are there any guidelines for writing a fiction story in a non-fiction style?

Jorge Luis Borges wrote a lot of short stories describing fictional things and places directly to the reader (like The Library of Babel). For instance, let's see one excerpt of Decline and Fall o...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by Chaotic‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question style showing-telling show
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Q&A How to construct a beat to make an effective treatment for the purposes of revision & group revisions of a Novel?

Why this Question is Being asked In a previous question it was suggested that I write a treatment to assist with revising & cutting. A treatment is essentially a multi-page, spoilerific summar...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by Kirk‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question plot revision
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Q&A Is there a tool for determining the number of on in a word for the purpose of writing haiku?

In America at least, Haiku are commonly taught to students as poems having 5, 7, then 5 syllables, when in actuality, they have a structure of 5, 7, then 5 on. The NaHaiWriMo site explains what an ...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by zr00‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Mithical‭

Question software poetry tools haiku
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Q&A What's the best way to write (or rewrite) a math book?

I've been writing a book that has a fair share of geometric diagrams and equations. However, I am unable to make use of a computer for this and have been maintaining a journal where I manually draw...

0 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by PhD‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question software technical-writing graphics
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Q&A How can I make sure a major twist is not disappointing? [closed]

I've been having some trouble with the ending of my current story, and I've decided that the best way to deal with those issues is to include a major twist. Due to the nature of this twist, I'm not...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by Thomas Myron‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question plot readers twist
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Q&A Does my protagonist *have* to succeed?

I'm thinking about a YA dystopian novel and have planned it quite thoroughly. However, when I look back, the antagonists tend to always be a few steps ahead of my protagonist, and my protagonist is...

6 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Adi219‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question ending trends
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Q&A How to avoid pages of dialogue?

I'm starting my story with my protagonist found (by the police), bleeding at a crime scene. When he wakes up, he has no recollection i.e. he's lost his memory. He's interrogated by two Inspectors,...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Adi219‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question description script dialogue
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Q&A What type of character should I write about first in a potential series of books?

I have a world in which many characters live in. At first, I thought they all could be part of one novel (kind of like Sherwood Anderson's book Winesburg, Ohio or the movie Short Cuts (1993) by Ro...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Carlo‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question series character-development
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Q&A Would George Orwell get hired in today's expert climate?

I've asked the question a few times before about how to get published in newspapers and magazines, and the most common response has been, by far: "what are your qualifications to write about the pi...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by user31078‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question journalism
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Q&A Listing character traits

I wonder if when talking about characters (in a book with a third perspective narrator) one can list their personality traits. I realize how that might be taking something away from the story, as I...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by A. Kvåle‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question characters character-development
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Q&A How do I get my readers through the early, "hardship" part of my fiction?

A reader of one of my works told me, "It was very interesting, the last two thirds of it anyway." Her fear was that I might lose my readers in the first one-third of the work. The above work was a...

5 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Tom Au‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question fiction introduction
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Q&A Handling Dependencies in Essays

Suppose I'm writing an essay on topic A. My view on A, however, requires the reader to be familiar with certain aspects of other, perhaps seemingly unrelated, topics say B, C, and D. It is not reas...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by Bernardo Meurer‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question citations essay
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Q&A How do you make the reader root for the protagonist when the primary antagonist is more relatable and more likable?

I said in a previous question that my protagonist "is a very shitty person that makes bad decisions for the wrong reasons". My antagonist, however, is a good person trying to do what they think is ...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by shitty_author‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question characters character-development
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Q&A Intentionally writing a Deus Ex Machina?

I'm in a bit of a dilemma. At one point near the end of my story, I intentionally pulled a huge Deus Ex Machina that has no previous explanation, hint or even justification. In fact, I could (and ...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by HugoBDesigner‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question fiction technique deus-ex-machina
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Q&A How Much Focus to Give a Supporting Character?

I've been working on my pet project a lot over the last six months, and I thought I had most of the kinks worked out- but I think I found a problem with my most important character. The story has ...

5 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Wendigo King‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question plot planning characters