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Why would citing "a well-known historical source" be any different from citing a not-particularly-well-known historical source? For the speech: you found the speech somewhere, right? Book, websit...
At its strictest, iambic pentameter is just as rigid as you've described. "Poetry" is a dactyl (X-/-/), not an iamb (/-X), hence it shouldn't fit anywhere in an iamb-only sequence. Likewise, by the...
This question reminds me of Dan Heller's advice about getting started in the photography business. He's talking about a different situation (photography apprenticeship), but he makes a point that a...
Lucile Vaughan Payne's classic guide to the essay, The Lively Art of Writing, calls out "I think" specifically as weak writing. Now, it's been nearly 30 years years since I read this estimable guid...
Once you publish something, it's out beyond your grasp. I strongly recommend against publishing a piece that you feel still has work to be done on. Self-publishing a novel that still needs editin...
I want to start a webcomic. For this, I expect I'll be doing a lot of writing. I once had someone draw a webcomic based on my writing and it was a nonsensical mess. The art was good, but nobody kne...
INT. STARBUCKS, LOS ANGELES People are sitting at tables and on couches, some on smartphones, many typing away on laptops. We pan to a man in his 40's, with a ponytail and reading glasses. He is c...
Each of our software releases is accompanied by a set of release notes, which include short descriptions of the following: new features, important or breaking changes to old features, and important...
I think this passage works brilliantly to set the mood. The transition from the bolded paragraph back to the story is a little abrupt, but this may be smoothed over by the momentum of reading this ...
The problem I see with writing (and drawing) is that people believe that they should be able to do it without any training. We all learn to write in school, we all can compose a coherent narrative,...
As I had asked in another part of Stackexchange (didn't know about this part until some comments there) I'm writing manuals (mostly for computer games, but in addition to this also for tabletop gam...
There seems to be some confusion about what is being discussed here. Half of the answers are using the conventional definition of "Formal Writing", which involves the solemn and decorous applica...
I'm looking to buy some software for technical document authoring with DITA. The tech writing group will have at least 5-10 users, writing 100-pages long documents for several products in various l...
No honest attempt is ever wasted. At worst, you've practiced your skills and learned that this one didn't work at this time in this place. And remember that many good stories were rejected by eve...
In the case of a story I am toying with, the theme (or more accurately, the idea) I am trying to bring across has a bearing on the structure of the story, the plot and the different details I bring...
I am a big fan of Sun Tzu. His "Art of War" is still relevant, so I suppose it would remain relevant in the future as well. He writes about general concepts like supply lines, instead of specifics ...
1) Break your habit of long sentences. They are mentally exhausting. Try reading your sentences out loud and see how often you have to stop to take a breath, or if you can remember the beginning of...
What does this mean? If I have to SHOW more about a particular traumatic event which happened to me, I would probably not be able to recall the chain of events because I was in a panicked state of ...
The impact of any turning point in a story depends not on how the scene is written but on how invested the reader is, in how much they are hoping for or dreading or startled by the turning point. ...
"It's about time we got going, don't you think?" "It's 'bout time we got goin', don'tcha think?" Both these guys sound the same to me. They both have my voice, they both have my accent, and I sus...
A general guideline that is used for anything that has to do with "limits", no matter if it's about the amount of words allowed or the amount of pages allowed is that you can have +/- 10%. Everythi...
I'm asking this on Writing.SE because I'm doing a short presentation on "What is an anthology," and I'm not sure how to answer the question "Why is X an anthology and Y is not?" Merriam Webster de...
You can't do a montage in prose, anymore than you can paint a symphony or score a sunset. It is simply a technique of a different media. Each media has its own storytelling devices and you should n...
Can I use famous art work images that were created prior to 1900 in my book and sell the book legally? Are all artworks prior to 1900 Public domain? I want to use images of paintings made in 1800 t...
Google Maps is fine for geography, but your question mentions "cultural and political references." If you cannot travel there, you have to find some way to be exposed to and/or interact with the pe...
