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A comment on a recent question of mine claims Right, so that's [large unformatted text blocks scaring off some readers in certain contexts is] a myth. This is how I know: Harry Potter. Big lon...
I am working on a story in which the characters must solve a mystery. It's a "team-building exercise" at school, in which they must work together. They are graded on how well they work together and...
I want to write a simple textbook on standard high-school level algebra. Most of what we know about the field, we have known it for centuries. So I'm fairly certain the majority, if not the entire...
I'm writing in third person because I want to express the standpoint of both of my characters. Everything's running smoothly except for the part where I want to describe their kiss. I'm in conflict...
I find it horribly irritating when I'm half way through a book and suddenly discover a character I imagined as skinny is now "folding his arms across his barrel chest" or a character I envisioned a...
A very short question. I'm writing a trilogy. Book 1 was 88,000 words, but book 2 is probably only going to be 75,000 words. That's over 10,000 words less. Should I find a way to make it longe...
I discovered my interest in writing a few years ago. I was extremely stressed out from work, and so out of the blue, I sat down to write science fiction every night for a week. Although I have bee...
If I use certain elements of a culture or language, how different should they be compared to the original? How different should the language used to reference those elements be? Examples: Can I...
Okay, here's what I want: I want a check list or step by step list I can use while trying to name my characters. I often have trouble coming up with original names, especially last names, and this ...
I'm going through an editing something I wrote and am stuck on where to break paragraphs containing dialogue. I know I need to break when a new character speaks, but I'm not sure where to start a n...
Braveheart. Titanic. Lord of the Rings. What do these movies (movies, not books) have in common? Besides great musical scores, they have what I call Gut Emotional Appeal. In other words, at some po...
I am currently working on a novel, temporarily titled "Broken Collections." It's a collection of different writings this girl suffering with Bipolar disorder has made. Most of this being her jour...
In my book, I am planning on having the main character be called "Samantha." However, she believes her name is too generic, so she goes by the nickname "Thana." My question: Is it bad to have a c...
What should I do if my story's plot is built around the antagonist being extremely strong, and by the end it's clear that the protagonist cannot possibly defeat the antagonist, unless the antagonis...
I sometimes find myself with only one to three lines between the start of a paragraph and the end of a page when writing papers. When using the APA format, is it okay to insert a page break before ...
I want to have training in how to write fiction (particularly science fiction). I know that I can take courses (in my case online), and that I can join critique groups. I am on a budget, however....
I'm not an author, but I often wonder if I was to write a novel would it be best in third person or first person? I like being able to delve into the main character's thoughts in first person, but ...
I have a premise, which I think is funny/clever. I want to write this as a comedy sketch, to be acted out or shot on video. I have three "scenes" which are basically three different re-capitulatio...
I am writing a logline sentence of a query letter for my novel and used the idiom 'cat and mouse' as follows: A military bioweapons collector is forced to engage in a game of ‘cat and mouse’ w...
My heroine is seriously ill with something that can sooner or later take her life away at any moment. She takes medication regularly but refuses to undergo anything hardcore (like surgery or chemo ...
A character speaks two languages throughout the whole plot. How to insert the translation of the other language without ruining the layout of the story or text? For example: "Guten tag, Herr X...
I've read a lot of the questions on here concerning naming characters and deciding on whether to use a fictional city. I have already decided to use a fictional city in the piece. But, my problem w...
I've been writing a mystery story recently, but I've run into a problem concerning the major plot twist, and was hoping for some guidance from more experienced writers. Here's the scenario: Perso...
In the Magic Tree House series, two ordinary English-speaking kids travel to different faraway lands through a portal. Every character they meet, whether it's ancient Greece or ancient China, speak...
