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You could play them as opposites. He hardly talks at all, she talks enough for both of them! She is not unaware or oblivious to him, but she just chatters along, asking him questions that he doesn...
Along the other valid answers, I'll suggest audiobooks. I don't hate reading, but lately I have little time to spend on a single book. Audiobooks are convenient since they allow you to enjoy a bo...
Photographs belong to the photographer (or to a business which has a contract with the photographer such that they own the copyright). It makes no difference if the subject is alive or dead. A ...
There are multiple ways to approach this and any of them can work. The important thing is that it's very clear to the reader. My novel is structured as follows: Prologue set in 1939. Body of no...
Have you considered doing something like skipping, then describing? Something like (but do consider this first draft quality): The man kept the gun pointed at her. Jane had trained for years, ...
Obviously you have to read, but you don't have to read a LOT. The lessons for writing are distilled into non-fiction books on writing, usually by authors of multiple best-sellers. It is actually ...
In your particular circumstance: No. That is not normal. If I am given something to provide feedback, then I will read it all; OR I will read it all until I have seen enough to not bother reading ...
Your name is fine. I would not choose an initial for a surname because people will wonder what you're hiding and you have to file extra paperwork for a pseudonym. But of course you can always tel...
In Technical Writing, it's expected that readers don't want to read what you write. In fact, I used to teach with a book with that on the cover (see the notepad): (basically - Tech Writing p...
It helps to remember that people are here looking for advice, not orders. Also to remember that what works for you may not work for someone else. I'd recommend wording your answers along the lines...
In my experience, people don't do this for significant part of the writing. It may happen to skip a sentence or two if, either: the passages are not clear, the reader is tired, there is a "wall o...
First, good for you, it is a good sign that you aren't feeling compelled to describe characters. To me, physical descriptions stalls the story, it is a lot of "telling", not showing. I always avoi...
[Freely quoting from Office Support. The following text is entirely from the link provided. I do not think I have anything to add to it.] Microsoft Word does not support multiple heading-numbering...
Exactly how you do it depends of course on your story. One way is to simply use them with no explanation and let the reader figure it out over time. Or you can indicate the past within the quotes...
I recognize that it's difficult to ask your beta readers to be more specific, because you already feeling in debt to them. After all they're doing you a favour. I'll mention a few points: (Critica...
+1 Cyn, however, typically you use a designation (Woman #1, Cop #1, Kid #1) and always number sequentially from 1, using '#', and don't not use random numbers like 5 or 9. If you want to be specifi...
Your beta reader feels the chapter isn't pulling its weight. It's not about being blown away, it's about a chapter having a purpose and engaging the reader. Because your reader has put it in thes...
This is something you need to be careful with. In popular Western culture, going back decades or further, jealousy is often seen as a positive trait. "His jealousy proves he loves me so much." E...
Why this is difficult. Jealousy is a natural trait, nearly everyone that falls in love is subject to it at some time. The reason is that the extremely high emotional value of the love interest cre...
First of all, what do you mean by "taking inspiration from a movie"? If you mean copying the dialogue from a movie line for line, you're not allowed to do that. That's plagiarism. I would also que...
As of 2017, the collective works of H.G. Wells, including The Time Machine, are in the public domain. Not only that, Wikipedia also lists over a dozen stories based on The Time Machine, almost all ...
I do the same thing. This is how I've handled it. My novel is set in a variety of places and my aim is to use real places when feasible and realistic places when not. By coincidence, I also have...
One of the major uses of chapter-changes and section-changes is to signal a change of scene (or similar, e.g. passing of time). The show-don't-tell advice in other answers is sound--and with a sect...
I believe you have to explain it, somehow. There is nothing worse than an unexplained major action that determines the outcome of the story, especially when the outcome is sad. It seems arbitrary a...
+1, Wetcircuit, though I will disagree on the Buffy angle; she is right on the misdirection. This is difficult to pull off. The way I would do it is a little "close up magic"; you have to write fr...
