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I had a similar issue in a story of mine; a letter is the catalyst for the action that is basically the whole story. The way I approach this (and many other writing problems) is to remember the pe...
Asking for a certain number of pages, along with particular formatting, can seem like a holdover from a pre-computer age. They forgot to update their requirements! And sometimes it is. But anot...
I don't think it is important at all for main characters to be outstanding in the looks department; if fact it can be a detriment. They can be more sympathetic to readers if they aren't that good l...
Wands have been a feature of magic for decades and perhaps much much longer. Tinkerbell in Disney's version of Peter Pan (1953) has a short wand that works with a flick of the wrist. I could com...
Coming of Age is about becoming an adult. This is often for young adults the transition to a sexualized person; being interested in sex and romance, knowing what it is about, perhaps experiencing s...
A theme isn't a "meaningful moral" Or even a regular moral. A theme is the central idea and a moral is a lesson. These can overlap, but they're not the same thing. It's okay to develop your the...
The easiest way to show your technology fits science fiction is to have it break, and then get it fixed by an engineer with a spare part or something. More generally speaking, in the reader's min...
You don't detach yourself from the character. On the contrary - you let yourself feel the pain of her death, experience the loss, and you pour all of that onto the page. When a character dies, it ...
You have multiple options. You can, as @Amadeus says, rewrite, so your character can be in the battle. You can have somebody recount the battle to your character after the fact, with your charact...
Actually, in romance the clichés to avoid are the obvious ones. "weak, helpless woman" (or princess) needs "strong, brave male" (knight in shining armor) to rescue her, and rewards him with love an...
This sounds like Google Docs, perhaps combined with Trello (for the Kanban board and calendar view), would do for you. It's got live updating -- I don't think it tracks edits by author exactly, so...
I think the tropes are galloping horse, convenient boarding point, leaping from horse to train (and horse then veering off), a harrowing dangerous trip across the top of the train to get to the eng...
There are plenty of genres that exist solely for a particular purpose or to deliver a type of scene. Pornography (no comment). Slasher (mostly films, all about gory ends to stupid or unfortunate ...
It's a difficult setting, but it could be done. The point of psychological horror is showing emotional disturbances, psychologic disorders, and provoking a certain feeling of anxiety in the reader...
You don't. To put it in more words: the audience has to get attached to make the death relevant. You want her death to be a wake-up call, a touch of realism and a reminder of what war is. Sure, ...
One of the fun parts of learning a language is learning vocabulary, puns, turns of phrase, etc that just don't translate to your mother tongue. Any English learner (any learner of any language) is...
A nomination post is basically a sales pitch, packed into 1200 characters. You need to persuade readers that you are or might be a good choice in a few hundred words (give or take). So a nominati...
As Galastel says (+1), your character needs to be involved and want something connected to the problem. If the empire has become an engine of conquest, perhaps your character is in danger of bein...
You have a world with a Problem. That's your setting. Why does the Problem matter to the character? How does it affect him? Your character must interact with the Problem - that's what the story is....
I'm not sure what you want is possible. You can set the time to be a bit ahead of right now. And do it by outright stating the date as the story begins, mentioning the date organically in the sto...
You can absolutely do this WARNING: This answer contains multiple spoilers, beware of things under the quotes You aren't the first to think of this. Often this is used to setup a sequel but you c...
You absolutely can do this, but there are two very important points to consider. What is your purpose in choosing this ending? In what way will this be a satisfying conclusion, from the reader's ...
It seems you need to come out as an omniscient, reliable narrator and directly tell your audience the fact you want them to have no doubt about. One, often problematic, way to do this is in a prolo...
My question is, for the sake of satisfying reader interest, would it be worthwhile writing an appendix summarising certain inessential worldbuilding entities that's entirely optional for a reade...
Don't mention it Show it Suspension of disbelief is a powerful drug. It clouds the mind and prevent the reader from realizing that Quimbonia is not a real country. It's true that it looks and fee...
