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TL;DR No need to worry: when you write a good story, any name sounds great. Good names are as good as the story Good unique names are not easy. In particular, it is not easy to come up with a go...
If you've established your world as one with fantasy species, it's okay if you don't mention every one early on. Lots of novels and screenplays throw new species into the mix later on and that's f...
I am an old-school writer without fancy software (I have tried it and don't like it). So if I realize a previous event could have been explained better, I will back up and do it. However, I have a...
The 8th Edition of the MLA has changed the approach to citations: Like earlier editions, this handbook includes information on evaluating sources, avoiding plagiarism, using quotations, con...
There's nothing inherently wrong with this at all - the important thing is that the introduction seem organic. Is there a reason why the existence of vampiric creatures wouldn't have come up (or ev...
You write slow. It is fine to put yourself into the character and see how you would react, but take your time describing that. Get into the details. This isn't a "real time" exercise, the length o...
A crucial question: does the psychiatrist contribute anything to the story, or is he mainly the setting, the excuse as it where, for your protagonist to tell the story? If the psychiatrist makes n...
This depends on whether you're using past-tense or present-tense narration: whether the narrator is looking back at things that have already occurred, or describing events as they occur. If you're...
That's tough, it sounds like a hundred page wall of dialogue to me. To eliminate most of it, I'd resort to flashback. Flashbacks are not that popular anymore; but they would be better than an endl...
To me, the answer is more about you and your writing process than about constructed languages. I am not constructing a language but I've done lots of worldbuilding that will never be visible to my...
Two words: Severus Snape. Snape's backstory is pretty similar to your sergeant's: James Potter, who bullied Snape at school, married Lily, the woman Snape loved. Snape consequently detests James, ...
Still happening... in the past Past tense indicates something that was present, in the past. This also implies that it is not happening any longer, or that the situation has changed, or that we si...
Yes, your characters should speak naturally, not as if they were reading a formal piece of writing out loud. But that doesn't mean you won't edit it. Take the example of radio interviews. They r...
How does their appearance affect their actions? I'm short, so I have to get BBQ tongs to reach spices on the highest shelves. My hair's not naturally this red, so I have to decide on a box of ...
I'd say it depends on what those numbers are. Writing "five in the morning" instead of "5am" isn't going to make too much of a difference to readability. In fact, depending on the general tone of y...
While you don't need to follow a style guide here (except your publisher's of course), it's helpful to look at them. The AP Style Guide (Associated Press) is a good one because it's for American n...
One possibility is to not use the adjective: "Select a printer". Another is to use the adjective appropriate to the action: Sometimes you mean "Select a disk", sometimes (like for formatting) you ...
If the scene allows for it you should portray feelings other characters or creatures might have when entering a scene. A bar man that is obviously not concerned in the least bit by a brewing fight ...
I'm not a RPG player, but it sounds to me like you are engaged in standard fiction writing with a 3rd person neutral narrator; perhaps unlimited (knows what all characters think and feel). The play...
No, I don't think it would be okay for a bad guy to win in the end. Readers don't like it. They read for fantasy fulfillment. Happy endings outsell unhappy endings ten to one; publishers and studi...
I don't think it is possible to avoid giving offense unintentionally, obviously (to me) that is possible even if you think hard about not giving offense. I also don't think it is reasonable to dem...
First, I would argue for the right to make mistakes It's not unheard of, surely, inadvertently saying something wrong? That's what "I'm sorry" is for? Our starting point is "normally people do not...
Alternative history is a mainstay of speculative fiction. Redrawing countries' borders is very often a part of that. Sometimes countries that exist in the real world are missing. Sometimes new c...
The frame challenge of the day is whether the world is the villain, or is perceived to be the villain by the MC. Other answers have already covered the case in which the world being a villain is ...
You can claim it is anything you want; you are writing a fantasy about an inanimate object that can cogitate, observe its surroundings, etc. I would consider it no different than a first-person ta...
