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TL;DR: First-person protagonists are never all-knowing, but if they're telling the story after the fact, they can know things they haven't been told yet. First-person narratives come in two flavou...
As Pat Rothfuss said on Writing Excuses, there are things that can happen to characters that are "worse than death". The "existential threats", especially because they are such a cliché, are also j...
While it's okay to gender your robots if you really feel the need, it's not necessary. The first version with "it" instead of "he" read just fine. It's a bit awkward writing it, as we're trained ...
Building from @Jontia's, Personally, while I'm comfortable with she/her (and I'm also not a robot), I always like the X or Z options, and I had hoped they would catch on with people who wanted an ...
If your MC is some kind of detective or police officer or whatever, somebody that addresses crime, and Matt is seeking help from them, then you probably have to have Matt explain and prove he is a ...
The best way to improve as a writer is to write. Just write. Then write some more. Then look at what you've written critically, ask others to read and comment, then rewrite and write some more. Co...
A backstory needs to matter to the story; in this case it probably matters to the MC; few people fall in love with a person they know nothing about. They fall in lust, certainly, and that lust can ...
First and foremost, every character requires a backstory in your mind. You need to know who they are, why they act in a certain way, how they would respond to new situations, etc. Once you have th...
The general rule is to start a new paragraph for dialogue or action by a new character. Everything you wrote here is Lisa describing and thinking about what Jack has said or done. So, yes, it can ...
Whether the novel is set in Russia, or in the Middle Ages, or somewhere in Alpha Centauri, you are writing it in English. Whether your characters are "really" speaking Russian, Old English, or a to...
My answer to your other question, here, should also answer this one. In brief, English is the language you're writing the novel in, so English is the language you're writing their dialogue in. Engl...
Here's a thing you need to consider, a frame challenge if you will. When setting your story in the 1950s, or in the 1920s, or even in the 1800s, your characters can speak the way people spoke back...
Diagnosis is hard; mirror mood with style Even with the increased sensibility of our times towards these conditions, I would still have a hard time discerning a person with BPD from a random atten...
Reading! Read for pleasure, and in the field you want to write in. Sometimes, read strategically, analyzing a paragraph/sentence/section you really like or dislike. Sometimes, try to paraphra...
Serializing a novel has been done before - traditionally this was done as part of periodic publications (so you would get say a chapter per issue of a magazine) but it has been done outside this en...
As others have said, no, you don't have introduce anything before a dialogue. Infact, you can have dialogues with totally unknown characters: A low, menacing voice whispered behind his ear. ...
Is there any possible way to do it right, without foreshadowing it so hard that the twist is moot? I would say ... No. But you can write the story, without letting your MC agree to call it mag...
What you're looking for is a non-traditional outline. Now a regular outline is very linear and has headings and subheadings and may either: Bring on terrifying flashbacks of high school English....
The only issue to worry about is that your reader knows who is speaking and can remember who the characters are scene to scene. How you accomplish this is up to you. That being said, it's a littl...
Balance is key There is a very delicate balance between a plot twist that feels contrived and unrealistic and one that the reader can see coming from a mile away. There is no exact correct answer ...
Stories do not require growth of a character; there are many series (Detective series being the most prevalent) in which the MC doesn't really change much at all, even if they do have emotional exp...
Is a plot twist still a "twist" if my reader knows it? It is not a surprise, but it is still a twist. Readers can only guess at things, they cannot know anything for certain until they have re...
A character coming to understand that what they want is impossible and instead learning to live with what they have, is a perfectly reasonable character arc. The character overcomes something (wish...
Yes, it is fine to leave a character's age vague. If your story includes tales from the past, historical events readers would know, or scenes of interactions with other characters from years ago (l...
at what point to ask for constructive critisism. It depends on how you write. Some people plot out their novels in great detail, every foreshadowing, plot turn and twist. They know their chara...
