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There's a danger with subverting tropes, in that you can end up giving misleading promises ... e.g. your story seems to be a romcom for the first 20 pages but then !surprise! it's a horror--well, a...
To build on my idea in the comments -- a chatbot framework may be helpful, even if that's not your ultimate goal. Here's a link to a little about them and how they can be used: https://rebot.me/p...
Alyssa is upset with her sister. Assuming that this will be make even more obvious by context, I think the text is fine as it is. You could make the sentence perfectly clear, but keep in mind tha...
Often if something is included as an illustration (in a non-children's book) it might be A Clue! Agatha Christie novels are known for this -- if there's a diagram, that means understanding the lo...
Is she supposed to be aware of everything happening around her and to her if I'm writing in the first person? Yes. But she can be aware and not understand. She can see and describe things sh...
How can chemistry be perceived without giving evidence that they will be a couple in the future? You can make the chemistry perceptible without going over the top, but then you need a barrier ...
If Saskia is his biological mother, presumably she was bisexual, not exactly gay. So although in the LGBTQ community, she was not lesbian or gay, you aren't following that trope. But that is nitp...
Satire is best served hot. In my opinion, you should try to publish it as soon as it's ready. If you find an agent or a publishing company interested in the novel they'll give you their (probabl...
The 8-point arc: Stasis (Normal World) Trigger (Inciting Incident) The quest (Leaving the Normal World) Surprise[s] (actions complicating/learning the problem) Critical choice (Understanding, the...
Write it as it is. When you write dialogue, you don't write it up as formal English (or another language). You write what the characters say. If someone squeals or rolls their eyes or starts cho...
Although +1 to Cyn, I would write it as prose, with italics for the words and the commonly used descriptions or character representations of any emoticons (since more than a handful of graphics is ...
The answer to your question depends on how strongly the set of names is associated with the preexisting work of fiction. Not just the individual names, but the set of names together. For example, ...
Inventing new words, including by compounding, is supposed to be clever, or indicate a new concept that should have its own word, sometimes by linking two words that were previously independent mod...
You indicate pauses with action, even mentioning the pause. (Or, as Cyn says in comment, with other exposition or thoughts). Chad said, "Was the computer software hacked?" Bryce shook his ...
You refer to someone indirectly when you want to emphasize distance. In your example, saying "the President" instead of "my dad" is a more formal and correct approach, since it underlines the man ...
I think it may be solved using the same term consistently. From what you wrote: "the man", "his older counterpart", "his future self", "his older self", "Older Adrien", and "his other self". ...
The Magic 2.0 series by Scott Meyer has this situation with a core character (so it's not a passing situation). The narrator and the characters identify the two as Brit the Elder and Brit the Youn...
Narrating what she did, instead of where she is from, is always a good idea. Here's why! What she did (and what she experiences) is immediate, we can imagine the scene. If she is bullied, or discr...
Humor in fiction, sci-fi or not, needs to feel organic and natural occurring, like something that might actually happen or be said spontaneously in real life. If it is a joke, it must fit the chara...
I don't get only supporting the freedom of the kind of speech you like. If speech needs defending, it's probably because it's upsetting someone. (Neil Gaiman, The View from the Cheap Seats, The ...
What makes us as humans interested in reading about the suffering of the characters in the story? In fiction, they don't expect that suffering to last, at least not for the main characters or...
There are 144 books with the word "Seinfeld" in the title. Most are about the TV series, about the creator, or by him or his family. But a few use the name as part of the phrasing and/or to refer...
You likely need to do a trademark search, and see if the title is trademarked. Go to The USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office). Select "Basic Word Mark Search", the first option in t...
I think the problem with the blue-pink subversion is that there is no clear reason why; other than the intent to surprise the reader. And secondly, it is not clear this trope subversion has any act...
Here's an example of multiple timelines done in a way I found not just confusing, but random and unnecessary. Chronological can mean in order by date and time, or it can mean that the different PO...
