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I received some critiques on my writing where the reader indicated it read fine but there was just something off about my tense. However, he couldn't put a finger on what, exactly, was wrong with i...
For a long time, I have wondered which way of writing the following is correct. (Is more than one correct?) The expected result for integers denotes that a value should be at least a specific va...
What's the term or name of the literary device/technique employed when a novel is mostly written in first person from the protagonist's view, but events as yet unknown to the character are written ...
In a magazine where an individual author's name is not published with the article, it seems obvious to me that the article can be presumed to reflect the consensus of the entire editorial team on w...
I'm writing a paper for IEEE using Microsoft office Word 2013. I want to use dynamic reference which is available in this version of Word. In a place of my article the references are similar to: ...
In my novel, there is a antagonistic character named Numbers who reacts in a similar manner to those he is talking to, even freakishly so. Because of this he is easily able to become a powerful cha...
I'm a plotter, meaning that I develop and plan my novels before I ever start writing them. In my case, this is almost something of an extreme, as I develop every part of the novel carefully and the...
I am unofficially "fixing up" a video game through modding. The game's Big Reveal is that the game world is actually a simulation, that the characters and population are all AIs, and that the vill...
Remember the end of the Godfather, where they spliced all the different assassinations with the christening? Or any film with good cutting, where they swap between different characters and what the...
I have a main character, I'm attempting to disguise this fact. But it is tricky. Out of nowhere, the character rises up as a successful military leader. The events that lead up to that are plausibl...
Since starting to learn a little about writing I've noticed that I'm more critical when I read things. This has led to a conundrum I've had recently and I'm not sure if it's inevitable or the resu...
Background I've found that at the end of a lot of my chapters, the endings feel quite forced and abrupt. This is because I don't know where to go, I've done what I need to do. For example: Exc...
I suppose this is not really advisable but how do you report speech in a conversation with another person? Should standard reported speech rules apply or do I treat it as direct speech? "My home...
For a new guidebook project (freelancing in IT) I wonder at which point I should evaluate the idea. I see these possibilities: Create a website with a newsletter subscription form and see if peop...
I am writing a book about a teenage girl. In one line, I am saying that she saw another female. When I say... she saw another girl I think saying girl will make her sound like a child rather ...
This goes for any amount of narratives, dual, triple, quadruple, whatever. I'm writing a story with three points of views going on simultaneously right now, about at the same time. However, is it ...
I'm writing a novel with several POV characters, one of which is the director of an intelligence agency. So far, the entire story is told in third person subjective. Each scene is told from the per...
In my current novel, my main character has a rival for whom he has a deep personal hatred. Think Harry Potter and Malfoy, but with something solid at the beginning. I'm attempting to come up with a...
Let's say you're writing a blog post based on a single source, like a podcast. You use several quotes from the podcast for the post. Is it necessary to cite the single podcast source every time yo...
I'm considering working in writing. I'd like to save myself some time in case I'm not up for the job. How do I go about evaluating myself as a professional writer? I was going to ask for a peer ...
Can you guys give a novice writer some advice on how to write good, frightening horror? I'm think more short story than novel, but anything that can give readers the creeps. I want to avoid being t...
I have two characters, Alice and Bob. They have just met and each is trying to deceive the other. But their thought processes and the nature of their deceptions are very different from one anothe...
It is my belief that male and female readers are more or less the same. There are differences in how we view things, but those differences do not stop us from liking the same book or movie. I can s...
This could be a misconception of mine, but I've noticed that the popular fantasy novels of today seem to nearly all have main characters who are children or teenagers. I have a list of some off the...
I guess this is a question about inspiration versus copying. I recently came across a story that really gripped me both with the inspiration for an idea and at the same time a doubt I could ever wr...
