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Q&A What happens when you translate a quotation? [closed]

It feels to me like it is up to the author to choose what words will fit more properly. Does it become a paraphrase?

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Suppboi‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question translation
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Q&A Do I have to show my characters making up after an argument, or can it be implied when we see them on good terms again?

Is it okay to have two characters who had an argument to patch things up offscreen, or do readers explicitly need to see how they made up? None of the two characters in question are the protagonis...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Klara Raškaj‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Describing something that doesn't exist [closed]

I'm in the middle of my first draft for my novel, and I can't seem to properly convey to my audience the image I'm trying to describe. That's what I want to show my readers, but it's coming acro...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Aspen the Artist and Author‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Does the degree of immersion in the character alter the extremity of plot points used?

Star Wars IV: We never really get to know Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen, and so when they're burned to a crisp, little pieces of human toast, it's horrific but yeah OK. Not as horrific as if we saw Obi ...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by DPT‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Why is young adult romance now being written primarily in the first person?

My recollection is that when I started reading romance novels in the 1980s, the majority (perhaps 60%) were written in the third person. This included some "young adult" romances with characters in...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Tom Au‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is there a term for 'The Secret Garden' and similar works? [closed]

For some time now I've been curious about how to classify a small group of literary works. They include The Secret Garden, Polyanna, and to a lesser extent Anne of Green Gables. I'm sure there are ...

0 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Thomas Myron‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question genre terminology
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Q&A Who translates made-up words from popular fiction into other languages?

When an author produces a popular fictional work (take Harry Potter) that's translated into many languages not native to the author, who decides how fictional words from that work are translated? ...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Will‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Why would a translator leave comments all over the translation?

The book Slapping the Table in Amazement: A Ming Dynasty Story Collection is: [...] the unabridged English translation of the famous story collection Pai'an jingqi by Ling Mengchu (1580–1644), ...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by user3306356‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Do writers copy other writers?

Good artists copy; great artists steal. This famous Picasso quote often reminds me that the best artworks are rather a mix of many other artworks instead of something completely new. Walt Dis...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Ąžuolas Lomonosovas‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I convey an absolute truth from the author to the reader without a mentor character?

There are sometimes moments in works of fiction where the author needs to convey something to the reader without ambiguity. Let's say the situations around the characters get so weird that the auth...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Andrey‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do you stop capitalizing the first two letters on Scrivener?

In Word it's quite easy to stop the CApitalization OF THe FIrst TWo LEtters, but I cannot figure out how to do it on Scrivener. How would I auto-correct this error?

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by August Canaille‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question scrivener
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Q&A How acceptable is "alternate history" in writing (nowadays)?

On another site, I wrote a critical review of a book that featured a "King Frederic II" of France who reigned between 1777-1819. I pointed out that this was a particularly unfortunate time to confu...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Tom Au‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question fiction genre trends
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Q&A How much can the supporting sentences deviate from the topic sentence before introducing a second paragraph becomes a better option?

My question is: How much can one deviate from the topic sentence before transitioning to a second paragraph becomes a better idea? For example, if a topic sentence consists of an assertion, then ...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by user3776022‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Any software for video game non-linear story design?

Is there any software for making non-linear story or dialogues? I tried MS Word/Google Docs but that's not good for dialogues. In one complicated dialogue I wrote in Google Drawings, it looks like ...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by TheChilliPL‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should foreshadowing be close to the main event?

This question is a followup to my earlier question. Continuing the dialog with my one critic, I wrote back that I believed that certain "foreshadowing" was necessary. Then I added something like, ...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Tom Au‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Foregone conclusion of novel's first part

I'm writing a war sci-fi novel. At the start of the novel, my MC really wants to get into a particular unit, let's call it Space-Marines. His struggle through the training serves to showcase his hi...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to depict writing from a different time period?

I am writing a story where the character is reading a writing from someone in Europe during 1348. The thing is I don't know how a person from that time would speak or write. The line they are read...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Dan‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do you verify information?

This is a problem I usually come across with my stories. I often worry about whether the plotlines I introduce are realistic or not, and it's usually something that can't be solved with a simple Go...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by noClue‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question research realism
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Q&A Referencing modern pop culture in science fiction

A geek today is quite likely to reference the pop culture of 30 years ago: "Do or do not, there is no try", "Beam me up, Scotty" and "Ground control to Major Tom" are easily and commonly recognisab...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Would a character displaying the opposite of one of their characteristics break immersion?

The main character, while playing an MMO, was teleported to another world in her avatar along with all of the NPC's in her guild. As her reaction, she sent scouts around the area in order to discov...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Maiko Chikyu‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it okay to write a story where the protagonist is a Terrorist?

I am writing a side story called, The Afterglow of Jovian, which mainly takes place sometime during the final stages of the main story. Here's a brief gist of the main story to give some context, ...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Frosty The DopeMan‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to write a PG13 Succubus character?

I am currently writing a character that represents Lust and is a demonic entity... but to tone it down for a YA audience. I thought of trying to make them "Love-based" instead, but I always envis...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to open a novel?

Looking at the function of the beginning of a novel, it is clear that it should hook the reader and draw him or her into the story. Different techniques for achieving the hook have been described, ...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to derive a first sentence from a story?

There is much advice out there on "how to write a killer opening line". Usually these blog posts or how-to-write book chapters list examples of first sentences from recognized masterworks or group ...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How many points are sufficient for my essay?

I am writing a 3000 word essay entitled 'Challenges and opportunities of future Civil Aviation'. For the essay, I have taken two aspects of the future of civil aviation in supersonic flight and bio...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Linfan Siddiqi‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭