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I will second CLockeWork's comment. I will also add that while parentheses work, I think commas are more readable. John said it was constructed in 1664, during the Dutch occupation in Taiwan...
"Copy" is one of the elements of an ad, along with the visuals, the headline, etc. The copywriter is the person who writes the copy. The word has largely given way to the equally generic "content" ...
Book layout is a very specialized field. If I were writing a book of my own, I'd save up the extra money for a layout person, particularly if the book had a lot of tables or illustrations, or if it...
The first one is correct, because it's a two-word clause modifying cloud. The second one would need some kind of verb in the last sentence, and the modifier is perilously close to dangling regardle...
That's not a comma splice; that's a statement followed by an elaboration.1 The second does not stand alone, so a semicolon there would be incorrect. This would be a comma splice: It had been ...
Exposure to a chemical (or radiation, or some other toxin). All the suspects are in a particular area, or do a particular task, but only the murderer gets exposed to the MacGuffinium. The suspect...
The middle one is fine, and the third one is okay. The first feels a little dodgy because you're veering close to a dangling participle, where you have a phrase which doesn't have a clear subject. ...
You're right, it does sound a bit weird. That's only because of the tense of course. If you were writing in the present tense, it would be just fine. While no professional, my suggestion would be...
Realism has several components. Different ones dominate in different genres/settings and among individual readers. (Real) setting accuracy: If you're describing a real place or a time in history...
I think you will still have a sense of realism. As long as you explain the physics laws/magic laws/whatever differs before they take effect, the reader will know why/how things are happening. As lo...
You are worrying about the wrong thing. No one wants to steal your stuff. Unpublished fiction on the web is of zero commercial value. There are far more people writing it than there are reading it....
The question is a good example of why show don't tell is bad advice. It results in all sorts of silly overblown and tedious writing. Give them evidence, let them infer is getting a little closer ...
I consider the author's job to assist the imagination of the reader, so they can sense the scene and feelings of the characters. The difference between showing and telling is that showing describ...
This is a stylistic choice. I would never use a comma or semicolon at the end of a list item. I would use a period/full stop only if the item is a full sentence. To wit: Star Trek is known for ...
I would always use "that was," because to my ear, "that's" always implies "that is," and your sentence is in the past tense.
From a strictly grammatical point Lauren's answer is right -- you're talking about something that happened in the past, so "that was" is correct. However, dialogue is often more colloquial and a f...
Your goal is to get your students to think about using standard skills in non-standard ways. Anyone can build a house; not everyone can build Fallingwater. Dig up classic engineering conundrums f...
Yes. You can very easily start a story without naming your character. An example off the top of my head would be the Hunger Games. The name of the main character isn't introduced until page 5, if m...
Have you ever read a few words, or heard a description of a plot twist, and thought, "that sounds like something thus-and-so would have come up with"? We all have, and that's because the writers we...
Let me answer this in a more practical fashion: Let's say you've written a Hero's Journey, which has a standard pattern. And as you read over your work, you realize "this sounds a lot like Star Wa...
You have a few options: Your story didn't fail. It just didn't find its audience on that site. Post it somewhere else. Your story didn't fail. It just didn't find its audience right now. Post it ...
If these questions are explicitly given to you as worded, I think you can make them into section headers, and organize your responses under them. The hypophora as you reference it describes situat...
Heavy-handed is the opposite of subtle. Even by its dictionary definition, it can take two forms: It can mean being clumsy - imagine trying to do delicate work when your hands are very heavy. It ...
Only as much as bringing a past character forward can disguise him or her. If you have a brilliant, borderline sociopathic crime-solver who uses recreational pharmaceuticals to stave off boredom ...
In general, your characters will be assumed to be fictional, unless you give overwhelming reason for them to be considered otherwise. Which means that you're asking the wrong question. There's no ...
