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Get a video recorder and a few friends. Explain to your friends what the scene is about, and what you want to have happen. (Eliot and Alec walk into a bar and order a drink. They start talking abo...
CAVEAT: I am not a lawyer. At the level you're describing, yes, this is copyright infringement. Basically, if it's easy to demonstrate that your work is "substantially similar" to another pi...
It sounds like you're describing an infodump (warning: TV Tropes), and that's a phenomenon best avoided. The issue is this: by your own description, the explanation is not interesting enough to h...
Jim Van Pelt has a great one: In a nutshell, two students talk to each other so that each speaks twice. One of them records what they said. That produces four lines of raw dialogue like this:...
You are trying to do too much at once. You're flailing around in a cloud. The easiest way for me to get out of the cloud is to start asking and answering hard, definable questions, and completing h...
Here's a simple reformulation which breaks you out of the structure you dislike: Since the database layout is sufficiently similar across all source data formats, we can write a single SQL quer...
I rather like "Hang Fire." Sounds mysterious and dangerous, it isn't quite grammatically correct as a phrase but it could be in the right context so it's got some tension pushing me towards explori...
I would definitely avoid Tooth and Nail - it's already heavily overused. I confess, all three titles sounded very generic and indistinct to me. They tell me this is an action-packed thriller, but ...
I think having an outline solves all three questions you pose. In reverse order: If you are not a "discovery writer," then YES, you need an outline. In fact, you should be getting a beta or two to...
Expounding on John Smithers's excellent answer: I would say if you have not plotted out your story (which happens in which chapter and why) before you start writing it down, then you are a discov...
When in doubt, ask yourself: "Would my readers care if they didn't know about this change? Would they think I was trying to deceive them by not pointing it out?" If the answer to either of these is...
I'd ask. If you're not using the quotes to misrepresent the author or show the author in a negative light, I can't see why the person would say no. And I'm not sure where Fair Use ends and Infringe...
Traditional Publishing Pros If you're in, you're doing good. If you've got an offer, that says a lot about your writing ability. Not that all good authors get published or all published authors ...
Places where you can find technical writers: Society for Technical Communication - http://stc.org Your local STC chapter. Technical Writer Mailing List (TechWhirl) - http://techwhirl.com/ Write ...
I say heed the Muse. If there's a story burning to be told, go ahead and write it. No effort is wasted. Even if your novel and its sequel are never published, you will have the experience of creati...
You have a scene already, right? John walks into the room, says something to Mary, Mary responds. Now, close your eyes and put yourself into the room. Engage all your senses — one at a time, if t...
OneLook's Reverse Dictionary seems to offer precisely the kind of tool you're looking for. However, I don't know that they're very good - I tried get on a plane, but board came back as result #96...
There are two main ways to structure a series: each book is essentially a stand-alone with a continuing story as part of the plot (Harry Potter), or each book is a critical part of the whole and th...
I really like that you open with "Questions you would typically ask a home contractor." That's a great way to get across, very simply, what type of questions you deal with. You avoid needing to def...
Look for an agent. Don't give up until you've exhausted everybody who's a good fit. And look beyond Australia. Be sure you're querying agents that actually represent the type of book you're trying...
If your essay is analytical (and I'm struggling to think of any other reason you'd write an essay about The Great Gatsby) then I'd put it in the present tense. Gatsby loves Daisy, but Daisy is ma...
Since "break your scene into beats" was from my comment, let me see if I can add anything to the discussion here: You originally wrote "I divide my story into scenes, and put those scenes into cha...
If you're creating this for a Quark tutorial, it's reasonable to assume that it will most frequently (if not always) be seen in the context of "someone learning Quark" rather than "accidentally win...
I suggest a checklist, at least, of sensory information, and another of "implications". I say checklist because you don't necessarily need all of them, and trying to describe all of them becomes r...
If the explanation is interesting, the reader will not notice that is is long. If it is not interesting, breaking it up will not make it interesting. So forget about whether it is too long and foc...
